Official Luthiers Forum!

The Newport Guitar Fest videos are starting to show up on YouTube. Here's one of Tony Dunne playing his hot-off-the-press 10 string guitar-bouzouki. He's accompanied by Nancy Conescu playing one of my Allegheny guitars, and myself playing a ceramic drum I made years ago. Unfortunately, they seem to have recorded directly off Tony's mic, so you can hardly hear the second guitar or the drum. On the other hand, the bouzouki comes through loud and clear and gives you a pretty good idea of what that instrument sounds like.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Here's the link to the YouTube page:

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

And here's the link to the Newport Fest YouTube page, where you can see all the other videos taken there. They're still working on uploading them all. I should have a few more videos of great players playing my guitars at the fest coming soon - Paul Asbell, Michael Chapdelaine, and Jamie Stillway.

http://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarFestMiami

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Very nice Todd. I didn't know what a bouzouki sounded like.......but I've heard that sound before. Looks great.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Slick!

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I like that.It sounded like Irish music.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Great sounding bouzouki Todd!

Thanks, Darryl, Terry, James, and Jack!

I'm a big fan of Irish traditional music, so it was an honor and a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to design and build this variation of the Irish bouzouki for Tony.

For those who aren't so familiar with the Irish bouzouki, it evolved from the Greek bouzouki. The typical Irish bouzouki is a mando-like instrument, with a wide teardrop shape and four double courses. It usually has a flat top, but a floating bridge and tailpiece like an archtop instrument. It's a wonderful sounding instrument in the hands of a good player, and it fits nicely into the sound of an Irish trad ensemble. IMO, however, the sound is a bit thin and weak, so this is my re-thinking of the design of that instrument, based on Tony's input on what he was looking for, and my own ideas about how to satisfy Tony and develop the bouzouki into something with a more powerful, more full, more harmonically rich, and more sustaining voice - something that still sounds like a bouzouki, but delivers more in many respects. The larger, deeper guitar-shaped body and the fixed bridge are the two main departures from standard bouzouki design (not to mention the fifth course), and the primary ways I achieved the sound I was going for. Lots of other factors come into play as well, of course - wood selection (thanks to several of my lutherie friends, including folks here on the OLF, for the suggestion to use palo escrito for the back and sides, which was perfect for this, I think), top and back arching, bracing design, the floating/elevated fretboard, etc. I'm pleased to say it all worked out well and the instrument succeeds quite nicely at doing what I wanted it to do. Best of all, Tony is extremely happy with it - "over the moon" were his words. It's a blast for me to hear him play it.

It's too bad you can't hear Nancy Conescu's rhythm guitar playing in this video. Her playing is fantastic and really propels the music, and the blend of the bigger Allegheny guitar (that's what I call my "small jumbo" model) with the bright bouzouki sound was really nice. The mix sounded great in the room at the time, it just didn't come through in this recording.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I finally got the chance to watch this whole video myself just now, at my in-laws house (I have dial-up at home). I was happy to find that the rhythm guitar part becomes audible after a while. Cool! The sound quality isn't exactly great, but you get the idea.

Thanks for looking and listening!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Very nice, what a proud moment it is to sit up there and jam with three instruments that you built. Be proud, again very nice.

Thank you, Mark. Yeah, it's a great feeling. We jammed a bunch more out at my display table. That was how the idea came up to play together for the demo concert, which was originally planned to be just Tony solo. (There is supposed to be another video of Tony solo, during the first half of his mini-concert, playing my zoukulele. I haven't been able to find that one yet [even though the one you see here is entitled Tony Dunne Part 2].)

Nancy Conescu, by the way, is a wonderful player and singer (who also happens to be married to Mike Doolin). She played some other mini-concerts there as well. Check her out when you get the chance.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/