Advertisement
Hi Guys
I'm a banjo, mandolin, dobro player who just stepped into a cumbus, and got completely mad about that.
I'm not into worldmusic, I play some kind of singsongwriter-style folk-noir, and I found in the rustydusty sound of a cumbus what I've been looking for in all my years of banjo playing. Only, when I finally put my hands on a cumbus, I found I couldn't tune it. It was a guitar cumbus, I think (but the buyer said it was the iron version of an Oud: I can't believe that!): it was out of tune, and after a couple of hours it was still playing strangely pitched... Now I'd like to know: 1) is there any chance to get a guitar cumbus and string & tune it like a proper guitar?
2) if there's no chance, can I play it with chords nonetheless?
3) Where can I find a good instrument?
4) What kind of strings?
I think you can see my love tragedy... Can you help me, buddies?
Thank you to all of you!
Swanz
I'm a banjo, mandolin, dobro player who just stepped into a cumbus, and got completely mad about that.
I'm not into worldmusic, I play some kind of singsongwriter-style folk-noir, and I found in the rustydusty sound of a cumbus what I've been looking for in all my years of banjo playing. Only, when I finally put my hands on a cumbus, I found I couldn't tune it. It was a guitar cumbus, I think (but the buyer said it was the iron version of an Oud: I can't believe that!): it was out of tune, and after a couple of hours it was still playing strangely pitched... Now I'd like to know: 1) is there any chance to get a guitar cumbus and string & tune it like a proper guitar?
2) if there's no chance, can I play it with chords nonetheless?
3) Where can I find a good instrument?
4) What kind of strings?
I think you can see my love tragedy... Can you help me, buddies?
Thank you to all of you!
Swanz
Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Re: please help me!|
Tue, January 6, 2009 - 9:52 PMwww.mid-east.com
they have cumbus guitars and they look actually very very cool. They have a black plastic head/face. And yes you can tune them like a guitar and play chords.
-Carmine -
-
Re: please help me!|
Mon, February 2, 2009 - 2:00 PMThank you, Carmine.
Still, I'm not sure... there is an issue, a very big issue about tuning the cunbus... and my own experience is quite... unnerving!
Are you sure I can tune it up like a proper guitar? The strings I saw were... slack.
Thank you so much for your quick answer and sorry for my late answer, I do apologize!
Ah! A friend of mine is going to Turkey... do you think he ca get a good cunbus guitar for me?
All of my best,
Swanz -
-
Re: please help me!|
Tue, February 3, 2009 - 6:05 AMhi swanz. that should be easy to get. i could take your friend to the cumbuş shop and he/i can select smtg for you.
you guys can send me a msg and we'll go from there.... see ya. -
-
Re: please help me!|
Thu, February 5, 2009 - 5:31 AMThank you... thank you!
I'm really grateful for all of your help and for every single answer...
my private e-mail is loswanz@gmail.com... can we talk over there (here I am having some log-in problems).
Meanwhile, cunbus has become kind of an obsession to me...!
Swanz
-
-
Re: please help me!|
Tue, February 3, 2009 - 2:50 PMYou can get cumbus guitars here in america. Just google for them or look on ebay, mid-east.com, larkinthemorning.com and touchtheearth.com
-Carmine -
-
Re: please help me!|
Tue, February 3, 2009 - 3:18 PMYeah, to be honest, a friend of mine asked me to keep an eye out for a cumbus guitar when I was last in Turkey, and I didn't see a single one the whole time I was there ... saw standard cumbuslar and quite a few of the cumbus bodies with saz necks (yayli tanbur, is that what they're called?), but none of the fretted ones.
If anybody can find one in Istanbul, it'll be David.
Bribes will be made, vowes exchanged, oaths hissed through the blood bubbles of last dying gasps ...
... knuckles will be bloodied, hearts broken, cases of raki consumed and more than one international law flagrantly violated ...
... but when it comes to exotic instrument procurement ...
David is ...
The Exotic Instrument Procurer ...
In theaters, Spring 2009. -
-
Re: please help me!|
Thu, February 5, 2009 - 5:48 AMyou da funny geoff. : ) you should post a lot more, we need it.
guess what?! i saw one in a shop yesterday that looked used. my head wasn't with me at the time so i didn't think to ask the price. will do so asap! definitely a lot cheaper than online i'm sure. wow, those are pricey.
btw geoff, the yagli tanbur(bowed) / tanbur (plucked) is a cumbuş body with a tanbur neck , cumbuş saz has saz neck, and so forth.
-
-
-
Re: please help me!|
Fri, February 6, 2009 - 8:54 PMThat's funny I've been looking for a mandolin that's fretted like a saz while your looking for a cumbus fretted like a guitar. Weird -
-
Re: please help me!|
Mon, February 9, 2009 - 2:15 PM -
-
Re: please help me!|
Mon, February 9, 2009 - 2:25 PMCool looking instrument. I'd love to actually hear it played. It looks like it's basically in the range of an octave mandolin, but with a lower C in the bass end. Neat. -
-
Re: please help me!|
Mon, February 9, 2009 - 10:01 PMYes I find them interesting but not enough to get one. I have my hands full trying to learn something about the oud. I am going to get a buzuq though :) -
-
Re: please help me!|
Wed, February 11, 2009 - 10:07 PMThanks for the link. Interesting instrument. Too bad it's in a lower range than the mandolin though. I wonder what other fretted instruments are being made with untempered fretting.
-
-
-
Re: please help me!|
Sat, February 14, 2009 - 9:59 AMThat's a mandole or algerian mandocello. Very interesting instrument. Some of them have western fretting, just like a guitar, but some have two extra quarter tone frets. The sound of the instrument lies between guitar and oud. It's considered the national instrument in Algeria. A similar instrument is played in Morocco.
Some famous players: Hachemi Guerouabi, Dahmane El Harrachi, Takfarinas (he plays double-necked electric mandole), Lounes Matoub, Akli D, Kamel Messaoudi.
Moroccan band Lemchaheb also features a similar instrument.
Regards. -
-
Re: please help me!|
Sat, February 14, 2009 - 10:01 AMThe range of algerian mandoles is usually that of the oud.
-
Re: please help me!|
Sat, February 14, 2009 - 3:21 PMGood stuff, thanks for this info!
-
-
-
-
-
