When the talent and tradition, meets the technology!
Mulberry old wood and 3D scan !
As I have written in an older post, unlike all the expensive, hard to find, exotic woods, (which all of us pretty much pursue for our musical instrument construction), the sound qualities of the Greek mulberry wood, makes it in my opinion the most suitable representative for the bowl creation of a pre-war bouzouki.
Specifically, few only mulberry woods carry the beautiful, and hard-to find, grain formation of depth (chrysalis). In combination with their rich yellow-amber color, these mulberry woods are by far my most favorite choice for bouzouki's bowl construction.
It is not accidental that, five (5) previous commission orders of bouzoukia, carried old and beautiful mulberry woods.
But as the time is passing, it becomes more and more difficult to find mulberry woods with the beautiful "chrysalis" grain.
Two (2) years of intense research in an attempt to locate this particular kind of mulberry wood, were finally paid off !
A few weeks ago, while talking to the talented luthier Dimitris Makris (http://www.makris-instruments.gr) , admiring his bouzouki , tzoura, and laouto creations, I asked him if he knew anyone who had in his possession, the specific mulberry wood I was looking for.
To my surprise, Dimitris sent me photographs from an old mulberry wooden block he was saving for years in his workshop. It took me only few seconds to realize that, that was the mulberry wood I was looking for, carrying the unique grain with the formation of depth.
I could not miss such an opportunity, and in combination with the great admiration I have for Dimitris' creations, regarding his unique talent, sound quality, woodcarving excellency, and aesthetics in creation of traditional musical instruments, we decided to make a very special pre-war bouzouki with a bowl reminiscent of a laouto-bouzouko.
Dimitris, apart from a talented traditional luthier and a musician ,possesses technical knowledge and tools, to create handmade bouzoukia using the latest technological applications in the manufacturing of musical instruments.
A personal design forgotten in my drawers and some illustration paths, were enough for Dimitris to extract and create a 3D scan of the laouto-bouzouko's bowl.
Dimitris explained to me that with the use of a 3D software program he is able to file and store all necessary measurements and information regarding the new bouzouki. The staves are numbered and in an unpleasant event where he would need to repair the musical instrument's bowl , he has all the necessary data and equipment to "cut" an exact copy of each and every stave and replace it.
During the last weeks, Dimitris was also able "in no time" to create the mold for the bouzouki, and cut with swiss-watch precision the beautiful mulberry staves.
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