Who here plays the Irish Bouzouki?

[dwh]

Here's my Nyberg:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=8a9b335b2f

[gabriel_bc]

I recently picked up a Hora 'zouk for very little - and I'm enjoying it a lot. I've tuned it to GDAE so it's effectively a long scale octave mandolin. Played it in church the other day for a set where I was the only guitarist (I usually play mandolin because there are several other guitarists but I'm the only mandolin player). When I'm the only player often the leader doesn't want the mandolin on it's own, but a guitar instead. The zouk slots into a similar sonic space as a guitar but with a very distinctive sound that really worked for one of the songs in the set.

[hyenik]

My last bouzouki tune (for Making of calendar of our company)

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by pjmacd

Phil - I agree, that's a great rendition of a Stan Rogers tune. I too play Irish Bouzouki and have done so for several years. I love the "chime" of the instrument and its quick decay, important when you're playing some fast tunes in a session. Technically, I play the shorter-scale octave mandolin, but the nomenclature of this family of instruments has always been a subject of lively debate.

You said a mouthful there @pjmacd. There are such a variety of mando-things and everyone seems to call them something different.
Two of the words, "cittern" and "bouzoui" are already used to describe other instruments, so I wish they would drop out of use, but I'm not hopeful.
"Irish bouzouki" seems to be one common term for a flat backed long scale mando-thing, but it's not clear exactly what distinguishes it from an "octave mandolin". Some say the 3rd and 4th courses tuned in octaves is the distinguishing factor. Others say the scale length is the factor, but exactly what length distinguishes one from the other isn't clear.
Donal Lunny calls his a "blarge".
Grit Laskin calls all of the ones he makes "long necked mandolins", regardless of the number of courses or the scale length.
Jonathan Lynn, of the Toronto group Tip Splinter, calls his an "Octophone".

One of the reasons I find this odd is that Andre Segovia called his nylon stringed acoustic instrument with six strings a "guitar".
Roger McGuinn calls his steel stringed solid body electric instrument with 12 strings a "guitar".
George Van Eps called his steel string hollow bodied electric 7 string instrument a "guitar".
Nick Reynolds called his steel string acoustic instrument with 4 strings a "guitar".
Jerry Douglas calls his Dobro a "guitar".
Sneaky Pete calls his pedal steel a "guitar".
I could go on, but making slight changes in an instrument doesn't change it into another instrument. If I put octave courses on my octave mandolin, does it become a bouzouki?

There are more similarities between an octave mandolin and an Irish bouzouki than between a medieval cittern and a cittern made by Sobel or between a Greek bouzouki with three courses and a flat backed Irish bouzouki.

I propose (a hopeless proposal, I know) calling them all "monster mandolins".

[Rev Tim T]

I propose (a hopeless proposal, I know) calling them all "monster mandolins".

Jim,

That's pretty good. I pretty much play mine the way I do my mando. The first time my wife took her mando to church a lot of people came up to her after the service and said "what's that?" The first time I played my Trinity College at church after the service I got the "what's that?" I simply said it's a "long scale mandolin." So . . . "monster mandolin" is a pretty good description.

BTW - if you don't like using a mic to amplify yours I have found the I rig stage to work great.

For those of you who play at church - you should have saw the looks I got and questions the first time I played my banjolele! At times we have four guitar players (plus bass) so some of us will mix in other instruments so we don't have 4 guitars. (Banjos, ukes, mando's, 12's and Nashville strung 6's)

Tim

[philjs]

Originally Posted by PHJim

There are such a variety of mando-things and everyone seems to call them something different.

Well, I call my 8-string-tenor-guitar-octave-mandolin-thing a bouzar because guitzouki is just stupid.

Phil

[PHJim]

Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio often played an 8 string guitar. Martin's O-18T8 is an 8 string tenor guitar. It could be played as an octave mandolin.
John Doyle, Tim O'Brian and Sarah Jarosz all play guitar shaped octave mandolins. They call them "octave mandolins".
There seem to be quite a number of guitar shaped octave mandolins. https://www.google.ca/search?biw=143....0.-YFTdYHVR6M

[philjs]

Originally Posted by PHJim

There seem to be quite a number of guitar shaped octave mandolins.

Have you seen Maartin Alcock's Bouzar page? If "bouzar" is good enough for Andy Irvine, Ciaran Curran and Maartin, then it's good enough for me!

Admittedly, mine's not a Sobel (and Russel Crosby actually based his (my!) version on the aforementioned Martin tenor) but I still don't think of it as a mandolin-family instrument, it's a guitar-family instrument...and unique enough to have it's own moniker!

Phil

[BillRomansky]

I have an S.C. Hora, flat top and the very cheapest solid wood I could find. I built a custom low-mass wider foot bridge because the cross brace is a bit flimsy, and it gets a great sound with GHS medium strings. It’s more than adequate, and records well as accompaniment, which is why I bought it. I hope one day to justify a Trinity, and will humbly accept donations.