The Ibanez AW 95 Artwood series twelvestring guitar.
This guitar has the following specs.
- Solid spruce soundboard
- Solid rosewood sides and back
- Mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard
- Wooden linings and scratchplate
Here is the quite plain head though this model
was the highest twelvestring model in the artwood series
at that time. Very nice tuners as well but in chrome.
The back shows us the nice woods used for this guitar.
By clicking on this picture you can also examine
the nicely shaped volute just beneath the head.
All Ibanez collectors are keen on label so here
is a readable picture of it.
"Handcrafted from select solid woods in Japan"
and the Mr. Honda stamp.
And of course the neckblock stamp
that shows us the number: 0103264
and the model number AW 95.
As I'm not an Oud connaisseur I bought a more
decorated example at first in an Auction House.
They in fact had two Ouds for sale and begged me
to buy this one as well. I was not interested but for
10 euro's I bought it. After repairing and restringing
I came to the conclusion that this one was much
better than the more expensive and decorated one.
Oud: Ali Khalifeh
decorated example at first in an Auction House.
They in fact had two Ouds for sale and begged me
to buy this one as well. I was not interested but for
10 euro's I bought it. After repairing and restringing
I came to the conclusion that this one was much
better than the more expensive and decorated one.
This instrument has a nice shaped bowl which seems to
be important for these instruments in particular.
Ali Khalifeh was a well respected builder but I only
discovered that being home with this instrument and
after consulting Internet. There was a label inside!
This decoration is typical for his instruments. Other
people took over his business and quality declined.
As this instrument has a lot of tonal qualities I decided
it to give better tuning knobs and an ivory nut.
Presented here are the old ones. Another repair on the
soundboard behind the bridge was necessary but
it holds up well now.
African Lute: Gunibri (Maroc)
The front of this ethnic instrument. At first we thought it to be
a touristic made instrument. However, the markings on the neck
have been placed with a meaning. the octave has been divided
inorder to be able to play a diatonic (or chromatic, if you wish)
scale and a turtle shell wouldn't be used easily for tourists.
At that point the coconut shells do come in!
Again, and now from the back: the neck runs through "the body"
and also acts as a kind of tailpiece for which they had to make
a hole in the skin they provided. At first glance the strings appear
to be made of nylon but no! They are made out of sinew which
is made out of Antilope's tendon. The sources that talk about
these instrument differ in their country where they came from.
Maroc is an option but regarding the "Antilope" strings
Kanuri (Western Sudan) seems to be more likely.
The goat skin (?) is sticked around the turtle shell.
A piece of wood serves as a bridge.
We actually bought it pure for the shell as older musical
instrument are often ornamented with turtle shell material.
The neck is carved being a face at the top and the neck
is not in one piece, probably to add another neck in case
this one should break but also to be able to make a
good intonation possible by watching the carvings.
As an animal lover as well I hope the turtle was already
dead I must say. I would never buy a kind of instrument
like this being aware of the fact that they have to kill
animals for it. The same counts for ivory!
Oud from Damascus
The Oud possibly dates from 1976. But we are not sure.
The bowl form seems OK to me.
Who is able to read the text in Arab?
The head with different keys in it....
The Bowl form.
The inlay on the edge.
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