AXIOS Musical Instruments

Amadeo dressed up as the God Apollo for Halloween this year. The wreath or Kotinos was made by Nicole and we made the toy lyre from a cigar box, two artist’s palates, an old shoe rack, and violin pegs. It was a lot fun!

Konstantinidi Vintage Bouzouki restoration finally resumes. This vintage trichordo bouzouki is most likely from the 1940’s or early 1950’s. The craftsmanship was top notch however being so old all of the woods are very fragile and the design is very delicate with minimal support in place for a long life. This was most likely to create a particular sound and resonance. This instrument needs an entire restoration. This set of pictures is from me removing the top of the bouzouki completely in order to re-attach the bracing that was coming loose as well as the need to re-attach the top because it was sinking in and cracking. I found this bouzouki back in 2001 and finally prepared to properly restore it.

So I’m pretty much finished with the most extensive bouzouki restoration that I’ve done to date. I may re-finish the top after I play it a bit. This was an entry level “tourist bouzouki” that I liked the quality of the cedar top so I decided to restore it. It was intentionally extensive as to be a practice run on a more important bouzouki that I have finally started restoring. This tourist bouzouki was a massive undertaking for me. If you look back through my posts I pretty much completely rebuilt this bouzouki to the greatest extend with the exception of re-attaching the neck to the bowl. The attachment was strong therefore I kept in place. See the last pictures to get an idea of what it looked like when I got it. Anyway I did a lot of manipulation to the bracing after I re-attached them and used some techniques that I learned from some of the Zozef’s I worked on and I am pleased with the sound. Sound sample coming soon.

Bridge build from scratch for the Tourist Bouzouki re-build that I finally completed after almost two years. The bridge is made of ebony with a bone saddle, abalone decoration, and mother of pearl dot.