Gitouki
The gitouki is a long-necked lute instrument designed and built by the Dutch Irish folk band Rapalje . The instrument is structurally a mixture of acoustic guitar and Irish bouzouki . There are only three copies worldwide; one of them was stolen a few years ago and has been missing ever since. The other two instruments are played by Rapalje.
Emergence
After an acoustic guitar was severely damaged by a saw, the band came up with the idea of not throwing away the defective instrument, but rather rebuilding it. Since the upper part of the body was destroyed, but the lower part was still flawless, it made sense to give the instrument a shape similar to an Irish bouzouki. Rapalje rebuilt the instrument and combined the elements of a guitar with those of an Irish bouzouki. The name "Gitouki" comes from band member Dieb and reflects this blend of the two instruments. The second gitouki is just a slightly modified Irish bouzouki.
Mood and range
Like a bouzouki, the gitouki has four double strings for a total of eight. Unlike the modern mood of an Irish bouzouki (GG DD aa ee), the Gitouki D1D GG hh ee is tuned. The low D1 string allows a higher melody voice and a bass line to be played at the same time. The self-made gitouki has 22 frets and a range of almost two octaves per string. The modified Irish bouzouki gitouki has 25 frets; so the range is a little more than two octaves per string.