Re: glissentar

[Hedewa7@aol.com]

personally, i don't much care for the glissentar;
in the prototyping and early production stages, the instrument used very 
low-quality tuners and a compensated bridge --- which seemed very 'not 
right', to me.
additionally, the guitar scale-length and lack of resonance/solid neck 
make 
the instrument feel a bit like a 'neither-fish-nor-fowl' marriage between 
a 
fretless bass and a very weak oud:
obviously, it's not my cup of tea, though -certainly- plenty of other folk 
seem to like it.

(if you do play the glissentar, my suggestions would be: use high-quality 
tuners, try a non-compensated bridge, experiment w/string gauges and 
materials on the upper strings).

i'll stick with the oud; in fact, i'm looking forward to receiving a 
6-course 
60cm bashir oud from master luthier yaroub mohammed fadel, in late 
february.

also, in contradistinction to what wayne w.j. stated about the glissentar:
it's my clear impression that the glissentar was not robert godin's idea;
it was intitiated & executed by montréal luthier mario beauregard.
mario was then chief guitar-luthier at godin;
he left the company --- after many years, there --- just as the glissentar 
was being released.

wayne w.j. said, in relation to the single low-string on the glissentar:

> I believe Godin went this route to avoid buzzing on the bass string.

this may be the case, but ---having been involved in the prototyping of 
the 
glissentar, myself--- i believe it's more likely that mario was attempting 
to 
emulate the historical profile of the oud, which almost always has a 
single 
low-end 'drone'-type string, sometimes called the 'dumm', i think.

re: fretless gtr-players, i'd at least suggest:
dave 'fuse' fiuczynski (usa)
marc ducret (fr)

and, for looping oudists, i highly recommend (especially live):
dhafer youssef (tun/fr)

..... add'ly, i've been looping the oud for about 4-5 (?) yrs, myself.....

regards,
dt / splattercell







currently working on:
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