Part-II : Evaluating Giannis Kadoglou three course bouzouki

 The sound of a bygone era!

As I promised at my previous post, here is an in depth evaluation regarding the sound quality and timbre of Giannis Kadoglou three course bouzouki:

At first,  lets hear together the last sound clip which the luthier sent me from his workshop, weeks after the completion of his bouzouki. 

There is a reason why I will start with this sound clip. My final review and conclusion on sound, will return back to this clip...but with a surprisingly twist. So, please be sure to read and watch  my review until the end ! 

Lets now analyze the sound quality and timbre, away from the "attractive to our ears", professional and impressive rebetiko playing technique of Giannis !  

Lately, when I want to evaluate the sound of one of my instruments , I am recording a sound sample with absolutely the bare minimum. The recording is usually generated from the video app of my phone, without special microphones or set up, with a normal picking-strike of the strings (not too soft not too hard), at the edge of the sound-hole, and with a fan running at the background  :)

1. Evaluating the treble

The bouzouki produces clear, powerful treble across the complete length of the fretboard .The trebles have a great sustain. 

 

2. Evaluating the midrange and bass

Here is where luthier's sound becomes high quality and rare . The mids produce an amazingly mature,  round, and vibrant sound, with a characteristic timbre!  Reminds me the sound quality you can find on 1960s bouzouki made by master luthiers. The bass is also vibrant, metallic and with great sustain  

I would characterize Giannis Kadoglou bouzouki sound, as : very mature, round , powerful and vibrant, with unique introverted qualities which create a characteristic vibration on the resonator and produces a unique timbre.

I am sure that, as the time is passing, this bouzouki will produce an even more powerful and crystal clear sound, taking in consideration the due to the long overseas trip the instrument underwent through dramatic changes in pressure, humidity and temperature. It will take couple of weeks to month, until the sound reaches the quality levels which the bouzouki had before leaving luthier's workshop.

Conclusion 

My collaboration with Giannis Kadoglou was immaculate. We had many-many long conversations regarding the sound quality and the timbre which I was looking for, on an instrument . I believe that this bouzouki creates a unique mid-bass mature timbre quality, which is exactly what I asked Giannis to initially reproduce.

There many traces of 1950s-60s sound quality on this bouzouki. In one of our private conversations regarding "Zozef's " sound, Giannis sent me two videos.  The luthier never wanted to publicly expose these videos, neither to claim something about his sound quality. Giannis is always very careful and a person with great respect when it comes down to luthiers from the past or nowadays

The two videos stitched together by me, and I am posting them publicly on this thread, for no other reason, but to register for perhaps the fist time a comparison between an authentic Zozef 1950s bouzouki and a modern bouzouki, played by the same player, at the same time, with the same recording equipment, and with the same song!         

 

My ears are telling me that the two sound qualities are similar , with Zozef's sound more extraverted, characterized by beautiful sweet trebles. I would give a wining score to Zozef's kantinia . Gianni's sound is more round and introverted, characterized by a powerful mature midrange timbre . I would give a wining score to Gianni's mids. Both bouzoukia produce clear and powerful bass tones.