# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > CBOM >  Old Bouzouki--Can any one help identify?

## Millerberger

I picked this up the other day, didn't cost me much, and I know nothing about Bouzouki's other than 8 string B's can't be much older than the 1940's. 

Does any one recognize what this particular B might be worth, where it came from etc...

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## zoukboy

I had one like that a few years back. You can tell it's a cheapie by the painted headstock. I wouldn't think it would be worth much over $100, assuming all the ribs are sound with no cracks and the neck is straight and not in need of a reset. The frets on mine were pretty crappy, too.

BTW, the tetrachordo (4 course) was championed starting in1954 by Manolis Hiotis, so you are not likely to find one made prior to that (although at least one example of a Greek bouzouki bodied octave mandolin has been reported, but it was not considered a bouzouki because of its tuning).

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## allenhopkins

> ...at least one example of a Greek bouzouki bodied octave mandolin has been reported, but it was not considered a bouzouki because of its tuning...


Like *this four-course one* by A Stathopoulo, dated 1911?

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## Graham McDonald

> Like *this four-course one* by A Stathopoulo, dated 1911?


From the USD website:  :Smile: 

Built originally with six strings (three double courses), but modified to eight strings (four double courses), probably in the 1950s, when the first eight-stringed bouzoukis were created. According to Andreas Nikatos, a bouzouki player active today, "the cool thing about an old original bouzouki is that there was always 8 tuners on the peghead, even though there were only 6 strings. The originals used mandolin parts, and the mandolin uses 8 strings; therefore, the peghead is original even though there are 8 tuners."

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allenhopkins

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## allenhopkins

> From the USD website:
> Built originally with six strings (three double courses), but modified to eight strings (four double courses), probably in the 1950s, when the first eight-stringed bouzoukis were created. According to Andreas Nikatos, a bouzouki player active today, "the cool thing about an old original bouzouki is that there was always 8 tuners on the peghead, even though there were only 6 strings. The originals used mandolin parts, and the mandolin uses 8 strings; therefore, the peghead is original even though there are 8 tuners."


Thanx for the information; something I did not know!  Surprising that the builders didn't cut down the mandolin tuners, if they only needed three on a side.

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## zoukboy

> From the USD website: 
> 
> Built originally with six strings (three double courses), but modified to eight strings (four double courses), probably in the 1950s, when the first eight-stringed bouzoukis were created. According to Andreas Nikatos, a bouzouki player active today, "the cool thing about an old original bouzouki is that there was always 8 tuners on the peghead, even though there were only 6 strings. The originals used mandolin parts, and the mandolin uses 8 strings; therefore, the peghead is original even though there are 8 tuners."


Yep, that's because the very first 'modern' Greek staved back bouzoukis were made with re-purposed Neapolitan mandola bodies to which a bouzouki neck was attached. They re-used the hardware, adapting it for 6 strings in 3 courses as Graham said. The organologists refer to this transitional instrument as the 'mandola-bozouki.' This was around 1914 in Piraeus, the port of Athens. Many of the older photos of early rebetes show the four-on-a-side tuners on 3 course instruments: 





You can clearly see  the three courses in the B&W image and the eight tuners.

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## Graham McDonald

> Yep, that's because the very first 'modern' Greek staved back bouzoukis were made with re-purposed Neapolitan mandola bodies to which a bouzouki neck was attached. They re-used the hardware, adapting it for 6 strings in 3 courses as Graham said. The organologists refer to this transitional instrument as the 'mandola-bozouki.' This was around 1914 in Piraeus, the port of Athens. Many of the older photos of early rebetes show the four-on-a-side tuners on 3 course instruments:


The more I think about the idea of adapting a mandola body the less likely I think it is. I have read it a few time over the years, but never with any attribution.  I suspect that mandolas were built in relatively small numbers and I would wonder about the economics of buying them up and shipping them to Athens. There are practical things about cutting the neck off (as the the neck block was an extension of the neck itself) and attaching a new, longer neck to the remnant block inside the body. Happy to be proved wrong is someone comes up with a pic of an early bouzouki with an identifiably Neapolitan body. Certainly the size of a Neapolitan mandola would have been been a useful starting point for a staved bouzouki body and I can imagine the marketing of the 'new' built up instrument instead of the older carved-from-the-solid instruments.

cheers

g

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## zoukboy

> The more I think about the idea of adapting a mandola body the less likely I think it is. I have read it a few time over the years, but never with any attribution.  I suspect that mandolas were built in relatively small numbers and I would wonder about the economics of buying them up and shipping them to Athens. There are practical things about cutting the neck off (as the the neck block was an extension of the neck itself) and attaching a new, longer neck to the remnant block inside the body. Happy to be proved wrong is someone comes up with a pic of an early bouzouki with an identifiably Neapolitan body. Certainly the size of a Neapolitan mandola would have been been a useful starting point for a staved bouzouki body and I can imagine the marketing of the 'new' built up instrument instead of the older carved-from-the-solid instruments.
> 
> cheers
> 
> g


Hi Graham,

My source is:  Risto Pekka Pennanen, _Westernisation and Modernisation in Greek Popular Music_, University of Tampere, Finland 1999.

I have an excerpt that I would be glad to send you...

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## dmcginnis

Roger...you are becoming so academic...one might think you were pursuing a PhD or something!

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## Graham McDonald

> Hi Graham,
> 
> My source is:  Risto Pekka Pennanen, _Westernisation and Modernisation in Greek Popular Music_, University of Tampere, Finland 1999.
> 
> I have an excerpt that I would be glad to send you...


I would be delighted to read it!

Thanks

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## zoukboy

> Roger...you are becoming so academic...one might think you were pursuing a PhD or something!


Ha ha ha!  But *you* are the one who mentioned attribution!  ;-)

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## zoukboy

> I would be delighted to read it!
> 
> Thanks


Will send it to you.

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## alk

I don't understand where this_ re-purposed mandola bodies for early bouzoukis_  rumor comes from. 
Yes it might have happened , people also converted some,  mandolins few people still do, especially amateurs wishing to reuse a solid body of an instrument beyond repair (why not). 
However , the bowlback tradition in Greece starts much earlier than the modern bouzouki. There are surviving examples of bouzoukis dating back from the late 1800s, made in Greece, by Greek makers such as Mourtzinos, Kopeliadis, Gkelis, Evangelidis. 
All of them accomplished makers. I think it is a bit unfair to say that the modern bouzouki started off by taking apart Neapolitan mandolas.
Yes it's a hybrid that borrows elements of western and eastern making but there is a musical reason for that: the well tempered system....Fixed frets and metal strings require a more..robust construction. 
However there are more than a few examples of very fine and very old greek bouzoukia. Please let's not assume they are...recycled Italian mandolas.
Regarding the number of strings: Again people did whatever they wanted..there wasn't a fixed way of tuning or number of strings. 
A couple of Stathopoulos I saw had 7 strings on them ( a triple bass string...)

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## zoukboy

Beekeeper,

It's not a 'rumor'. It is evidence from interviews with people who were there at the time (see source above).

And no one said there were no bouzoukia prior to that. The point is that - according to those sources - the staved back construction comes in at that time.

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## alk

thank you zoukboy
What sort of time period are we talking about exactly?
I am certainly not trying to wave the Greek flag here. The trouble with this theory is that ...there are no instruments to support it..Yes you might find the odd amateur conversion of a mandola into a 3 course bouzouki...and I think Tsitsanis had that done to his...But as I said...there are dozens of local makers working in athens, making bowl backs for hundreds of years. 
THis is the oldest surviving bowl back I know of, it was built in Athens c.1835
 . Besides, a lot of the early bouzoukis have a very different bowl shape to the Neopolital "almond" shape. 
Here are a few examples ...
The Mourtzinos bouzouki, late 1800s

Anonymous c.1880 , found in Sparta 

To me:yes ,, modern bouzouki clearly borrows the more sturdy elements of the mandolin bowl back construction and makers like Stathopoulos explore the mandolin shape. However this comes as an addition to a pre-existing school of making bowl back staved instruments.

Again, I don't want to sound biased, I am only interested in learning..and if there are any bouzoukis out there , either with Neapolitan labels left inside or with parts that a specialist can identify as Neopolitan, I would love to examine them and learn from them. To this day , I haven't seen any.
Besides, a mandola was always a secondary instrument with no solo repertoire....if you go on ebay you will see 100s of mandolins sold, and maybe 1 or 2 bowl back mandolas, hardly any from Naples . There was never a huge demand for them....Few were made.

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## zoukboy

> thank you zoukboy
> What sort of time period are we talking about exactly?
> I am certainly not trying to wave the Greek flag here. The trouble with this theory is that ...there are no instruments to support it..Yes you might find the odd amateur conversion of a mandola into a 3 course bouzouki...and I think Tsitsanis had that done to his...But as I said...there are dozens of local makers working in athens, making bowl backs for hundreds of years. 
> THis is the oldest surviving bowl back I know of, it was built in Athens c.1835
>  . Besides, a lot of the early bouzoukis have a very different bowl shape to the Neopolital "almond" shape. 
> Here are a few examples ...
> The Mourtzinos bouzouki, late 1800s
> 
> Anonymous c.1880 , found in Sparta 
> ...


All good questions.   All I can do is refer you to my source.  :-)

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

Also see these from 1910.No connection to mandola

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## ollaimh

well I have read that stathoupoulo started making his bouzoukia while in Smyrna.  long before imigrating to the usa. there he was near the island of chios and their mandolin , mandola. and octave mandolin tradition.  there are many examples in the Athenian museum of traditional instruments.  the local greek guys I talked to dated the eastern agean mandolin family tradition back to the venetian occupation , so it was well established by 1850, having started in 1650ish.  they thought it was these eastern Aegean instruments that influenced stathoupoulo to combine features of the mandolin with those of the sazi/taboura instruments with long necks that were then showing metal frets on occasion.  the hybrid instruments first seem to occur in smryna and Constantinople.  every one seemed to think these were all three course instruments. so I am not in favour of a direct Italian influence but an indirect one via chios and the eastern Aegean islands.  it's possible the odd musician tried four courses but this doesn't seem to be the norm.

I have a 1911 stathoupoulo much like the one shown but with a different rosette and in worse condition. I had it repaired to be a good player and it sings. it has a warm loud sound that announces what a genius stathoupoulo was.  

as to the original question, that's a pretty cheap bouzouki. however some cheapos have great sound(and some don't). I have a fifties one with mother of toilet seat face ornamentation which is still one of my favourite instruments to play. the neck has to finger board, the frets are just put into the the five piece neck. strong, un bent and with a good set up it's a beauty to play, and I am not afraid of taking it to a party ot a beach.  I busked with it for years

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## ollaimh

ps I have pictures somewhere of eastern Aegean mandolins, mandolas and octave mandos from the Athens museum of traditional instruments. i'll try to find them. they are fairly distinct in design from Italian instruments but if the family.  these were also occasionally played in crete at a an early period. in and around chios they have a whole musical tradition built on the mando family. mostly dance music I think. 

does anyone know the name of the major luthier in Constantinople who built early bouzoukia? I have forgotten. several of his  lavtas are in the Athens museum.  very ornate.

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## alk

All interesting questions, I guess the first one we should ask:
what EXACTLY is bouzouki, and when does it first appear? As we can see from the second example of Giannis, above, the line between saz/tampouras and the bouzouki is not always 100% clear and I don't think people just switched to this new instrument overnight and never looked back....
That is partly the reason I find hard to accept Pennanens conclusions(i need to get hold of this study). 
Bouzouki didn't "start" (centainly not in peiraus in 1914), it developed through centuries of  evolution and musical changes. 

Stathopoulos did study in Turkey but as far as I am aware, no surviving examples of that period exist.We can't be sure that it was bouzoukia that he was buiding there, as he was a wonderful mandolin, santouri, guitar and lute maker as well. Apparently he also made violins, although none survived. 
 The mandola was also used extensively by Greek players at the time, people like Skarvelis and Peristeris. This is a photo of Peristeris and his group, holding rather big mandolas,possibly octave-mandolas.No idea where these instruments were built. Possibly italian?
It certainly is possible that mandolin/mandola influences started there as influences from the west were quite strong and often fashionable. 
 I haven't been able to trace a mandola or a bouzouki made in Istanbul or Smyrna in the late 1800s or bit later. I wonder how strong was the local tradition of making western instruments there.

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

I believe that Bouzouki was mostly developed in Pelloponese.It was one the favourite instruments of the greek warriors in the revolution against Turks at 1821 as Makriyiannis states.
Maurousis although in Constandinopole made beautifull mandolins and mandolas.

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## zoukboy

> A... I don't think people just switched to this new instrument overnight and never looked back....
> That is partly the reason I find hard to accept Pennanens conclusions(i need to get hold of this study). 
> Bouzouki didn't "start" (centainly not in peiraus in 1914), it developed through centuries of  evolution and musical changes.


Just to be clear, Pennanen makes no such claim. He documents the beginning of the *modern, staved back Greek bouzouki* as a hybrid mandola-bouzouki in Piraeus ca. 1914-14. Of course there were Greek bouzoukis before that date but they were made with bodies carved from a solid block of wood. There may have been one-off staved back experiments prior to that but there was a definite change to the staved back construction at that time.

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## vkioulaphides

There may be a logical gap somewhere in there. By way of disclaimer, while Greek, I am no bouzouki-connoisseur, so all of the very little that I know is second-hand, and highly dubious as such.

I believe I recall reading in an anthology of interviews with Tsitsanis that his father had "that old mandola" retrofitted with a longer neck, and thus turned to a bouzouki Vasili's first instrument, and the one that got him so enamored of rebetika.

Even if accepted at face value, this account means only that _that_ instrument was thus reconstructed; it is not sufficient evidence to lead to the conclusion that bouzoukis were _generally_ built that way. Influence is one thing; _ex post facto_ conversion is quite another one.

A fascinating inquiry in rather murky waters, one must add, considering how many Greek luthiers had studied in Italy and/or apprenticed with Italian luthiers working in Greece at that time. Then again, Italians were probably far outnumbered by _Armenian_ luthiers, so the plot thickens...

I look forward to learning more, as I follow this thread. My own $0.02 (or rather less) are already expended.  :Smile: 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

> There may have been one-off staved back experiments prior to that but there was a definite change to the staved back construction at that time.


Staves were in use for centuries .Here is an example from a Ioannis Stathopoulos 1870 bouzouki

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## vkioulaphides

Gorgeous!  :Disbelief: 

Amazing ornamentation... I think I discern movable frets, like on a laouto— which makes perfect sense, considering the age of this instrument. 

Thanks for posting this, Gianni!

Cheers,

Victor

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## zoukboy

Wow! Do you have a front view?

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## kmmando

Here's a snap or two of an older trichordo I own, bought in 1983 from John Alvey Turner's small shop in London for £60. Can any of our Greek correspondents translate the labelor identify the maker and date?

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

Probably made in the 60's.Samuelian is an Armenian maker in Athens.Cheap instrument

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## alk

Samuelian perhaps wasn't even the maker of this instrument. The label reads: Music Shop, Samuelian, Athens ..etc. 
it doesn't actually say it was built by him...
It was common practice at the time for music shops to sell bouzoukis made in "ghost" workshops. Workshops in a sense that ,each instrument was the result of many makers work. Someone would only make backs, someone would only varnish...etc. So you don't have the concept of master Luthier there. 
It is not uncommon to find identical instruments with different labels inside and as I said, because they were put together ...anonymously... to be sold in various shops, it's not possible to tell who was involved in actually building each one. 
 Having said that, a lot of them did survive a good 50+ years which proves there was a certain amount of artistry in their building. The ones that have completely perished were the ones with the "black" walnut back. A black walnut back would be a normal walnut bowl back, treated with acid so it would turn very dark. The appearance was fashionable at the time, the sound apparently got a bit brighter..and also you never had shrinkage problems with the staves. However the wood would become brittle and often (not always!) practically dissolve in a few years time. 
Yours was spared that process. it looks lovely. 
BTW: your 2 bottom strings should be tuned in octaves so you only need one bass string and the other one should be the same as your two top strings. so tuning should be Dd aa dd.(i think yours has 2 bass strings)

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## zoukboy

> BTW: your 2 bottom strings should be tuned in octaves so you only need one bass string and the other one should be the same as your two top strings. so tuning should be Dd aa dd.(i think yours has 2 bass strings)


Beekeeper:

I am betting that Kevin has that strung in the same manner as Alec Finn's trichordo, with a unison pair on the low D string. Right, Kev?

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## kmmando

Thanks Beekeeper, that's all very interesting. Thanks for making time to go into the details. Its well built, though not a high end instrument, but has a lovely vintage vibe to it. 

Yes, quite right about the paired rather than octave low D, I used it when I got it in 1983 in a "Celtic" fashion and the double pairing gave a wee bit more weight, in the manner that Roger describes accurately.

It was really unusual to find bouzoukis in Britain in those day, so I just grabbed the first one I saw. Didn't see another fpr a very long time, apart from one Alec and I found in a music shop in Ithaca, when doing a gig at Cornel University with De Danann, which Alec bought, and then gave me at the end of the tour, mainly because I'd carried it around all tour for him! It was warped badly, and I had a neck job done on it which ruined it, sadly. That one hangs in our house in the Highlands as a memento of the touring days.

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## alk

Cool!i'd love to hear the double low D sound,i might try it in mine.
Yes,not many greek bouzoukis made it to the UK.having said that,in the last 3years i found a top from a ruined body and more recently a complete instrument with a matching (sadly damaged)top. They look very similar to yours.I am thinking of putting the good top on the instrument,see if i can get it to make a sound.

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## kmmando

Here's the greatest exponent of the use of a Greek bouzouki in Irish traditional music accompaniment - it'll give you a feel for the paired sounds.

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## vkioulaphides

Yup, Samuelian is a retailer in Monastiraki, the tourist-trap shopping district behind the Acropolis. I've been to his shop several times, but never actually _bought_ anything there. 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

> Yup, Samuelian is a retailer in Monastiraki, the tourist-trap shopping district behind the Acropolis. I've been to his shop several times, but never actually _bought_ anything there. 
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Victor


I thought he was a maker like many other Armenians.Mistake.Γράψε λάθος! :Smile:

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## vkioulaphides

Well... he _may_ also be a luthier himself; that I wouldn't know. The instruments I have seen at his store are so very disparate and inconsistent that they couldn't possibly have been made by the same luthier. He seems to be selling indiscriminately to the tourist crowds of Monastiraki— but, who knows, perhaps he may have some instruments of his own there, as well.

In any case, I'll be in Athens the first week of February. If you can trek up from Sparta, we could pay him a visit together. Coffee and baklava are on me.  :Coffee: 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

Ok! I will bring the Tsipouro!!

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## vkioulaphides

It's a deal!  :Smile:

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## Margriet

Could we join ? ;-) 
Though Dutch cheese and stroopwafels will not really add.

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## vkioulaphides

Graag! Gladly!  :Smile: 

The stroopwafels will be for _after_ the late-night drinks letting them sit for a while on the rim of a cup full of some hot beverage, so that the steam softens the syrup somewhat.  :Wink: 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

We will keep in touch!!I will be very happy to see you again!

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## Mike Anderson

Ah, I wish I could go on that trip to Athens myself! I've lurked in this thread until today but just want to say how much I'm enjoying it. Now I have to find a source for Tsipouro in Canada! I can get grappa anywhere, but where is the Tsipouro?  :Grin: 

Giannis, your blog is wonderful, such beautiful instruments! I am curious - the post from September 28, in the title of your post about those fine looking little instruments it translates as "baglama". Baglama is of course also a Turkish instrument - is this a Greek variation? Are they widely available in Greece?

Thanks, 
Michael.

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## vkioulaphides

Hello, Michael.

Giannis is far more knowledgeable than I on this topic, and he will surely reply to you shortly. All _I_ can tell you is that the _Greek_ baglama is a _particular_ instrument, the octave-diminutive of the three-course bouzouki. The _Turkish_ baglama, on the other hand, is an entire _family_ of long-necked lutes, much, much larger than the Greek instrument by the same name. A Turkish musician once told me that "baglama" refers literally to "bindings" i.e. the bound, movable frets on the neck of the Turkish baglama; according to him, this was to differentiate this family of instruments from the fretless ouds. But that, of course, is second-hand knowledge, so I am not qualified to either corroborate it or refute it.

By way of analogy, the Greek baglama is to to the three-course Greek bouzouki what the piccolo is to the flute: an octave higher, what Italians call _ottavino_.

I leave the more expert discussion to Giannis. 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Graham McDonald

I was going back over this thread and noticed a link in Beekeeper's post #20 to a photo of Peristeris and a group of what looks like Neapolitan mandolin and mandocello/liuto players. I would love to know more about Peristeris and the Greek mandolin community of a century ago. As some here will know I am slowly working on a what is becoming an alarmingly large book on mandolin family instruments  :Smile:  and the chapter on mandolin like things to the east of Italy is looming. We will be in Greece next year (herself having expressed a desire to visit a Greek island) and I should be allowed a day or so in Athens to visit museums and shops and builders. The museum of traditional instruments is high on that list at the moment. Other suggestions welcomed

cheers

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

Thank you Mike!
Victor was clear on what Baglamas is.
It was in use mostly on prison because of its small size and many times "manges" were hid it under their jackets.
These instruments have great sound and their string length varies from 33 to 40 .
There are two building methods, with ribs (like mandolin)or from a hollowed single piece of wood(like a sculpture).

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## Mike Anderson

> Thank you Mike!
> Victor was clear on what Baglamas is.
> It was in use mostly on prison because of its small size and many times "manges" were hid it under their jackets.
> These instruments have great sound and their string length varies from 33 to 40 .
> There are two building methods, with ribs (like mandolin)or from a hollowed single piece of wood(like a sculpture).


Thank you Giannis, this is all good information!

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## alk

> I was going back over this thread and noticed a link in Beekeeper's post #20 to a photo of Peristeris and a group of what looks like Neapolitan mandolin and mandocello/liuto players. I would love to know more about Peristeris and the Greek mandolin community of a century ago. As some here will know I am slowly working on a what is becoming an alarmingly large book on mandolin family instruments  and the chapter on mandolin like things to the east of Italy is looming. We will be in Greece next year (herself having expressed a desire to visit a Greek island) and I should be allowed a day or so in Athens to visit museums and shops and builders. The museum of traditional instruments is high on that list at the moment. Other suggestions welcomed
> 
> cheers


wow, an interesting project. I don't know what else would be interesting to share. Peristeris was born right at the start of the 20th century in Ismir (or smyrni) and was educated in Istanbul. His main instrument was the mandolin, he was a proper virtuoso. He also got the chance to travel a bit, as a traveling musician on cruise ships with his group (the one you see in the photo). There are few recordings of him playing the mandolin as well as other instruments (including the mandola) beautifully.

As western sounds gradually enriched the music of Ismir and Istanbul,the mandolin and mandola gained an important place in the music of that region. The term estudiana was ..borrowed from the west, to name several music groups , often containing mandolins. On the other hand, around the Ionian Islands, like Corfu and Zakinthos, the Venetian occupation had introduced the mandolinata type of ensemble, a tradition which remains alive until today. Compared to the music of peristeris and other mandolin players of Asia Minor, the Ionian Island style of mandolin playing was much more influenced by Italy, and not as much by the eastern Mediterranean sound(Greek-Turkish, whatever you want to call it)
Hope this helps.

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## ollaimh

yeah gorgeous and fascinating.  was ionnes stathoupoulo related to anastasios?

anastasios  may have done his redesign of his bouzouki in new York but he still likely saw the chios instruments while in Smyrna, as least occasionally.

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## alk

Giannis wrote an interesting article some time ago about  ioannes and anastasios being relatives. if i remember correctly:although there is no definite proof yet,there is evidence that they were related.Apparently they used similar labels as well.

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## TKlein

Those who are interested in the history of the bouzouki and its early recordings will probably find this of interest

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/tam_bouz.htm

For the very first known recording of a bouzouki and for, among other things, a fairly exhaustive collection of Peristeris' instrumentals on mandolin, guitar and bouzouki, other early mandolin recordings (1905, 1928) and other 1930s bouzouki solos, this may also be of interest

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/rhapsody.htm

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## Graham McDonald

Great links, thanks Tony

I have just ordered your Greek Rhapsody CDs and sent an email to the Opheum folks in Greece.

cheers




> Those who are interested in the history of the bouzouki and its early recordings will probably find this of interest
> 
> http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/tam_bouz.htm
> 
> For the very first known recording of a bouzouki and for, among other things, a fairly exhaustive collection of Peristeris' instrumentals on mandolin, guitar and bouzouki, other early mandolin recordings (1905, 1928) and other 1930s bouzouki solos, this may also be of interest
> 
> http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/rhapsody.htm

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## SDimis

For the lovers and enthusiasts of the old rebetiko Era, I will attempt during the next months, through my luthier's  Giannis Tsoulogiannis craftsmanship, to convert a vintage 1910 bowl-back Mandolin with a lot of characteristics of the old Stathopoulos bouzoukia , to a miso-bouzouko/ tzoura.

It will  be an interesting attempt as the luthier will try to restore and save the wounded, and seriously warped vintage soundboard, and reverse the time back to the pre-war era when Greek luthiers converted mandoles and mandolins to bouzouki and tzoura instruments.

Here is a digital visualization of the initial mandolin and the future conversion to tzoura

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Es8UQb9wCq...4_57%2B(1).JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-H...1783826820.jpg


For more information please follow my blog:

http://memoriesoftheinnocentage.blog...n-to-miso.html

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## Colin Lindsay

> Ok! I will bring the Tsipouro!!


Oh Lord. Tsipouro. I lost a few hours around Korakavouni and Astros due to that stuff over the last few years. The music was good, though, although thankfully no-one recorded it so that I could listen when sober and realise just how it actually was  :Smile:

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## SDimis

I had the pleasure to talk with a very valuable instrument maker-Isidoro Papadamou on my blog
Restless spirit regarding the good old sound of rebetiko era, caustic in his words for those (luthiers) who do not research on how to build musical instruments with quality sound, and revealing through his person  photographic materials in creation of the exact replicas of Yovan Tsaous tambouro-bouzouko and its hollow neck construction.
Also he is giving some "behind the scene" information regarding various special unique constructions he made through the years

For more information please visit my blog

http://memoriesoftheinnocentage.blog...aditional.html

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Jacob

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## Mike Anderson

> I had the pleasure to talk with a very valuable instrument maker-Isidoro Papadamou on my blog
> Restless spirit regarding the good old sound of rebetiko era, caustic in his words for those (luthiers) who do not research on how to build musical instruments with quality sound, and revealing through his person  photographic materials in creation of the exact replicas of Yovan Tsaous tambouro-bouzouko and its hollow neck construction.
> Also he is giving some "behind the scene" information regarding various special unique constructions he made through the years
> 
> For more information please visit my blog
> 
> http://memoriesoftheinnocentage.blog...aditional.html


What a really extraordinary blog you have, such a pleasure to read and to see the gorgeous pictures!

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## DavidKOS

Great thread, thanks to all that posted.

Another Greek-style Bouzouki player.

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## SDimis

Thank you for the good words! Greatly appreciated 

It is the early 20th century in Unites States, and the traditional lutherie of bouzouki making, finds  in the new continent , 5 worthy representatives

A detailed post on my blog, with some speculation of a really unique connection between 3 luthiers of NY, which needs further investigation

And help of information will be appreciated

http://memoriesoftheinnocentage.blog...therie-in.html

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