my electric cittern

see it in action at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WTKjFkgQrjw&fmt=18
A short video of the electric cittern I've made, with me playing the Irish tune Star of Munster and having a bit of a noodle to give an idea of the instrument's range.
I've had a Fylde cittern since about 2001, and though it's a very fine instrument, it's designed imho from a guitarist's perspective, rather than a cittern player's and is SO prone to feedback.
So, the only option was to design one from the ground up. I thought about a semi solid, but abandoned that as too complex for a first build. I then thought about skeletal, like Violectra fiddles-again too complex as the string tension in a cittern is generally about 90kg. So, I settled on the final design, which draws some functional inspiration from the Parker Fly. It was a long haul that filled the house with sawdust, but I am really happy with it. The pickup combination of an undersaddle strip and a switchable single coil/humbucker, both EMG active units is incredible-any sound you could wish for and zero noise.
I'm very pleased with its'playability-way easier than the Fylde-12" radius fingerboard, wide frets and shorter scale length of 578mm all help.
And so, the next thing is to get on and make music with it :-)


Footnote 1) I'm not an instrument maker, but a musician, and i'd probably need a lot of persuading to make one for someone else. If however you're embarking on building something similar for yourself, and would like any detailed info, just ask.
Footnote 2) the bodhran backing is me on a lambeg skin Hedwitschack Rolf Wagels-such a cool drum-immense fun and highly recommended!
Footnote 3) and there's a little bit of ReBirth too in case you were wondering ;-)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bill
• Bennett
• cittern
• bouzouki
• electric
• folk
• Irish
• Celtic
• rock
• UK
• emg
• solid
• body
• star
• munster

[cymaticmelon]

thanks again for all the nice comments, more to listen to at feorin(dot)com

Cheers,

Bill

[williamthomaspenn]

have you thought about getting a patent and marketing to a larger luthier company?

[cymaticmelon]

@williamthomaspenn - yes but haven't got as far as approaching luthiers yet - I'm designing another model that would be better suited to production...

[oceangipsy71]

bravo, bravo, bravo! Great project, great sound and grat player. i am an italian electric mandolins & citterns builder, this one sounds astonishing. Is an A grade instrument, for sure. Can u tell us which kind of effects you have used in this track?

best regards

[cymaticmelon]

@oceangipsy71 - glad you like it! I plugged the cittern into my PC soundcard and recorded it into sonar home studio - I used sonar's own reverb and for the second part of the tune with the humbucker I used the demo version of Studio Devil amp simulator, and a free vst delay called KarmaFX Deelay

[clarepiper]

WOW!!!...you got skills.

What are your string guages?.....i tore apart an old washburn, and am currently making a body so i can convert it to a zouk.

again.....WOW!

[cymaticmelon]

thanks :-)

the strings are 9, 13, 18 plains and 28 and 38 flatwounds all in unison pairs.

[probrewer]

Righteous! I would enjoy seeing a ripping arse Celtic Rock band with you on lead CITTERN!

[fikealox]

Epic!

[Lafslife]

beautiful k

[Koshch1]

Вось ён, інструмант маёй мары!!! Электра - ЦЫЫЫЫЫЫЫЫЫЫСтра! )))

[yongadog]

Would love to hear Peter Buck rip on one of these since he also plays an electric bouzouki. Godspeed on you mission.

[FutureMillennium]

Beautiful acoustic sound and great electric sound! Good job!

[magocacana]

i love it!!

[oceangipsy71]

2 IDIOTS WATCHED THIS VIDEO TOO

[venomalus]

emg 89 in the celtic instrument? :D nice combination :P

[MeyerFilms]

Damn. You've got some skills.

I always wanted to mix traditional irish music and metal...

[renatovcortereal]

*****