Mandolin nostalgia

A mellow, and husky sound !

Mandolino-bouzouko on luthier's bench

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, during the years of Metaxa's  dictatorship in Greece, the bouzouki instrument "suffered" relentless persecution and prohibition by the Greek government,.

For this reason it borrowed elements from the mandolin to modify its body (bowl)  and pass unnoticed from its pursuers, as mandola . Many mandolin and mandolas of that time, went to the luthier's bench and converted to  miso-mpouzouka and tsourades.

Giannis Tsoulogiannis,  following the same technique from 1936, is in the process of converting the old Italian mandolin into a mantolino-misobouzouko /tzoura.

The luthier has kept intact all the original parts of the mandolin, by extending only the neck.
For the neck extension he is using three pieces of  Greek linden wood, carrying straight grain.

The original neck and head stock was made by old pine wood.

The luthier will keep intact the original braces and the complete set-up  of the mandolin's soundboard!
An attempt which will be tested for the first time after 1936
The result of this effort in relationship to the quality and timbre of the sound are far unpredictable even for the luthier.

Theoretically, the sound  which at the end this hybrid instrument will produce, should be a mixture of the sweet , dry, mandolin sound , and the husky metallic timbre of the tzoura carrying a scale of 61 cm.

If the experiment succeed, the luthier will have constructed an one of a kind instrument, and we will be able to hear for first time the original sound of such a unique conversion.

And as I am writing this post,  my thoughts of the mandolin mellow sound, lead me to the well known movie soundtrack of "The Godfather"



Stay tuned !