Zoukulele - another out-of-the-box instrument design for your perusal

Todd Rose

Todd Rose

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Here's another original design of mine that may be of interest to some of you. It's a hybrid of an Irish bouzouki, a ukulele, and a flattop steel string guitar. It's tuned like a uke with a low G; each pair of strings is a unison. A one-of-a-kind instrument with a unique sound, it's just been purchased by a wonderful Irish trad player named Tony Dunne, so it will soon be heard in pubs around central Ireland. Here's a vid of him playing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZS_BgwDj8Y

There are also a couple recordings of myself playing it on my soundcloud page:

https://soundcloud.com/todd-rose

zoukulele on tree 1.jpg

zoukulele on tree 2.jpg
 
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Gorgeous looking and sounding. Love it
 
Thanks for sharing this instrument. I think it looks and sounds great. Its not often anyone posts an instrument largely made of ash. I like light coloured bodies so I reckon I'll be trying out ash too.
 
I'm curious if you added a truss rod? Mind you, I know very little about constructing any instrument other than a ukulele, and passing little about that, too.
 
Thanks, all, for the kind words. Ash is, indeed, a lovely and underappreciated wood. Bends easily, too. This was plain (unfigured) quartersawn material, but we filled the pores with red-tinted epoxy, which accentuates the growth-ring lines and reflects the red in the figured bubinga bindings and rosette. I also have several billets of very nice quartersawn ash with excellent curl figure that I look forward to using. When I resaw this, I'll have more than I need for my own use, so feel free to inquire about available sets.
 
If you had used a high G instead of a low G you would have created something very, very similar to the Renaissance Cittern. The original cittern did not have wound strings so they had to use a reentrant tuning like a ukulele. The modern cittern, like the Irish bouzouki is tuned either in a variation of a octave mandolin tuning or a drone tuning of some sort.

Nicely done!
 
KnowsPickin said:
If you had used a high G instead of a low G you would have created something very, very similar to the Renaissance Cittern. The original cittern did not have wound strings so they had to use a reentrant tuning like a ukulele. The modern cittern, like the Irish bouzouki is tuned either in a variation of a octave mandolin tuning or a drone tuning of some sort.

Nicely done!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I appreciate your thoughts about the cittern. That's one instrument I have not researched much.

Interestingly, Tony Dunne, who bought the zoukulele, is a rarity among Irish bouzouki players, in that he uses a guitar/uke tuning: DGBE. So, when he first picked up the zoukulele, he was right at home. At that time, instead of buying the zoukulele, he decided to commission me to build him a custom instrument with 5 courses, again with guitar-like tuning, ADGBE. That instrument can be seen and heard here (along with another guitar and a clay drum I also made):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18yAP8di_s

...and a few photos:

View attachment 75052

View attachment 75053

View attachment 75054

Anyway, I'm very happy that he recently decided to add the zoukulele to his stable.
 
Todd, your zoukulele is pretty close to my dream instrument. As I said a while ago an another forum, if I ever win the lottery...

- FiL
 
FiL said:
Todd, your zoukulele is pretty close to my dream instrument. As I said a while ago an another forum, if I ever win the lottery...

- FiL
Click to expand...

Thanks, FiL. Yeah, I wish I could make them more affordable. Or, can't we just abolish money already?!
 
For some reason, the images of the custom guitar-zouk I made for Tony aren't showing any more... You can always go to my web site to see them.
 
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