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Post by Rob DiStefano on Apr 3, 2008 19:18:18 GMT -5
 This is an acoustic instrument that's a cross between a zither and harp, of Persian ancestry and refined by the Turks. I had the good fortune to work on the above kanun, one of three owned and played by Tamer Pinarbasi. He is the premier kanun player in Turkey, and probably the world. The kanun typically sports 72 strings, 2 or 3 strings per course, and 7 to 15 string pitch levers per string OR per course of strings! The special high tension nylon strings are made in Germany and cost $300. It takes about five hours to change all the strings and get it set up for playing, and the strings last between 4 to 6 months. A Turkish crafted kanun will cost over $6000. The acknowledged way to play the kanun is with a pair of fingerpicks, two per hand, pointer and middle fingers. There are some variations and Tamer has innovated playing with four fingers per hand, using only his fingernails. He is a master and he can -and does- play all styles of music. He's even played with jazz guitarist Al DiMeola. Anyhoo, the ancient Barcus Berry transducer someone had installed wasn't up to the task of properly amplifying the tone (very boomy, with little or no clear separation of notes) and he came to me for a solution. Like I even knew what a kanun was - hah! After a few phone calls to Dieter at K&K Sound a box of assorted transducers and a Quantum blender arrived and Tamer and I began to sort out just how to make this acoustic transition to electric without losing the acoustic tone. No small feat. Dieter had suggested starting off with a pair of banjo transducers stuck on the skin heads - the long bridge is supported by four posts that are attached to goat skin heads. Long story short, this was the way to go - but it took well over an hour to find each transducer's sweet spot. Each of the pickups runs to a separate channel on the Quantum, and we plugged that into my Super Rosco and 15" cab. The quality of tone was amazing, and I was mesmerized by Tamer's rapid fire playing. Anyhoo, thought I'd share. |
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Post by efnikbug on Apr 4, 2008 16:05:13 GMT -5
That's awesome! Maple or rosewood? I would love to hear it played by the pro.
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Post by Rob DiStefano on Apr 4, 2008 17:07:22 GMT -5
I dunno what flavor of solid woods are used, but there's a LOT of marquetry work all over the instrument. The sound of the kanun is amazingly lush, and with all those string courses it has a built-in chorus effect.  |
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Post by efnikbug on Apr 5, 2008 8:11:08 GMT -5
Kinda piano like with all the strings per note. I guess it's more harp-like or those instruments that have those buttons that mute certain notes and play preset chords. I saw some clips of this instrument on Youtube. I thought I saw some "bending behind the nut." With all those strings, seems like there's a lot of tension there.
So, Rob, this is your day job? You work on instruments and amps all day?
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Post by Rob DiStefano on Apr 5, 2008 8:17:49 GMT -5
Those YT clips don't come near doing the instrument justice in the way the Tamer plays a kanun - his technique and chops are light years away from the typical "kanunist". The kanun strings are quite high tension and have a tone that's a cross between harp and piano. Yeah, working on stringed instruments is my full time "hobby job".  |
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Post by gmello on Apr 5, 2008 18:53:32 GMT -5
PLEASE record a clip of this thing plugged into a wha and a Marshall!! Please!! I'm BEGGING you!!
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Post by Rob DiStefano on Apr 5, 2008 19:15:00 GMT -5
PLEASE record a clip of this thing plugged into a wha and a Marshall!! Please!! I'm BEGGING you!! Surely you jest!  |
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Post by ozziepete on Apr 6, 2008 2:38:51 GMT -5
I heard an Irish harp being played thru an amp on a street in Dublin once. That stopped me dead in my tracks, the sound was so lush. Can imagine a similar experience for you, Rob, when the maestro warmed up the kanun, eh?
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Post by ozziepete on Apr 6, 2008 2:41:23 GMT -5
PLEASE record a clip of this thing plugged into a wha and a Marshall!! Please!! I'm BEGGING you!! With all the harmonics the kanun would generate, the Marshall would end up fried meat G! Would be fun watching someone else's EL34s jump out of the amp cabinet though.   |
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Post by ozziepete on Apr 6, 2008 2:48:25 GMT -5
I suppose when you got the inital call about fixing up a 'kanun' you probably thought of this and wondered why you got the call?   |
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