troubadour bouzouki

Trad Strings
1

Hello !

has anyone ever seen or heard or owned a troubadour bouzouki ?
what would you say, about this instrument, to a beginner that already plays guitar ?

Thank you

Birl :wink:

2

The man behind the troubador is a member of cittern-l, and although I have never seen one of his instruments, I know of nothing bad about his ethics or the instrumentsā€™ quality for the price.

The instruments are made in Romania (or nearby-I forget) These can have varying quality, but unlike some sources, David screens out the duds, saving them for scrap or parts.

The worst thing I know of about these instruments is that the tuners wonā€™t be the kind of machine-heads youā€™d get on a luthier-made instruments. You are, after all, getting the entire instrument for about the cost of a set of schallers.

David will do a good setup on it before it leaves his shop, so everything else will be in good nick, afaik.

3

thank you s1mOn

those bouzouki seems to be good for the price (I heard a sound sample, and it sounds quite nicely)
the tuners can be change easily if there is a problem

if someone else have any informations about those bouzouki, please, tell me :wink:

Birl

4

I donā€™t have any new information that S1m0n didnā€™t mention but Iā€™ve heard the same thing about them. I wouldnā€™t hesitate to buy one if I wanted an inexpensive bouzouki. Iā€™ve heard the sound samples too and think they sound pretty good.

5

I donā€™t have a Troubadour bouzouki but I do have a Troubadour mandola and I can vouch for the quality. IMHO, they are excellent value for the money and I like mine better than a Johnson I played. The Johnson was more visually appealing but I was after sound. The Troubadour mandola has the same ā€œboxā€ as the bouzouki which gives it a deep resonate sound.

I bought mine to see if I really wanted to go with the mandola and I was hooked from the first 15 minutes.

BTW, my Troubadour is for sale ($150 +shipping, contact me off forum)ā€¦I picked up a Mid-Missouri mandola which I like much better. Of course it cost about four times what the Troubadour did.

Iā€™ve got to imagine that the Troubadour bouzouki will be of similar quality to my Troubadour mandola.

take care

jim

6

I have a troubador cittern guitar. Davidā€™s customer service is most excellent. I use my troubador both at sessions and at gigs. It doesnā€™t get quite as much playing time as my Avalon, but thatā€™s mainly just because itā€™s not as loud. I purchased a shotgun case that I modified to fit the Cittern Guitar so I could check it when flying. Works great so far. Two flights and not a scratch.

Whe I got the Troubador, I had my local guitar tech do another set up on it and had him install a martin pickup as well. I do plan on replacing the machine heads eventually, because they donā€™t match the quality of the rest of the instrument. Thatā€™s a job I feel good about doing myself.

All in all, this was a really good instrument right out of the box, especially considering the price. With a little extra love it has become one of my favorite instuments.

I plan on buying the bouzouki from troubador this year.

-mick

www.myspace.com/antriur

7

i have that bouzouki, but under right name hora. check their www address: www.hora.ro
i play flute and bought that zouk because it was cheap, but i am very satisfied with sound from it.
marin

8

I really dislike mine. I bought it off of a friend for 100 bucks and Iā€™m bummed out that I ever did. The intonation is totally off, so every time I capo it I have to retuneā€¦ Iā€™ll let you guess how happy that makes me during live performances. If iā€™m playing in D and want to play on the seventh fret, you better forget it because it gets super-flat as you go upā€¦ by the 7th Fret!!! I wouldnā€™t buy one. If you want something cheap then iā€™d go with a Trinity College. They have a nice sound, vastly superior to the troubador and you get about what you pay for. I will be burning my troubador as soon as I can get another bouzouki. In fact, I hate my troubador so much, that every time I play it, my price range for my new bouzouki goes up. I initially only wanted to spend 700 on a new instrument but I want to be as far away from that thing as possible and so my range is around 2000.

If you get it and like to play bouzouki, youā€™ll have to buy another one really soon or youā€™ll freak out from being in tuning hell and the intonation desert. Be warned. But if you want some expensive firewood, itā€™s probably ok then.

cheers,

John

9

John,

Have you checked your bridge placement? If itā€™s not correct it might cause your capoing problems.