want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas

Subject: want it lower? make it bigger
From: leeneia
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 10:35 PM

I just had to share this YouTube video with the biggest balalaika I have ever seen.

brobdinagian balalaika

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 06:09 AM

The Thomann listing for these has wonderfully fractured auto-translated English in the reviews:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_double_bass_balalaika_m1083.htm

"Could be lower and would not snarze". (I'm not surprised, at that price - seems like good ones cost four times as much, spend that and you could snarze the roof off).

If I wanted a ludicrously huge acoustic plucked string bass I think I'd go for a guitarron.

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 08:06 AM

You could go for one of
these.

God alone knows where you get one, and you should see the case...

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 08:33 AM

There's usually one of these in Musicport in Whitby (not for sale, a local player keeps it there because it doesn't fit in his house):

http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/photo/contra-bass-banjo

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: leeneia
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 12:07 PM

Thanks for the links. I love the sound of the mandobass, and I wish I could hear what the giant banjo sounds like.

I don't believe that about the banjo not fitting in the house. All you would have to do is get rid of the couch or the bed.

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 12:12 PM

you could use a regular size one and plug in an octave divider

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 03:55 AM

I had an acoustic bass guitar quite a few years ago. Looked good, nice sound but always needed amplification. I suspect the same is true of all of these sorts of instruments.

On which basis, if I were looking for that sort of sound now, I'd probably get a bass uke - here's one in use (Warning: non-folk content)

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: leeneia
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 01:26 PM

Thanks for the link, Mark. It took me a while to figure out that ordinary-looking uke is a bass uke because it has fat strings. Don't tell that hip, ultra-modern high-tech kid that to me he mostly comes across as really cute.

While we are on the topic of big, low instruments, how about a giant recorder?

Flanders recorder quartet

You should hear these guys get out four giant recorders and play "Mood Indigo."

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Oct 17 - 02:05 PM

I think this is the lowest-pitched of all portable instruments:

octocontrabass clarinet

There is only one of them in the world. The lowest I've ever seen and heard was a contrabass clarinet (yours for about 25,000 pounds, I think).

Lowest you can go with strings is the octobass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqv6ICeGEk

I think the lowest, loudest thing ever was a kind of giant referee's whistle that generated enough infrasonic energy to vibrate a crowd's bowels into mass diarrhoea. Unless it was a GG Allin gig, possibly not an experience people would pay for. It was developed as a weapon.

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 06:18 AM

Leenia - actually Josh isn't always ultra-modern and hi-tech.

He does everything from early Lute music to Pink Floyd covers ("See Emily Play", with honky-tonk piano replaced by banjo), taking in a lot of folk, bluegrass and old-time en-route. His collaborative take on "The Weight" starts really acoustic, but takes in a touch of jazz.

His YouTube channel is worth a look IMHO. I think he's something rather special.

And I think he knows he's kind of cute - his nod to Harry Potter in his introductory video suggests it :-)

Subject: RE: want it lower? make it bigger-bigger balalaikas
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 09:21 AM

Thanks.