Carbon fiber bouzouki design

Abstract

The scope of the study is the design and prototyping of a musical instrument made from carbon, specifically the bouzouki, which is traditionally manufactured by wood. The use of carbon fiber is expected to facilitate the manufacturing of such a musical instrument, independent of factors that affect wood in an often unpredictable or uncontrollable way, such as inhomogeneities and environmental conditions like humidity and temperature. This approach will also allow for a significant reduction of the production costs, benefiting the broader musical instrument community. We focus on the development of a prototype carbon fiber bouzouki, able to acoustically perform comparably to the traditional wooden bouzouki. It is expected that the results of the presented research will eventually lead to the manufacturing of a carbon fiber bouzouki ready for commercial exploitation, thus setting the basis for the design and manufacturing of other traditional musical instruments from carbon fiber.