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Originally the bouzouki was a long-necked lute from Greece and Turkey. It has a bulbous body, like those mandolins you see over people's mantelpieces, and four pairs of strings (sometimes only three).
A generation or so ago, an Irish musician named Andy Irvine went on vacation and heard the bouzouki, and was charmed by it. He acquired one and tuned it like the mandolin, which he already played, and thereby adapted it to the Celtic repertoire. When he came back and started playing it (especially with his new band Planxty) it became hugely popular, and it is now an important ensemble instrument.
A couple years back I bought a project guitar at a yard sale for $5. It was missing the bridge and tailpiece, so I figured it would be ideal to convert to a bouzouki: add two more tuning pegs to the underside of the headstock, and replace the missing bits (and the nut) with parts engineered for four pairs of strings. I never got around to it myself, and at the end of the year I finally turned the project over to Jim Mouradian, the amazing guitar tech who works upstairs from Cambridge Music. I got it back a couple weeks ago, and I think it's way cool.
The tuning, from the bottom up, is G-D-A-E, an octave below the equivalent strings on the mandolin-- indeed, one of the alternate names for this instrument is "octave mandolin." (Some players also call it a "cittern," after a medieval troubadour instrument.) The G and D pairs are in octaves, like the lower strings of a 12-string guitar. As you may imagine, it strongly gravitates to the key of D, and G and A are also notably easier than other keys. It's also really suitable for Celtic dance music-- not as lithe as fiddle nor as earthy as bagpipes, but in a register that allows it to hold its own as a solo instrument, especially with the octave strings ringing away. I've been furiously shedding the jig/reel/hornpipe/strathspey repertoire on it. I've also been trying (because I live to thwart expectations :evilgrin:) to adapt non-Celtic material, and now I can fumble my way through the Beatles' "And I Love Her," the Police's "Every Breath You Take," and Green Day's "Good Riddance."
My new year's resolution is to build a Myspace page featuring it, with recordings and photos.
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