Troubadour UK

SOME of our current prices are now less than you would pay if you were able to buy a single instrument directly from the luthiery works in Romania: see

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Irish-bouzouki-by-Hora-factory-Romania

This eBay price of £144 plus shipping for  a bouzouki – not in our specification, but basic – reflects the huge shifts in currency values since we last ordered in 2009. Yet our sales have been slow in 2010. At some point, we will increase prices. You are advised to buy now, don’t assume the current pricing will last. In fact, when our existing stocks (mainly from 2006-2009) are gone, new order prices are likely to force a really substantial hike.

Our versions are also enhanced with rosewood/sonokeling fingerboards, superior fittings and bridges, and all-natural finish for which we pay various surcharges. We have new stocks of Tamburlin and Lionheart with and without pickups, good remaining stocks of Gervaise tenor mandola, and we have a full stock of Blondel II travel guitars with new type gig bags (really good compared with the older type).

We have stocks of our three big sellers both with and without fitted pickup systems – the Lionheart full length scale (660mm) Celtic Bouzouki, the Tamburlin shorter scale (582mm) Octave Mandola, and the 402mm scale (15.82″) Gervaise tenor or alto mandola. And we have the Blondel MkII with sonokeling rosewood fingerboard and three-part laminated maple/acacia neck.

All three are finished in the top quality unstained natural sycamore (maple) and spruce we pioneered back in 2002 when Troubadour first asked the Romanian luthiers HORA to provide custom quality instruments with a different look. Here is an email message in 2008 from Marius Harpa of HORA:

“We analyzed your order and I’m afraid that we have to increase the prices again… we have no profit at those prices anymore. You have instruments completely natural color and for these we need perfect wood, without any defect, which is more and more difficult to find.”

Guess what? We want perfect wood! That’s why we asked for the unstained, natural instruments right from the start. We were rewarded with everything from good plain matched sets to the occasional lovely examples of quilted maple or bearclaw spruce. Check our ‘versions’ against Ozark, Montana or Blue Moon and you will find a completely different grade of instrument.

In the music room we have a few excellent all solid wood classical guitars, acoustic basses, some baritone ukes, and a couple of mandolins remaining. We also have Romanian duduk wooden whistles which seem to share the Bulgarian/Turkish temperament, they sound lovely but the pitches of each tone are not exactly in line with the average electronic keyboard.

We continue to stock the Maui Xaphoon or ‘pocket sax’ pitched in C, a great travel instrument for sax or clarinet players. We now have stocks of the lovely emerald, ruby and sapphire translucent body Xaphoons.

We now have a stock of the wonderful Aquila guitar strings from Italy, unavailable in the UK through normal retailers. These are the affordable Nylgut ‘Alabastro’ set to enliven any nylon string guitar, and the ‘Alchemia’ Nylgut set with solid silver wound basses – the loudest, most defined sound it is possible to get from a classical guitar, close to the quality of original gut trebles. We recommend the basic Aquila Alabastro Nylgut set (£10) for student and hobby playing, and the Alchemia set (£20) for professional concerts and recording. Please note: stocks remain, but once sold, we may discontinue this line. The Euro/Pound conversion will make it impossible to sell them for the prices we currently have on this site.

David Kilpatrick, Icon Publications Ltd t/a Troubadour UK, Maxwell Lane, Kelso, Scottish Borders TD5 7BB, UK. Tel: (+44) (0)1573 226032. Email: david@maxwellplace.demon.co.uk

2006 model Lionheart Bouzouki with natural acacia fingerboard, plain bridge and simple tailpiece

Older recent models of some instruments have unstained acacia fingerboards. We still have a few of these instruments left for those who want them. All of our current stocks use types of rosewood, or related woods, for their fingerboards (do not confuse this with the black stained acacia used, for example, in the Blue Moon travel guitar which superficially resembles our Blondel!).

Our fingerboard wood is described as sonokeling or rosewood, and does vary. The sonokeling is darker, midway between Indian rosewood and ebony in appearance. Both woods appear to be similar in having a tight closed grain, where the acacia was relatively open and tends to collect dirt with use. Both are preferable to the stained acacia which leaves your fingers black and gradually wears off.

Our new stock Blondels have a redesigned bridge (classical style) which, again, is solid hardwood and different from other variants of the the instrument. We also use a laminated three-piece neck which is unique to Troubadour, and a modified headstock design. The new 2008 delivery mandolas and bouzouki have a new type of twin-foot carved bridge, and a two-piece chased metal tailpiece which permits slightly shorter loop end strings to be used.

Although HORA is a luthiery factory, half the machines are people – mechanical output is not something we have ever expected from them. Each year’s delivery includes ‘improvements’ made by the staff, whether it’s a change in the styling of a bridge to the colour of fingerboard dots (or the absence of them). The classical guitars are all individual, with different wood bindings or rosette patterns chosen to suit the colour of the woods.

The cost of investing in new stock for the high-end solid wood classicals means the four or five we have remaining will be the last. These guitars are built more lightly and responsively than any Spanish ‘artisan’ level guitar – not that you can buy a solid rosewood/cedar Spanish made instrument in our price bracket anyway. Email david@troubadour.uk.com if you are interested.

- David