Friday, 5 September 2025

Guitar to Bouzouki conversion

It seems that many people are interested in converting a guitar into a bouzouki. This does not appear to be particularly difficult. To get around the problem of string suspension with the pins, you can, for example, attach a new tailpiece. Of course, two additional holes have to be drilled in the head of the guitar. You can either simply drill two holes at the top of the headstock. Or you can go to the trouble of filling in the six existing holes and drilling eight new ones, which certainly looks much better.

Then the bridge insert and saddle need to be converted to 8 strings. Particular care should be taken when working on the saddle.

In any case, it should be noted that the fingerboard is very wide compared to a bouzouki, which will certainly not appeal to everyone. Personally, I would find it too wide. I am also not a fan of the sound of the gizouki, or whatever you want to call it. But that is all a matter of taste.

Here's a website where a guy called Keith Hempsey shows his conversion of two guitars. 

Robin Jones - The Lakes Of Pontchartrain Lesson

This is a lesson that many musicians have surely been waiting for. A classic Irish folk song. I think the most famous version is by Paul Brady. But there are many other fantastic recordings of the song.

In the first part, Robin introduces the song and shows the chords and a basic pattern for accompaniment.

In the second part, which you can buy on his website, he shows you the intro, interlude and a few more nice tricks. 

If you like it, you might want to consider registering for a monthly subscription. This will give you access to all his workshops and support Robin in his work. I hope he will continue to offer more workshops for some time to come.

Here's the link to his website


Thursday, 4 September 2025

TradChords - Website to find chords to accompany tunes


Just found this website. It might be of interest if you are looking for chords to accompany a tune. Sometimes you can find chords on thesession, but not too often. So this is a website where you can find chords to lots of tunes. Also you can contribute the chords you use to help others.

On this website you'll find the dots for the tunes, also a player which is able to play the tune with and without chords.


So have a look at the website at: https://tradchords.org