Wolf's electric balalaika

This balalaika was built by Eric M. Wolf, in Texas U.S during 2011. The instrument is called "AUK Custom Shop - B-1", serial # B-1. The instrument got 17 fret and it uses a regular guitar pickup.

The neck is flat just like on a Fender headstock, as far as I know this is the first time this is used on an electric balalajka, one can not say other than that it looks great. Worth mentioning is perhaps that he used a truss rod.

The only detail that is off compared to a normal balalaika is the inlays which doesn't follow the balalaika standard; instead they are placed as on a guitar.
(On a balalaika the inlays should be placed at the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th fret intervals and then smaller dots are often followed on the 17th and 19th frets.)

His total cost excluding the tools needed were around 350$, this equals about 280€ or 2400 SEK.

Here is a sound clip of the balalajka.
- Will be inserted when recieved.

The following pictures was taken during the build itself

On these last four pictures you can see how "big" the balalajka is compared to other items.