Monday, April 18, 2016

Irish Bouzouki - The Parts Become a Whole

With the woodworking component of this bouzouki project almost complete, it's gratifying to finally see the results of my efforts in an assembled form, and be able to visualise what the completed instrument will look like.



As this project entailed a number of design decisions, as well as fabrication of the necessary moulds and templates, I'm sure the significant investment of time and effort involved will encourage me to construct more of these Irish bouzoukis. It's certainly been an enjoyable process, enhanced without doubt by the fact that, for the first time ever, I've been able to devote entire days to my passion rather than grab the odd hour here and there as my old day-job allowed.

As this is my first bouzouki I guess it's reasonable to regard it as a prototype. Nevertheless, I'm pleased to find that the construction itself has turned out as well as I could have hoped for. The all-important tonal evaluation will have to wait a little longer, of course.

Before I breathe a sigh of relief and pat myself on the back, a reality check tells me that the long and arduous finishing process awaits me!

Cheers
Pete

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