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!
