Petros Hanikian 1960s sound clip
That special zzzring timbre !
As I promised on an earlier post, I finally had the time to create a quick recording ( using my cellphone ) of Petros Hanikian 1960s beautiful bouzouki.
The bouzouki carries much thinner string gauges in comparison to the regular four course set up of 11-11 / 14-14 /10-21/ 12-28
Instead, Petros Hanikian carries 9-9/ 12-12 / 8-18/ 11-26 strings
This factor reduces substantially the roundness and power of sound produced . Unfortunately we will need to wait until the instrument is fully restored and carries the common four courses string set up , so we can enjoy its full sound potentials
But for now, I am evaluating its playability , action , neck feeling to the hand, and of course it’s timbre !
For the lucky ones who have played with bouzoukia created by the master luthier Zozef Terzivasian , it’s easy to recognize some similarities in playability, on timbre, and action with this Petros Hanikian bouzouki
The action ( as it happens with the Zozef Terzivasian instruments ) is very low and the fretboard feels to the hand smooth and easy to run fast through the complete length . The neck ‘s back curvature is smaller ( elliptic and not half-round ) and the construction is lightweight
The sound has the characteristic timbre of “tzazing” , “metallic” , “zzzring “ quality , as the one can only be produced if you were recording the sound of your bouzouki with a vintage large-diaphragm condenser microphone or ribbon microphone from 1930s . It amplifies the power of the sound ( in a way adding a reverb-like sound ) giving that characteristic “zzzring “ which is hard to explain with words.
I personally love that hard to find “vintage “ quality timbre
Here is the quick recording with my cellphone and with a thin gauges set up.
Comments
Post a Comment