minstrel: cool instruments

[dglenn at radix.net]

nickolas kaugon wrote:
> there was talk of ethnic instruments that can be given
> a medieval personna. i was just playing a saz and a
> cumbus at a local music store. i'm sure people are
> familiar with the saz, and the ones with friction pegs
> and one piece body are definately medieval or
> rennaisance, 

I wasn't sure how old the saz is.  I did notice that
the first five or six I ever saw were all electric 
ones, and I _knew_ the instrument in general was a 
lot older than _that_.

> but the cumbus is an oud with an alumium
> pot body--i know it's out of period , but they are
> cheap amd they can be played exactly like an oud for a
> quarter the price of a decent oud--unless you get
> lucky(so to speak)/  i don't know if many would
> complain about the aluminium body as few would even
> know what it was--but you might get a little flak.

I'm interested in the cumbus because it's cheaper
_and_more_durable_ than an oud, plus it's a bit louder.
It's not quite interchangeable sound-wise, but probably
"close enough" for many situations.  No, it does not
look period.  I'd say it ought to be acceptable any
place modern folk guitars are accepted, and probably
a no-go anywhere modern guitars are considered too
obviously modern.

In a similar vein, there's the deutschlaut; I'm not
sure how old it really is, but it has a wonderfully
renaissance _look_.  (It's a bowl-backed, small-bodied
guitar with gut/nylon strings and a scallopped fretboard.
Functionally it's a nylon-strung folk guitar, but it's
got a mellower sound and fits in visually at a renfest.
I want one because I liked the feel of the scallopped
fingerboard on the two that I've handled.)

Dunno whether my early/ethnic/odd/just-caught-my-fancy 
musical instruments web page will be useful to you or
not:  <http://www.radix.net/~dglenn/defs/inst.html>

					-- Glenn