Mike's Oud Forums

Any Glissentar players here?

Glissentarist - 1-9-2004 at 02:22 AM

Hi all!
I play the Glissentar, an 11 nylon string fretless guitar, and would love to know of others who do , too! I hope I'm not too "out of place" on this board with this exotic instrument! ;)

Mike - 1-9-2004 at 07:43 AM

Hi Glissentarist,

Check out Paul Livingstone's website. (www.tanpura.com) This guy is a fantastic musician. I believe he plays the glissentar too. Also, you are not "out of place" at all. Paul and Wael, my oud teacher, have collaborated on a few occasions for some very cool world music performances.

Take care,
Mike

Glissentarist - 1-9-2004 at 09:01 AM

Thanks for the link, which doesn't seem to work at the moment but I'll keep trying....

Another very fascinating fretless player is my teacher Dave Fiuzcynski (check out http://www.torsos.com), he is really excellent.
Cheers,Roland

Mike - 1-9-2004 at 09:06 AM

Sorry about that Roland. :rolleyes:

Try it now.

Vince Millett - 3-14-2005 at 06:03 AM

I've a Glissentar arriving this week so that makes two of us anyway.
Have almost given up playing my electric oud because of the difficulties of tuning it. Shouldn't have that problem with the Glissentar, and being a guitar player it means the scale length is comfortable for me. Will initially retune top two course to fourths so that the neck is fourths all the way across - I won't be playing any barre chords so normal guitar tuning isn't needed. Will think about other tunings when I'm more used to it.

Glissentar

Glissentarist - 3-14-2005 at 10:24 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vince Millett
I've a Glissentar arriving this week so that makes two of us anyway.
Have almost given up playing my electric oud because of the difficulties of tuning it. Shouldn't have that problem with the Glissentar, and being a guitar player it means the scale length is comfortable for me. Will initially retune top two course to fourths so that the neck is fourths all the way across - I won't be playing any barre chords so normal guitar tuning isn't needed. Will think about other tunings when I'm more used to it.


Great --- I'll be traveling to Istanbul to take lessons with Cenk Erdogan, excellent electric fretless guitar player ----

Glissentarist - 3-14-2005 at 10:25 AM

And what are you playing on your glissentar? Mainly eastern type stuff? I've found it lends itself well to blues, for instance, as well. Chords are tricky though, as on any other fretless guitar.

Vince Millett - 3-22-2005 at 04:11 AM

Glissentar has arrived. I love it! The neck feels very oud-like to me but with a guitar scale length so I know where the notes are! I can also remember which string is which and which tuning machine each goes to!

My band, Secret Archives of the Vatican, play a music that's difficult to describe: we mix breakbeat, drum'n'bass, dub, hiphop and triphop with Indian, Turkish and Arabian influences. We have percussionists who play darabuka and Indian tabla, bass, scratch DJ, keyboards (sometimes) and me on guitars and sometimes electric oud. In the past we've had flute and sitar as well.

We have a nice gig lined up for June at Hubblebubble in London - it's a great club run by a band called Oojami who are kind of similar to us but they're very Turkish musically and they have a gorgeous bellydancer and we don't.

http://hubblebubble.net/futureevents.htm

Glissentarist - 3-22-2005 at 10:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vince Millett
Glissentar has arrived. I love it! The neck feels very oud-like to me but with a guitar scale length so I know where the notes are! I can also remember which string is which and which tuning machine each goes to!

My band, Secret Archives of the Vatican, play a music that's difficult to describe: we mix breakbeat, drum'n'bass, dub, hiphop and triphop with Indian, Turkish and Arabian influences. We have percussionists who play darabuka and Indian tabla, bass, scratch DJ, keyboards (sometimes) and me on guitars and sometimes electric oud. In the past we've had flute and sitar as well.

We have a nice gig lined up for June at Hubblebubble in London - it's a great club run by a band called Oojami who are kind of similar to us but they're very Turkish musically and they have a gorgeous bellydancer and we don't.

http://hubblebubble.net/futureevents.htm


WOW that's great! Sounds incredible (I love that mixture of styles you're mentioning) PLUS I've got a friend in London who has invited me to come over this year again anytime, so that's 11 june right?

Vince Millett - 3-23-2005 at 01:09 AM

Yes, 11th June. It'll be the first public outing for the Glissentar - I've only had it two days but I'm practising hard. I've found most of the notes now!
Two days after that I'm off to Morocco for a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll track down some live music to see while I'm there.

Glissentarist - 5-15-2005 at 02:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vince Millett
Yes, 11th June. It'll be the first public outing for the Glissentar - I've only had it two days but I'm practising hard. I've found most of the notes now!
Two days after that I'm off to Morocco for a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll track down some live music to see while I'm there.


So is the gig on June 11 happening? I might book a plane ticket to see you... ;-)

Vince Millett - 5-16-2005 at 02:30 AM

Yeah, it's still on. We also have an amazing new darabuka player in the band.

Details here:
Hubble Bubble



Glissentarist - 5-16-2005 at 03:11 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vince Millett
Yeah, it's still on. We also have an amazing new darabuka player in the band.

Details here:
Hubble Bubble





Cool..... nice mp3 on your site....
How to get there from London?

Glissentarist - 5-16-2005 at 03:17 AM

Or will you be playing elsewhere in London this summer?

Glissentarist - 5-16-2005 at 03:34 AM

Or will you be playing elsewhere in London this summer?

Vince Millett - 6-30-2005 at 07:28 AM

Did the gig, went very well; totally enjoyed playing glissentar live. All the other bands' guitarists were fascinated by it but it was a bit gutting seeing one of them picking it up backstage, and having never played fretless before in his life, wiping the floor with me by playing the funkiest flamenco on it within two minutes! Oh,well! That's life.

Went to Morocco for two weeks the day after gig, which included going to a Gnawa music festival in Essouira. Saw lots of ouds on sale, all crappy rubbish for tourists. Saw only one being actually played in two whole weeks and various cities and that was in a very simple folk style accompaying singers and prcussionists (B'net Marrakech).

My band has no London gigs lined up. Have just got a manager for the first time though, so may have gigs in not-too-distant future. Tunes on website all very old and not very representative of where we're at now but I'm glad someone liked 'em!

Glissentarist - 6-30-2005 at 09:53 AM

Hey I'm in London right now, feel like meeting? Will be here till Sunday morning..
Roland

Vince Millett - 7-1-2005 at 12:31 AM

Have swapped direct e-mails....can hook up tonight (Friday 1 Jul or maybe tomorrow )

kathuria - 8-30-2006 at 09:58 AM

I am considering purchasing a glissentar and I am really interested to know how it sounds acoustically (not plugged in) and what kind of sustain does this instrument have? Is it more similar to nylon strong guitar or oud... or better? If you have links to recordings of glissentar players, I am also very interested to hear those. Thanks... VK

Vince Millett - 9-5-2006 at 12:56 PM

I prefer its acoustic sound to its plugged in sound! Its obviously not as loud as a full-bodied acoustic instrument but it's good. Sustain is short but I don't think I'm in a position to compare it with an oud - my oud is electric.
I'd suggest checking out the forum on
Unfretted.com
where several people have Glissentars and there are several video and audio clips. I know that one of the guys did a TV show with his Glissentar not plugged in, just the studio microphone.

billkilpatrick - 9-5-2006 at 03:48 PM

assuming that glissandos have something to do the glissentar, i'm definately interested - not that i could perform glissen-anything on either guitar or oud - but i'd love to have a go at it.

... maybe on my next trip to the big city.

Glissentarist - 9-5-2006 at 11:25 PM

You can definitely play it acoustically---- but it's not very loud.