Hello All, The fellow from Altan is Ciaran Curran. He plays a Sobell guitar bodied bouzouki, though I cannot vouch for tuning or scale.
As someone who owns a guitar bodied bouzouki made by Graham MacDonald in Australia, I can say that they are not uncommon at this point. Most luthiers of the zouk/cittern family have at least one guitar body experiment or model in their catalogue. The advantages are substantially louder volume, guitar scale length for great resonance, and, quite honestly, the crook to rest on your knee when playing sitting down. (The teardrop bodies can be a pain to play in sessions.) I have one of both, but if I have to play sitting down or with a loud guitar, I much prefer the guitar-bodied bouzouki. I suppose that was just a long way of saying that the the "bizarre" joke of the good Mr. Curran is really just a joke. From a good luthier, both body styles sound like bouzoukis. Much like the difference between F and A style mandolins, or flat and bowl-backed mandos. Cheers, Christopher --- David Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> What kind of guitar was it they were mostly > using? > > > >Johnny Cradden (an Ulster-born Edinburgh man) > adapted a guitar like > >this some years ago and called it a "Gizouki". The > one that Tantallon > >had has obviously been specially made. John Bushby, > the guy who mostly > >played it in Tantallon, makes instruments so it may > have been his own > >design, influenced by Cradden, possibly? > > > Maybe more likely influenced by the chap from Altan > (was it Ciaran Tourish?) > who developed a similar instrument and called it, > yes, the 'bizarre'. > > David Francis > > Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & > Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your > browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
