Evaluating Giannis Kadoglou three course bouzouki

 Accuracy, precision , attention to detail !

Part 1:Construction, materials,  finish.

Immediately after opening  the case of the three course 1960s style bouzouki, I realized that the talented luthier Giannis Kadoglou had indeed delivered  an absolutely small masterpiece.  

From the construction , to the materials used , to the finish , and finally to the crystal clear sound , Giannis’ craftsmanship checked all the necessary boxes so someone can characterize his musical instrument creation, as an A class professional bouzouki!

Here is my evaluation in depth  

1.  Construction 

The bouzouki is light weighted and perfectly balanced. I can easily and effortlessly balance the instrument with my one finger at the dove connection.

The narrow neck has a shallow curvature at the back, which decreases as the neck becomes thicker towards the lower frets. This design  gives the ability to the player to run his left hand fast and without any problem along the complete fretboard.

The action is low (approx at 2-2.5 mm at the 17 fret). 

All decoration for the pick-guard , capping,  side strips , and headstock have been cut perfectly. 

The frets have been also filed perfectly along the complete fretboard 

High quality tuners have been installed , making the tuning and de-tuning of the strings a walk into the park.

Following the trend and the style of 1960s the luthier has created a beautiful ebony bridge, adding his own signature -style, with red and white seashell concentric circles

2. Materials

When holding this instrument, the first thing your eyes will focus-on, is of course the natural white sea-shell used for the  complete creation of the sound-hole and  pick-guard decoration. The quality of the natural sea-shell  is AAA. It has depth , beautiful luster and an amazing  irradiation with hues of blue

The luthier used AAAA master Sitka spruce wood for the creation of the soundboard. It carries a very tight grain and presence of the desirable bear claw.

The bowl is made by beautiful darker walnut staves carrying  unique grain. The capping strip and side strips have been constructed by high quality ebony wood.

Following the 1960s era, Giannis used the correct celluloid for the headstock’s and capping strips’ decoration, carrying  intense irradiation patterns 

3. Finish 

Here is where the luthier absolutely shines 

I found no mistakes , no imperfections, no unfinished areas.

All decoration, pick-guard shape , staves, binding , purfling, capping strips and headstock have been cut and formed with accuracy , precision, and attention to detail. 

Taking into consideration that the luthier is working mostly with hand tools,  the above tasks are showcasing luthier’s talent and dedication to perfection 

Finally, the bouzouki has been polished by hand with almost 30 layers of Shellac 

During the following weeks I will record a sound sample and close the evaluation of Giannis Kadoglou musical instrument with an in depth review on sound quality and timbre 

Stay tuned !