c.1960 Russian "Soviet" Balalaika

This is an anonymous Soviet-era Russian balalaika (prima?) -- the little size. This is going to be a trade-in for some work I'm doing on a cello. I've glued some top cracks, cleaned her up, polished up the frets, and set it up. Traditionally these have 4-piece spruce tops (which this has) and beech or birch back, sides, and neck (which this has). This one is a bit nicer than the typical Soviet-era balalaikas in that the back is bowled like a mandolin. The scale length is about 17" (like a mandola) and I've strung it up to be used in either the traditional tuning (EEA) or "mandolin" tuning (GDA).

Fun colors: the inset pieces are an orangey-brown stained wood that picks up a lot of light.

Headstock: curiously the tuners work backwards (the top tuner is the lowest pitch string).

Detail of maple bridge.

Side.

Inset.

Back.

As you can see, the finish cleaned up really nicely... and the heel join is very cool.

Funky tuners. I think I'd prefer straight-back banjo tuners myself.

I love this end-pin loop-end string arrangement, however. This is reminiscent of early mandolins which did a similar job with 4 pins. I think I may resurrect this feature for an instrument I've just started building (spoiler alert!) as it's really easy to string up and would look quite nice with ebony or rosewood pins.