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Old 01-08-2018, 07:59 PM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Default New Inuk Day

I was browsing around the internet a few weeks ago, and stumbled across a couple of videos demonstrating Godin's Inuk Encore Steel. It caught my attention, even though it's a bit of an oddball instrument, and I started wondering if I could adapt it to the type of music I play.

It's an odd duck, based on an earlier electric oud that Godin was manufacturing. It's set up a bit like a 12-string guitar, except that the courses are identical, no octave strings. The lowest string is not doubled, and the instrument is designed to take standard guitar tuning, so it's very familiar. Talk about short scale, though...the fretboard meets the body at the 7th fret!

The nut is 1 5/8", and the strings fan out to about 3 1/2" at the bridge. It has on board electronics with a pre-amp (bass & treble controls on board) and a tuner. The sound, unamplified, is actually pretty good for such a shallow bodiied instrument, and is most reminiscent of an octave mandolin. Body is Canadian basswood, and the top is cedar. Fit and finish is ok...I might have expected a little better from a Godin instrument in this price range...my main nit pick is that the frets aren't dressed very well.

I've only played with it for a bit this evening, playing acoustically and through my Loudbox mini. It certainly has a unique flavor, and is fun to play. The short scale and the wide string spacing at the bridge will take a bit of getting used to, though!

Obligatory pictures:





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Old 01-08-2018, 08:22 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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NID. NID, that is. New Inuk Day.

I'd love to hear how it sounds, if you get a chance to record it!

Bob
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Old 01-08-2018, 11:15 PM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
NID. NID, that is. New Inuk Day.

I'd love to hear how it sounds, if you get a chance to record it!

Bob
Thanks, Bob. It may be a while before I get a recording up (my plans to buy a Zoom H4N Pro were sidetracked by this purchase), but meanwhile, check out Teja Gerken's review in the video below. It's a really good representation of what the instrument sounds like live. Contrary to Teja's opinion that the instrument isn't useful for fingerstyle, it just takes a short bit of time to adapt to the extremely wide string spacing at the bridge.

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Old 01-09-2018, 09:53 PM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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My wife snuck up on me and took a little cell phone video while I was fooling with the Inuk tonight, so here's a (very) short snippet of a few bars from "Weathercock". I have it plugged into my Loudbox Mini with some reverb.

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Old 01-10-2018, 08:27 AM
MikeBmusic MikeBmusic is offline
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Never had heard of this before, very interesting for those of us who have not adapted well to the 5ths tuning of mandos. Too bad the price is $850.
Tuned like a guitar, but what are the actual notes its tuned too, being short scale? Interesting bridge - pinless, wondering how the strings will hold out passed through the eyes of the strings.
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Old 01-10-2018, 08:58 AM
Doubleneck Doubleneck is offline
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Bought one several years ago, they are very unique. Takes a little getting used to the string spacing at the bridge for sure. Did this video:

https://youtu.be/JlnIn3tJUhM

Need to get it back out. Wonder if they still make them?
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Old 01-10-2018, 09:16 AM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeBmusic View Post
Never had heard of this before, very interesting for those of us who have not adapted well to the 5ths tuning of mandos. Too bad the price is $850.
Tuned like a guitar, but what are the actual notes its tuned too, being short scale? Interesting bridge - pinless, wondering how the strings will hold out passed through the eyes of the strings.
It is tuned to standard, EADGBE. I've also put it into open-g, DGDGBD. The strings are "Godin High Definition Inuk Steel" (2x .010, 2x .013. 2x .023, 2x .031, 2x .037, 1x .049) and are available on Amazon or directly through Godin for about $15USD, but Godin does package an extra set along with the Inuk at purchase.

I haven't examined the bridge closely enough to determine if it could take ball-end strings, but since there really isn't a source other than Godin, you would need to hack a set together, probably from two sets of extra light 6 strings. I have seen some YouTube videos of people who have modified it to take nylon strings.

As far as the price is concerned, you can probably negotiate with a dealer to drop it by at least $100, if not more.
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Old 01-10-2018, 09:19 AM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doubleneck View Post
Bought one several years ago, they are very unique. Takes a little getting used to the string spacing at the bridge for sure. Did this video:

https://youtu.be/JlnIn3tJUhM

Need to get it back out. Wonder if they still make them?
Yes, they are still making them.

As you can imagine, there aren't a ton of YouTube videos out there featuring Inuks, so yours was one that I reviewed prior to making the purchase, so thanks for that!
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Old 01-10-2018, 03:35 PM
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Looks like they used the same stock as their e-oud and installed frets (ergo the wide course spacing). I was contemplating buying an e-oud, as it solves some mechanical challenges of traditional ouds, but I never heard one that sounded good.
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Old 01-10-2018, 05:00 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JMFingerstyle View Post
Good morning Weathercock!

Give us direction; the best of goodwill,
Put us in touch with fair winds.
Sing to us softly, hum evening's song.
Tell us what the blacksmith has done for you.


Thanks for the preview! I think it actually told me more than the other clip!


Bob
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