[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by catfish

Possibly, some artisans in the regions still use birch in their instruments, but factory-made domras and balalaikas use maple. This is the largest manufacturer in Russia --
https://doffguitar.com/product-categ...aikas/?lang=en
https://doffguitar.com/product-category/domra/?lang=en

They would probably produce the birch versions as well, for tradition sake, but as I see no one is offering birch as tonewood.

That doesn’t surprise me. It’s a shame, but so far as I can tell most manufacturers who built instruments from birch did so mainly for convenience’s sake.

I do like the sound, however. When I lived in Finland in the early 1980’s the Finnish guitar company Landola was still in business, and most of the instruments they built were from birch - not just guitars, but banjos and other stringed instruments, as well. Most that I played sounded good.

In retrospect I wish I had bought a Landola guitar back then to bring back with me to the United States, but there are all SORTS of guitars I would have liked to have bought years ago!!

C’est la vie...


whm