Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

>>>Gotta be Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Classic jangle sound, no?

Funny you should mention, I recently played a Paranoid, War Pigs and Planet Caravan set with my 360 at the high school where I teach in Osaka (I'm a "special advisor" to the Live Music Club, gotta love my job!)...

First Rick-sound songs that pop into my noggin, though, are early (well, any, really) R.E.M., esp 12-string numbers from the Reckoning era: "Pretty Persuasion," "So. Central Rain," suchlike.

You stole my thunder, Noel.... definitely "When You Walk..........."

How about "Can't Explain" by Love(1st album)?

The theme from Zorba is indeed a bouzouki-at least the main melody riff that everybody would recognize is played on a bouzouki. I play a flatback Irish bouzouki though, different in many ways from the classic Greek bouzouki of Zorba's theme. Firstly, the Irish guys chopped off the back and made it flat like a mandolin. (Most) Irish players tune their bouzoukis to GDAD instead of to C like the Greek players.

And, to confuse things even more, my bouzouki is not actually a bouzouki at all-it's a custom hybrid instrument that has the scale length of an octave mandoloin and the body dimensions of a bouzouki with extra depth for increased low end. On top of that, the internal bracing tends more to a guitar's bracing than a mando's. It sounds like a cross between a mandolin and a guitar capoed on maybe the 3rd fret. It's a fantastic instrument as you can flip seamlessly between straight melody work and rhythm - it's equally adept at both but its nature allows you to jump between them without that empty feeling/sound you can get when you try to do so on a guitar.

If I can get my hands on a digital camera, I'll post some pix sometime.

That would be cool, Bill. I'd like to see it.

So what's the Gaelic term for a bouzouki?

Some of my favorite RIC 12 sounds are...

The WHO - Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

The Turtles - It Aint Me Babe

The Beatles - You Can't Do That

The Beach Boys - She's Not The Little Girl I Once Knew

The Byrds - It Won't Be Wrong

Don't think there is one Howard. It's actually a fairly new instrument. The flat-back Irish bouzouki only came about as a result of the Irish folk revival of the 50s and 60s. If you want to know more, check out this webpage:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.speek/bouzouki/

Digital Bouzouki, anyone?

Bill, the picture at that URL won't load on my machine for some reason. Your 'bouzouki' sounds pretty cool. Does it look anything like this?

(from Frank Ford's www.frets.com)

I clicked on the white box with the red cross in it and it came up, Andy.

Looks great!

Thanks Howard, I'd been trying the 'load missing image' route to no avail.

Now THAT is a headstock!
Bill, does your luthier happen to make electric 12-string guitars by any chance?

BTW, Andy. "white box with the red cross in it" is a fifth generation technical term that is "for your ears only". I'm currently negotiating with Gatesy on a world wide embargo on the "WBWTRCII" acronym while we work out the finer details, so don't let on, OK?.

I reckon it's worth a few million, don't you??

Jerry Koger said: Opening chord for "A Hard Day's Night".


That chord would be G7sus4 or: 353533

Love that chord!

I listened to the fabs way before the Byrds (as many did) and two stand out: "I Call Your Name" and the solo in "I Should Have Know Better". At the time, I didn't know what a 12 string was, but I remember just digging the metallic sounds of those guitars

Howard, your secret's safe with me, don't worry. Besides, we've got a Mac at home and my work PC is running 6-yr-old nihon-go Windows that's unlikely to be upgraded, or even patched, ever.
Whatcha gonna do with your millions?