Troubadour UK

FOR several years, Troubadour UK has ordered custom versions of instruments made by HORA S.A. in Romania. We have encountered some very substantial price rises into 2008, along with an increase in production times from as short as six weeks when we first started in 2002 to over six months. This has meant some rationalisation of the range, and we can no longer stock every type of instrument, though special orders remain possible.

For 2008, we have remaining stocks of Blondel cittern-guitars of various specifications, and a few remaining Lionheart zouks with pickups. We have a few excellent all solid wood classical guitars, acoustic basses, some baritone ukes, and a couple of mandolins remaining. In July 2008 we will have new stocks of the latest version of the Blondel (612mm scale travel guitar with cittern-shaped body), plain and EQ equipped Lionhearts (660mm scale celtic zouk), and plain/EQ Tamburlins (584mm scale octave mandola).

We continue to stock the Maui Xaphoon or ‘pocket sax’ pitched in C, a great travel instrument for sax or clarinet players.

We now have a stock of the wonderful Aquila strings from Italy, unavailable in the UK through normal retailers. These include genuine Gut and Silk classical guitar sets, the unique ‘Romantica 800′ Gut and Silk intended for 19th century guitars, the affordable Nylgut ‘Alabastro’ set to enliven any nylon string guitar, and the ‘Alchemia’ Nylgut set with solid silver wound basses - the loudest, most defined sound it is possible to get from a classical guitar, close to the quality of original gut trebles. We recommend the basic Aquila Alabastro Nylgut set (£10) for student and hobby playing, and the Alchemia set (£20) for professional concerts and recording.

We are also stocking PTFE coated Wyres phosphor-bronze acoustic guitar strings from the USA. Including the special Pierre Bensusan signature DADGAD set, these are by far the longest lasting strings we have ever tried. In fact, the shipment arrived in November 2007 and I can’t write anything about them yet as all my restrung guitars still sound fresh. I have no idea how long they will actually last without round the clock playing!

David Kilpatrick, Icon Publications Ltd, Maxwell Lane, Kelso, Scottish Borders TD5 7BB, UK. Tel: (+44) (0)1573 226032.