The G-tuned bisernica is a specific soprano variant within the tamburitza family — an instrument with its own character that complements the prim and completes the soprano section in modern ensembles. Its higher tuning offers a brighter, more piercing tone that suits fast ornamented playing and sharing the melodic line with a prim.
Although technically similar to the prim, the G-tuned bisernica has a slightly narrower waist and a more responsive soundboard — which allows quicker attack and a thinner, silvery shimmer in the upper registers. The neck is a fraction shorter, so the player reaches high frets and voices double-stops more comfortably.
In our workshop the bisernica G is built from resonant spruce aged at least five years, with walnut back and sides that add depth beneath the fundamental. The fingerboard is ebony; the tuning hardware is individually chosen against tolerances we have refined across thirty-five years of building.
The bisernica G is most often used as a counter-melodic instrument alongside the prim: one player leads the main line in E-D, the other decorates it with counterpoint and harmonisation in G. The result is the characteristic two-voice weaving that listeners in Slavonia and Baranja recognise as an authentic tamburitza sound.
Historically, the G tuning gained ground in the second half of the twentieth century, when professional orchestras such as those at Croatian Radio and the Zagreb Tambura Ensemble sought greater dynamic width. Today many performers of new tamburitza music commission bisernicas in G specifically because of that bright, articulated character which combines well with piano, guitar or string ensembles.
Build time for a bisernica G in our workshop is six to ten weeks depending on the current bench load. Price starts at €470 for the standard configuration with classic cosmetic hardware; additions such as a hand-cut rosette with initials, archival wood billets or a solid-walnut hard case are agreed during specification. Every order begins with a conversation about repertoire and playing style.
Search keywords: bisernica price, bisernica making, tambura Varaždin, bisernica G tuning, tamburitza instruments. Every bisernica that leaves the workshop spends a minimum of 72 hours under full string tension while we verify intonation, chord balance and mechanical stability.
Ordering a bisernica from Varaždin means receiving an instrument that is not the product of serial manufacture but of a dialogue between maker, player and wood. Seven decades of tamburitza-building tradition condense into every fret, every bridge and every voiced rib — and the G-tuned bisernica is a signature of our workshop, one of a small number in the region that has been built consistently in that configuration for more than fifteen years.