Zdeněk Seidl - Hudební nástroje

Cistra / Irish Bouzouki - Terminology and Historical Development

The terminology of this musical instruments family is still somewhat unsettled. In general, these are stringed plucked instruments with a teardrop-shaped body provided with metal chromatic frets and double metal strings, which are played mainly with a plectrum. If the instrument is visually modern and is used mainly in Irish music, then it is called Irish bouzouki. If the instrument carries a historicizing aesthetic and is used in the cast of modern historical bands, then it is more often called a cittern.
In the current English language environment, we may find somewhat different terminology: long-scale instruments are Irish bouzouki, short-scale instruments with four courses are octave mandolins, short-scale instruments with five courses are called cittern, and if the instrument has a long scale and five courses, it's just a five course Irish bouzouki.
The oldest ancestor of this instrumental family was a cittern from the European Renaissance period. It was small in size (40-60 cm scale), had 4-7 double or triple courses and was already equipped with metal frets and strings. After the lute, it was the second most popular string instrument and was used especially at court. More detailed information about this historical instrument can be found on the page of the Renaissance cittern.
Since the 18^th century, the popularity of citterns grew, but as a simple folk instrument in burgher houses. Compared to the Renaissance, construction and tuning was simplified. On the other hand, there were attempts for mechanization: traditional tuning pegs were replaced by the so-called Preston tuners, and there were also attempts to install a kind of a keyboard for the right hand.
Similar instruments were used in different parts of Europe under different names: mandolína (Italy), waldzither (German countries), halszither (Switzerland), svenskluta (Sweden), cistre (France), guitarra portuguesa (Portugal), bouzouki (Greece), etc.
Around 1800, citterns disappeared from music for some time, and the interest in them was revived in the middle of the 19^th century in connection with romantic historicism and its sentimental relationship to the past.
With the worldwide rise of guitars of all kinds in the 20^th century, the importance of these instruments declined.
So far, the last renewed interest has been related to the wave of folk music in the 1960s and it still continues to this day. Sometime around that time, an Irish bouzouki was created, used as a backing instrument and solo playing instrument in modern Irish folk music and it has become a new but natural part of it. From there, this instrument spread to related genres such as modern medieval music, pagan-folk, world-music, folk-rock, etc. The Irish bouzouki is based on the body shape of romantic instruments such as waldzither, a soundboard from modern guitars, a long scale and the name from the Greek bouzouki.
At this time, the approach to building these instruments is not very uniform and there can be big differences between instruments from individual manufacturers.
Four-courses Irish bouzoukis are usually tuned to GDad or GDae, five-courses then GDadg or GDaea. Citterns/bouzoukis in historical and historical-like music are mostly tuned to ADad and AEae.

A. Schlegel & J. Lüdtke: Die Laute in Europa, Menziken 2011
Bohuslav Čížek, Hudební nástroje evropské hudební kultury, Praha 2002
Wikipedia, internet

About Instruments from My Workshop

Each of my instruments is original, also thanks to the variety of requirements of different players.
I build instruments only from solid wood, I do not use plywood. The top is usually made of spruce, but on request I can also make it of cedar. Cedar gives a softer and warmer sound than spruce, but is more prone to damage. The back and sides are usually made of maple, but I can also offer a number of exotic woods such as rosewood, mahogany, ovangkol, wenge, zebrano, etc.
The neck is most often maple or mahogany; it has two passive carbon truss rods on the sides and one active two-way truss rod in the axis.
I shape the fingerboard to a moderate radius of 15 ", but of course it can be flat on request.
I most often use the scale lengths of 630 and 670 mm, but other lengths are possible upon agreement. The scales used together with the tail piece allow you to fit the instrument with guitar strings and there is no need to look for atypically long strings.
I use only natural bone for the nut and the bridge saddle.
The instrument can be fitted with a pickup according to the customer's choice. My tried-and-tested brands of pick-ups are Pavel Cejpek - Akustické snímače snímače, K&K Pure mini, Fishman Prefix Problend or LR Baggs I beam.
The finish is almost exclusively French polish. I use polyurethane or nitrocellulose lacquer only on request.
Aesthetics of the instrument is based on personal preferences of the customer. It is possible to have an instrument functionally austere, historical, or otherwise decorated; inside the sound hole can be a rosette, purfling may be mosaic; the brass tailpiece is decorated with etched ornaments.
The head of the instrument is either flat as with guitars or with an inlaid square finish or with an end in the form of artistic carvings. Another possibility is a historicizing head hollowed out with tuning keys from the sides.
For modern instruments I use Gotoh mechanics, for historical instruments I can also use wooden pegs or their geared imitation Wittner Finetune. I supply the instruments with strap-locks.
A solid case can be supplied on request.
An Irish bouzouki / cittern can have more than one neck. Such two-necked instruments have their advantages: two tunings at hand, one case instead of two, one feels like Jimmy Page… however, there are disadvantages which must be taken into account: the top is more stressed, it has to be more massive, and so it resonates less. When a string breaks on one neck, it changes the tension on the board and the other neck is out of tune as well.
I also include the so-called citoles in the "cittern/bouzouki" section. They are actually Irish bouzoukis with a modified body shape. It is inspired by medieval citoles, which, however, were smaller and had monoxyl constructions. The body of my citole is larger than that of a cittern and is close to the size and construction of a guitar.
You can download a pdf about cittern/ Irish bouzouki maintenace and setup here.
You can see my instruments in the galleries.

Citterns / Irish Bouzoukis

Cistra / Irish Bouzouki - Terminology and Historical Development

About Instruments from My Workshop

Pricelist

Gallery