Alternatives to guitars

[Rirrid]

I play a Chapman Stick.

[AcouStickistNS]

Originally Posted by Rirrid

I play a Chapman Stick.

I have three Sticks, two 12 String Grands with different pickups and an 8 string NS. The OP said "full range stringed instrument", so basically that falls into several tapping instruments like the Stick, Touch Guitars, Warr Guitar, or the acoustic Dragonfly.

Outside of that there are a variety of extended range basses or go the double neck guitar route with six string and bass.

[JMFingerstyle]

Originally Posted by Snorse

Is there another reasonably full-range stringed (not accordions or pipes) instrument that's as portable as a guitar? I count resonators as guitars, btw.

The only thing I can come up with is the Irish bouzouki, but I am sure there are others out there.

I'd like to be able to break up a set with some different sounds, or just be out there doing something different.

Is anyone from the forum playing something unusual out there?

You might take a look at the Godin Inuk. It's a kind of a fretted oud that's tuned like a guitar, with doubled courses. It's very portable, and has a pretty unique sound. Here's a very short clip from when I first got mine, but if you do a YouTube search you can find a much more professional demo by Teja Gerken. For this clip, I was playing it through a Fishman Loudbox Mini with reverb.

[catt]

Bouzoukis, ciiterns, OMs, oud, saz, etc are no smaller than guitars/banjos when it comes to portability.

Nothing beats mandolin for portability - also the ukes of course for easy entree.
I like charango and ronroco. Lap dulcimer is prbly the easiest entree and effective contrast to guitar.

If you can range beyond plucked strings, there are many options:

Whistle (as in Irish whistle) and other simple blown devices
Small harp (as in Irish harp)
Small percussion (like kalimba/m'bira)
Zithers, psaltries, etc of various types

I gigged a lot on drums and double bass, so became infatuated with playing smaller instruments for their portability. My ultimate "triumvirate" of travelling instruments was fiddle, flute, concertina - all carried in one trip from the car. (For a real divergence I encourage people to take up button box - easy entree, effective voice..)

[Br1ck]

Buy a few harmonicas and a good holder.

[M19]

Jeeze Loiuse, Rick! You are one large young man. I'm guessing fingerstyle is a huge challenge? <ha ha. See what I did there?>. My recommendation would be tenor uke.

Originally Posted by Snorse

Just as a visual for anyone suggesting mandolin or similar, this is the hand size I'm dealing with. I have a 9" wrist circumference and can pinch grip smooth marble slabs of 50lbs or more together and carry them where my workmates couldn't budge them singly off the floor and would need the suction tool. I feel like fiddles, mandolins and such are too delicate, although I worked hard enough at playing them in my youth that I can get by on them.

Picture is webcam snap of me with my Avalon L32 analogous in dimensions to a Lowden O model):

[jmat]

The Cuatro is awesome.


http://www.cuatro-pr.org/node/180


https://www.ebay.com/itm/26480862926...28b1f1e68cbab3

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by JMFingerstyle

You might take a look at the Godin Inuk. It's a kind of a fretted oud that's tuned like a guitar, with doubled courses. It's very portable, and has a pretty unique sound. Here's a very short clip from when I first got mine, but if you do a YouTube search you can find a much more professional demo by Teja Gerken. For this clip, I was playing it through a Fishman Loudbox Mini with reverb.

That's a great sound! Thanks for sharing and I'll look those up.

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by catt

Bouzoukis, ciiterns, OMs, oud, saz, etc are no smaller than guitars/banjos when it comes to portability.

Nothing beats mandolin for portability - also the ukes of course for easy entree.
I like charango and ronroco. Lap dulcimer is prbly the easiest entree and effective contrast to guitar.

If you can range beyond plucked strings, there are many options:

Whistle (as in Irish whistle) and other simple blown devices
Small harp (as in Irish harp)
Small percussion (like kalimba/m'bira)
Zithers, psaltries, etc of various types

I gigged a lot on drums and double bass, so became infatuated with playing smaller instruments for their portability. My ultimate "triumvirate" of travelling instruments was fiddle, flute, concertina - all carried in one trip from the car. (For a real divergence I encourage people to take up button box - easy entree, effective voice..)

Ah, it's not so much ultimate portability I'm after as a good sounding instrument that isn't much bigger than a guitar (if at all). I already play mandolin and fiddle, but I want something with more bass and more room for my giant hands (see the pic in the thread).

And I want it to back my own singing, mostly, so many of the breath-powered instruments are out.

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by M19

Jeeze Loiuse, Rick! You are one large young man. I'm guessing fingerstyle is a huge challenge? <ha ha. See what I did there?>. My recommendation would be tenor uke.

I am significantly slimmed down lately, but I still have the huge hands and generally a large frame. Instruments in general are a challenge, but I have worked quite hard to be able to do what I can, and I don't think anything is impossible... I will get there!

Thanks everyone for the input in this thread.

My intentions are to locate a guitar-zouki and hopefully be the end of the year have saved enough to commission a baritone 12 string build from Avalon Guitars in Northern Ireland... they've already agreed in principal to take the job. I hope this will become 'my sound' eventually.

[RJVB]

I'm clearly late to the party, but have you considered a nylon-stringer? A "regular" cross-over as Steve Cooney plays, or something with a more different look & sound like a Slaman The Dome archtop?

Originally Posted by catndahats

Not portable easily but you are a big fella...double bass or cello is a new instrument for me...fun and different, but BIG!

Exactly what I thought - a bass viol would be in the same size as a cello and be closer to guitar tuning (and with a flat back probably more manageable played as it if were an archtop).

If it just has to be visually different: graft a neck, strings and PU onto one of those slabs of marble?

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by RJVB

I'm clearly late to the party, but have you considered a nylon-stringer? A "regular" cross-over as Steve Cooney plays, or something with a more different look & sound like a Slaman The Dome archtop?



Exactly what I thought - a bass viol would be in the same size as a cello and be closer to guitar tuning (and with a flat back probably more manageable played as it if were an archtop).

If it just has to be visually different: graft a neck, strings and PU onto one of those slabs of marble?

Thanks, that nylon archtop looks cool, but I think I'm going to get a baritone 12'r and try and make it my own kind of sound (it may not yet be a 'good' sound... ).

I have seen/handled enough marble that I am quite happy to spend my non-working hours with wood!

[tj_mangum]

Mandolin, Octave mandolin or tenor banjo. As others have said, if you go down the mandolin rabbit hole, be prepared to pay about twice what you would for a good guitar!

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by tj_mangum

Mandolin, Octave mandolin or tenor banjo. As others have said, if you go down the mandolin rabbit hole, be prepared to pay about twice what you would for a good guitar!

I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but I have my Dad's mandolin, left to me in his will. It was made in Devon, it transpires. Dad was pretty formidable at it, and taught me when I was young, but as an adult I have shovel hands (see image above) and find all of those kind of instruments cramped to some degree. I'll likely pass that mando on to one of my own offspring eventually... my girls have their mum's hands (and looks) thankfully!

[K20C]

I’ve played guitar for many years. Last Fall I thought I’d branch out and I bought a mandolin and an octave mandolin. After some initial enthusiasm, the mandolin just isn’t doing it for me like I’d hoped and the octave mandolins sounds a bit too much like my 12 string. So both are just sitting in the corner. My point is, try whatever instrument you want to buy as much as possible before you jump in.

One additional thought. Perhaps a 12 string kept in an alternate/open tuning. Different sound and nice wide fretboard.