Comment

Comment by Rand Moore on February 6, 2014 at 3:13pm

Hi Norm,

To get an idea of how the player influences the sound of the instrument, listen to this British guy play the Blues on a Balalaika. Here's the video (on CBN)... "407bug" plays a Rusky 3-stringer.

Comment by Norm on February 5, 2014 at 11:22pm

Yes, the thickness of the neck is especially noticeable with the wrapping the hand around it. I left the neck intentionally a tad thicker than planned to make sure it's strong enough as there seemed to be some irregularity with the wood which seemed minor enough not to make a completely new neck.

Comment by Rand Moore on February 5, 2014 at 2:43pm

Hi Norm,

Well, even with the non-standard headstock, you did a great job in building your balalaika. That body design is "a tough nut to crack" as they say. I think that a large part of that Russian balalaika sound comes from how they play the instrument. You might be able to compare how yours sound by comparing it to some of the videos up on YouTube. I've seen some videos there this past summer when I was in the States so I know there are some there (but can't access the website now since I'm living in China most the year). In the videos I saw they frequently fret the bass (3rd) string with the thumb of their fretting hand by wrapping it around the neck while continuing to fret the other strings with their other fingers, so that neck really has to be quite thin. I'm into 3-string instruments, so the balalaika interests me a lot, especially after watching some of the YouTube videos. One of these years I'm going to buy one off E-Bay and use it as a model to try to build my own. There are Russians around here in Shenzhen China, as well. But the ones I've met seem more interested in the 6-string guitar. Too bad. They should take more to their cultural past (IMHO).

-Rand.

Comment by Norm on February 4, 2014 at 11:21pm

Thank you for your kind comments.

The first string is steel, the second and third are nylon, which is more or less typical. As for the headstock, I felt like giving this design a try, the usual balalaika headstock is a bit bland in my opinion. The current tuners work just fine and the slimmer headstock design doesn't bother me. I guess I could get real balalaika tuners relatively easily given that Saint Petersburg is only hours away from here..

The neck is a bit too thick right now, which makes playing a bit tricky. Therefore I'm planning to build a second one with more or less the same specifications but with a few parts slightly altered, hopefully improving the sound and playability. Currently it sounds somewhat balalaikaish, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. Hard to put a finger on it without having a 'real' balalaika to compare it to.

Comment by Henry Strat-o-varius Lowman on February 4, 2014 at 5:10pm

Yes, a steel string for the bottom (11 guage, but I am currently using a 9) tuned to A, and nylon for the top and middle, both tuned to E.

By the way, I have built an acoustic / electric alto balalaika! :-)

Comment by Rand Moore on February 4, 2014 at 3:40pm

Keep us informed of any future Balalaika projects. Your first one came out looking pretty nice. The headstock is a bit different, but the body looks great. I guess not having authentic Russian balalaika tuners may explaining the headstock design. If I were to attempt one, my headstock would probably be my standard slotted headstock.

How does she sound?

Looks like you used Nylon strings. Someone on the Internet told me to try using a steel string for string 1 and nylon for string 2 and 3 (same gauge) and that would solve my stick dulcimer problem of having the drone strings drowning out the voice of my melody string. He was a balalaika player. If your melody string (string 1) doesn't ring out, try replacing it with a steel one.

-Rand.

Comment by Henry Strat-o-varius Lowman on December 3, 2013 at 9:28am

DA! :-)