Lunacharsky Balalaika / Custodio Cardoso Pereira Bandoleta

This is a Russian made Balalaika from the big Leningrad

(now St. Petersburg) based stringed instrument factory

Lunacharsky. 3 stringed example. In fact the materials

used are quite modest on this one but the neck is still 

straight and the grain and quality of the table is good.

A lot of stringed instruments coming out of Russia are

made with modest materials but this Balalaika really

has a nice sound with lots of depth in it. Judging by

the plastic used for the tuning knobs I think it to be

from the sixties / seventies. You will not easily find

a Balalaika with an ebony fingerboard but there must

be a lot of top handmade instruments around as well.

You should check the Balalaika player Aleksei

Arkhipovskiy for the tonal possibilities.

Hard to make a picture but the Logo at the bottom

definately is that of the Leningrad workshop Lunacharsky.

On the yellow part you can read: RSFSR - short

for  Russian  Soviet  Federal  Socialist Republic. It 

was quite common when  the  manufacturer  belonged  to  

republic's ministry rather than Union's   one  (especially  if  

not intended  for  export)  to  place republic's  name,  not 

USSR. (This correction has been sent to me by Igor from 

Kyrgyzstan - Thanks for that and he creates great

scaled copies of these instruments!)

And here the lower part of the label. If someone has 

additional information, feel free to mail me. And so

Geoff Piper did: He had a handwritten label above

the standard label with the exact date on it. I never 

discovered that. In my instrument is was not present

but a bit below the black label part there was a date!

Written in Geoff's balalaika and typed in mines: 1977.

Bandoleta labelled Cardoso Pereira

The firm Custodio Cardoso Pereira is responsible for a

lot of these instruments based on the Portuguese guitar.

In fact this is a simple instrument but nicely and sturdy

built with those special tuners found on the Portuguese

guitars as well. A little bit of restoration work is needed.

In the second picture the result is there. This instrument 

is said to be at least 100 years old, probably more.

The back as well as the soundboard has a stabilized crack 

but not very well done. Maybe I'm going to relaquer this

instrument as I also have to make a new bridge out of bone

or (in my case) ivory. The neck is OK as are the tuners.

As you can see at the head the edge of the scroll (left) is

missing. That's the reason I've coloured the neck and

scroll. It is one part again now.

A special shot of the tuners. A simple way of working 

but they do the job even after all these years. Of course

they had to be cleaned first before I remounted them.

At first sight this instrument appeared to an anonymous

instrument, however close inspection of the inner part

learned that there were still some parts of the original label. 

With the help of Jose Lucio who is a connoisseur of the

Portuguese stringed instruments, we discovered it had to 

be a part of the label seen here above, provided by 

Mr. Jose Lucio. Many thanks!

I had some more contact regarding this instrument and

I found out that Custodio Cardoso Pereira in fact was

no more than a supplier of stringed instruments to music

lovers and the army. So a lot of little luthiers were 

providing instruments to them and they sticked their 

own label inside. Mr. Jose Lucio Ribeira de Almeida

thinks it to be an instrument of about 120 years old

which makes it even more special. The picture shown

here above is from a string orchestra from Portugal

as there were so many around 1900. No contrabas

was used but a Contra basse guitar! (on the right)

As the Bandoleta has been partly refinished in a bad way

and there is a reparation needed for the crack lower right

I decided to remove the laquer on the whole instrument

and apart from that I've cleaned the fingerboard and

redressed the fretwork. The tuners can be taken off very

easily and cleaning will be the first thing to do as well.

This is not a quarter sawn soundboard but this can be 

seen at various Portuguese instruments.

It is questionable wether if the crack in the back

needs a serious repair as it is stable at this moment.

Nice woods as can be seen in the next picture.

I like this shot of the nicely figured sides, probably walnut.

this instrument is furthermore in a remarkable condition

regarding its' age as the neck is still straight and of course

a rosewood fingerboard of this quality will hold up well!

Shown here is the bridge that I copied (as far as was

possible) from another old Bandoleta. They do vary

however and are sometimes entirely made out of bone,

sometimes partly. I made this one out of antique ivory 

as the sound of this material is so beautiful.

A little bit compensated for the wound strings!