1918 Karabas, New York
Giannis Tsoulogiannis sent me this picture with the following info:
Karabas was a Spartan luthier in New York from 1895-?. This instrument dates from 1918 and has a scale length of 715 mm. It has all original parts and is influenced by the “tampoura” as opposed to the mandola. It was Karabas’ least expensive model.
Hopefully Mr. Tsoulogiannis will be able to provide us with more pics and measurements at some point.
One of the great things about living in the San Francisco Bay area is that people are into so many different things here. So when it came time to find a case for the old bouzouki I just bought I discovered the world’s greatest custom gig bag maker a couple of miles from my house!
Glenn started the first professional gig bag company, Reunion Blues, but is now solo. He uses top quality materials and makes bags for everything from unusual percussion items to full size harps, with 2000 patterns on file. But, this was his first bouzouki case! If you have an old bouzouki I highly recommend contacting Glenn, if yours fits the dimensions of mine you will save the cost of having a new pattern made.
Contact Glenn directly, or email me if you have any questions.
http://www.glenncronkhite.com/
1904 Evanghelides, Athens (info sent by luthier Giannis Tsoulogiannis, Sparta)
Length, nut to bridge: 630 mm
Body length: 349mm
Body depth: 140 mm
Body width: 230 mm
Current owner unknown. It was found in Sparta.
Body : Brazilian rosewood 15 staves,Curly maple
Neck : Maple with brazilian rosewood veneer
Top: low quality spruce
Decoration: Tortoise Shell and mother of pear
Sounds great!
1912 Stathopoulo, New York (currently owned by Stavros Kourousis)
Length, nut to bridge: 64o mm
Neck width at the nut: 31 mm
Neck width at the 12th fret: 37 mm
Body length: 35o mm
Body depth: 14o mm
Body width: 235 mm
Pre-restoration pics from Ebay (thanks to Paul Hostetter for saving these!)
Let’s all head to Sparta!
A few pics from the Sparta conference, courtesy of Giannis Tsoulogiannis:
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OLD BOUZOUKIA 