i wonder what it sounds like when one string of the pairs works with the tremolo, but the other doesn't. it could be brilliant or hideous. i hope for the former, but expect the latter.
Re: Dando's Mondo Mando
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2024 8:46 am
by dubkitty
it finally happened. back on the 2000s Luna briefly marketed a solidbody electric bouzouki. i've been looking for one for years, and missed two on Reverb which were the only ones to appear in a period of 8 years. i woke up before 5 this morning and couldn't sleep so i went on Reverb and someone had just put one on sale so i Affirmed the shit out of that thing. mahogany body, bolt-on maple neck, rosewood fingerboard with moon-phase inlays, 2 mini-humbucking pickups with closed covers. happy happy joy joy. if my girlfriend's dog hadn't just died i'd be ecstatic, but at the moment i'm mildly thrilled but more happy to have finally landed another of my oddball White Whales. i'm fixing to go all Lu Edmonds in the Mekons on everybody. the colorful pickup covers are a photo artifact; they're actually chrome.
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Re: Dando's Mondo Mando
Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2024 2:24 pm
by dubkitty
i had lots of time while we were away to work on the Bird. it took a fair bit of fucking about to get it to work well. i had to adjust the truss rod, shim the neck, and place the floating bridge. it wasn't tremendously playable until i got lighter gauge strings...normal Irish bouzouki sets start at .012 or .013 and top out around .044 which is way too heavy for the 26" scale. it's also hard to find electric bouzouki strings with loop ends which the tailpiece requires. i eventually wound up getting nickel steel wound GHS banjo strings which i guessed at gauges comparing the relative pitch of each course to electric guitar and wound up with
.010 .010
.014 .014
.026w .010
.038w .014
which helped a lot. the lessened string tension allowed the neck to relax and i can even bend notes now though it's still not easy. the mini-humbuckers sound good, and it's pretty barky when amplified and run through the pedalboard. the low string course BOOMs nicely as you might expect since the low string is the same note as a guitar's A string tuned down for open G tuning and the long scale keeps it snappy. at some point i'd like to polish out the matte finish because that kind of black finish shows finger marks something awful. in my usual mode of changing little things to make an instrument more comfortable i swapped the plastic switch tip for a Gretsch metal tip which just looks more right to me and changed the knobs...the originals were Tele-style knobs with a crescent moon inlay in the tops, but the top for one was lost and they're absolutely impossible to find. i dug through the parts box and eventually wound up with black Gibson speed knobs which are conceptually incongruous but look OK and are easy to read. i might also have a pickguard made, more or less on the pattern of a Gretsch Duo Jet guard which surprisingly has almost the same pickup cutout placement as a Jet with Filtertrons.
