Sala Muzik kept popping up when I googled music Istanbul. I stumbled across it in Karaköy. Dont know what most of the instruments but they sure are beautiful.
Imgur link in comments.
Wonderful traditional acoustic instruments – istanbul
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And yes some have pickups.
When I was exploring Arabic music 2 years ago, the Oud seemed to be the standard instrument of choice for many groups – equivalent to the guitar for US/UK bands. There seem to be a fine selection in your collection of images there.
Are you exploring Turkish/Middle Eastern music yourself, Junior? I wondered why the Googling.
Coz I am in Turkey. Just left Istanbul.
Gorgeousness in rare woods and craftsmanship. That’s some high-end string emporium you found there – Andy Irvine probably window-shopped there 40 years ago – did you see any prices mentioned, or did you suspect that they were so high that if you had to ask you couldn’t afford them anyway?
Here’s the price of a left handed electric oud
https://salamuzik.com/products/left-handed-professional-arabic-electric-oud-aoh-6l
Not cheap, but pretty reasonable, if they play as well as they look.
Bill Bailey has used some very Eastern-looking stringed instruments on tour. A Saz was one, but it was a custom-made, electro-acoustic.
Uncle Patrel Mustapha bin Mustapha (Lu Edmonds) of 3 Mustaphas3 played the saz, (I initially thought it was a misspelling of sax.
I saw some hanging up in a Turkish restaurant over here once and asked if they were sazzes (sazes, sazi) they were impressed that I knew what they were.
How very prog. I bet Mike Rutherford has got one.
There’s a heap more pics if you flick across.
Wonderful. I do love a bit of instrument porn.
The double-neck (first photo) is glorious. Looks like it might have a transducer for the acoustic side, and then those pickups look like they could make a pretty loud noise. I don’t think it conforms to any particular type of instrument, but borrows a bit from the Oud and the Baglama (sp?)
I used to work a lot in Munich, and there was a Turkish instrument shop next to the hotel I stayed in. I got to try out some of the lovely instruments that were in there.