A few years ago, I bought a tzouras from Manos, a member of this forum, and for a few years I studied every day. I could say that I had made decent progress. However, over the last two years and a bit, my obligations left me with almost no time to practise, which is why I disappeared from the forum as well. This year, I decided that I would do everything in my power to fit one or two hours of practice back into my daily routine.
Naturally, after more than two years of almost complete inactivity, I realised that the instrument had developed a few issues, mainly fret buzz and so on. So I thought that, before carrying on, I should have it properly serviced.
When I first moved to the area where I have lived for the last four years, I knew that a luthier worked locally whose instruments had caught my interest, both in terms of their sound and their aesthetics, from the pictures and videos I had seen. I am referring to the luthier Dimitris Fotopoulos. The truth is that I had tried to find his workshop in the past, but I had not managed to. I had mainly seen excellent folk guitars of his in videos, heard recordings and so on, as well as a few three-course bouzoukis. In fact, the ratio of guitars to bouzoukis that I had happened to hear and see was about four to one in favour of the guitars. Because I am a good person (haha), luck smiled on me, and this year I came across him through my own work. So last week I took the tzouras to him for an inspection and a service. The geometry of the instrument had indeed deteriorated slightly — the neck had pulled backwards and formed something like a bow — and he corrected it brilliantly. This afternoon, after a very long time, I was able to enjoy playing it again.
Today, then, I went to collect my tzouras. While I was waiting and we were chatting (I bored the poor man silly), I noticed a three-course bouzouki hanging in his cupboard. I took it hesitantly when he handed it to me, but, apart from its excellent appearance and how carefully finished every detail was, the feeling it gave me in my hands was incredible. I do not have the experience that most people here do. I have held perhaps ten to fifteen instruments at most, and most of them only for a few minutes to an hour or two, belonging to acquaintances and friends. But this bouzouki was something else. I merely touched the strings gently between the frets and it sang. It was soft, with a very clear sound — and one that was very much to my taste. As for the body, if I understood correctly, it had a spruce soundboard and an ebony fingerboard. Please do not ask me about any other details; it would be a considerable risk for me to say that the bowl was made of rosewood. I am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject, but I know what I felt.
Suddenly, I felt as though I had climbed ten steps as a player. After such a long period of inactivity, some of the things that were still giving me trouble seemed to be overcome in an instant, simply because the instrument was so easy to play and produced such a beautiful sound. Love at first strum. If my finances had been better, or if I had not taken that two-and-a-half-year dip in my daily practice, with the enormous setback to my knowledge and technique, I would have left with one more instrument and one less month’s salary.
I am not trying to reach any particular conclusion, nor am I trying to advertise the man (I do not think he needs it anyway). I simply wanted to share this with some people, and only fellow sufferers like those on this forum could understand me.