Hello,
I have been reading articles and I’m a little confused about the difference between octave, and unison tuned bouzouki strings…
I assume octave tuning is much like a twelve string guitar, and unison possibly has doubles instead of one-light-guage-one-heavy-guage set…
Like I said I’m not quite sure if this correct or not…I appreciate your input!
Joshua.
You’re dead on, Joshua. An octave-strung zouk has the bass courses (the third and fourth courses) strung with a plain string and a wound one in each course, just like a twelve-string guitar. The actual string gauges will vary depending on scale length etc. A unison-strung zouk has a paired set of strings on the bass courses. The treble strings (first and second sets) have a matched pair on either a unison or octave-strung instrument.
There is one point worth mentioning if you’re considering using octave strings. The bridge has to be intonated properly otherwise you will have severe tuning problems the further up the neck you play. The wound bass strings have to have a longer scale length than the octaves.In my opinion, if you’re playing an inexpensive instrument (Trinity College, Johnson etc.), I’d stick with the unison strings as a new, properly cut bridge can be fairly expensive and you may not like the sound and, I’m told, these instruments may have intonation issues to begin with.
Hope this helps,
Paul
Hello Joshua
A set of eight Bouzouki ‘Octave Strung’ strings where the 2 strings of the lower two courses are one thick and one thin.
A set of eight Bouzouki ‘Double Strung’ strings unison both strings of a course the same thickness.
On my old irish bouzouki was first tuned to GDAE with Redwing Bouzouki Medium Gauge Octave Strung Set Strings
Gauges:
E .012/.012
A .016/.016
D .013/.026
G .036/.036
I changed the tuning to D’Addario J81 - Medium Bouzouki Double Strung’ unison strings
D 0.011/0.011
A 0.016/0.016
D 0.028/0.028
G 0.04/0.04
On my new Dave Freshwater I use Double Strung’ unison strings
D 13s
A 16s
D32w
G42w
See photo of bouzouki http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=661744
More info on irish bouzouki at this web page http://www.xs4all.nl/~hspeek/bouzouki/
Cheers
Ferg
Joshua, I don’t blame you for being confused. I’ve been playing mandolin for over 30 years and I still find all the naming and tuning of the mandolin-family instruments baffling.
I’ve encountered players and builders that call the octave tuned instrument a bouzouki and the unison tuned one an octave mandolin. But I’ve also seen it the other way around. Some say the difference is in the scale length of the neck. In America we have the octave mandolin which is called a mandola in Europe. Then we have the American mandola that plays a fifth below the mandolin, not an octave below. You can have a five-course bouzouki that others might call a cittern, and a ten string mandolin that has no specific name, or a twelve string instrument called a Tres. Then there’s my personal favorite, the double-necked instrument with eight strings tuned to G on one neck and eight tuned to C on the other. They call that (get ready) a mandolinola.
And to make matters worse, everytime I think I have it clear in my mind, someone comes along with a different set of designations that also make perfect sense from their perspective.
Thanks guys!!
Does anyone know if the Trinity College Bouzouki comes with unison strings already setup? I should get my TC bouzouki tomorrow, and I want to be ready, so if it’s not already setup in unison tuning, I’m going to change the setup to unison…
If I read their catalog correctly, their bouzouki is octave strung and their octave mandolin is unison strung. At least that’s how it looks to me. You shouldn’t have any trouble converting octave to unison. The other way around can be a problem.
You might just fall in love with the octave tuning though. It does have a certain charm.
Thanks!
If I need to make a new nut, what is the best to use? will a mandolin nut work? or might mandolin nuts be too narrow?
A pre-fab mandolin nut might be a little small. If you’re going to make a nut anyway, you’ll probably be better off starting with a blank and cutting the slots for best fit and depth.
ahh…just a uncut bone nut? used for guitars and such?
You can just carefully widen the slots for the octave strings and use the existing nut and bridge saddle.
Good catch Steve. I was thinking in reverse. If you can successfully widen the slots without breaking through the partitions, that would work well.
On my old bouzouki I had to widen the nut to fit the unison strings D 0.028/0.028, G 0.040/0.040 as it was made to use Octave strings.
To cut the width on the nut I used a Stanley knife with very light pressure to cut a wee bit, then sanded with fine sand paper. I was then able to string the bouzouki from Octave strings to unison strings.
All the best
Ferg