# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > CBOM >  Why did you start playing a cbom?

## garryireland

A question that has been floating around in my head. Judging by this site, there are alot of zouk, mandola and cittern players out there. What made you guys pick one up and decide that was what you wanted to play? For me, it was the first time i saw Andy Irvine in Dublin. I had no idea what a zouk was but went out and bought one the next week. Now i couldnt imagine not having one. Although I have been almost 2 weeks now having sold my Ozark and waiting on my Buchanan! Anyways, stories/comments welcome. And what do you play????

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## Mandobart

My love for mandola, OM and mandocello hasn't dimmed my ardor for mandolin; I still play it as well.  For me it's the lower, deeper, richer sound and greater sustain that drew me to the lower register.  The OM and mandocello are better suited for vocal accompaniment as well.  I have to admit I also like the unique-ness factor; many people have never even heard of an OM or 'cello until they hear me play one.  I do my best to give a good first impression.

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## Mike Anderson

For me it was Andy Irvine first and foremost, just Planxty at first, then I started discovering his other projects. And because of Planxty, Donal Lunny, which led me to investigate Bothy Band. This was all mid-late '80s, then as the '90s began I first heard Michael Holmes with Dervish, and Ciaran Curran with Altan, and by then I was pretty well hooked on the idea of it being something I had to try. Till that point I was a singer, and had played percussion in many styles of music and settled on bodhran, but loved the idea of singing and accompanying myself on bouzouki.

In the late '90s I met a guy from a Newfoundland outport, Lorne Warr, and we started playing together. He plays great guitar and mandolin and sings baritone, and I'm a tenor, so we started working out arrangements of songs we loved from Newfoundland, Ireland, and Scotland with lots of vocal harmonies, but I still had no CBOM as the only luthiers I had heard of were in the UK and Ireland, no local dealers, and out of my budget anyway.

Eventually we hooked up with various fiddle players and a terrific simple-system flute and tin whistle player, we were getting plenty of gigs so things were moving along, but I wasn't satisfied just playing bodhran and snare drum and singing. Can't remember how, but eventually I discovered Lark in the Morning in Seattle, and Lorne and I made a trip down to check out their "Hecho en Mexico" cittern at $300 US. That was a fun day - there was a Fylde mandola in the shop, which Lorne played beautifully to the amazement of the other customers. Very memorable, that Fylde. I bought the cittern and brought it back to Vancouver, had a piezo pickup put in, and started working out accompaniment in GDADG tuning, very basic strumming stuff. I think I just printed out Han Speek's GDAD chord chart, the only resource I could find

That instrument is now in the hands of a good friend and former bass player in the band, a little the worse for wear in the much drier climate of Alberta but still played regularly. He's in the market for a new cittern in the near term though, so I pass on what I learn here at the Cafe.

I had a long hiatus from playing until last year, just busy working my butt off, getting married, buying a house, and raising our boy, but got the bug again irresistibly and had to have a new bodhran and bouzouki ASAP (and damned if they didn't come up with an entirely new way of playing bodhran since I stopped - you bodhranistas know what I mean). I bought a really nice Trinity College TC-375 from a member here and am getting my head around the idea of counter-melody accompaniment and eventually melody playing. Won't be truly satisfied until I have a luthier-built instrument, but not in the budget at the moment. Am also going to take possession of my grandfather's 1966 Suzuki bowl-back mando shortly (which I posted about in 2012) and will try my hand at that. Meanwhile Lorne was nominated for an East Coast Music Award this year and moved back to Newfoundland. Makes me wonder what might have happened with me had I stuck with the band!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!  :Cool:

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## Bertram Henze

Factor #1: 
I started out on the mandolin, some 30 years ago, playing Irish music. But then I saw/heard the tenor banjo, which I thought was way cooler (yeah, I know what you're going to say...). I played the TB for years, and then I was at that gig of a Scottish band where we used to have our sessions, and after the gig the band members let us try their instruments; one I picked up was a dark wooden zouk that said "Fylde" on the headstock - I couldn't really play it because of the weird tuning, but I was so in love with the sound. This factor did not become effective immediately - years later, when my daughter had grown up so I could attend sessions again, it worked as a guideline for factor#2...

Factor#2:
In an Irish session, you typically don't know all the tunes they are playing, so you want to have something else to do during the unknown tunes, like chord accompaniment. Neither mandolin nor TB are really cut out for that, but the OM is.

Both factors directly led to my playing a Fylde OM today.

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## foldedpath

I arrived at an interest in Irish and Scottish traditional music relatively late in my musical life. So I wasn't all that aware of the early history of the bouzouki in this music from players like Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Alec Finn, etc.

I never thought much about longer-scale mandolin family instruments until I started playing mandolin around 7 years ago. By that time, my ears were starting to perk up when I heard what Ale Möller was doing with accompaniment and unison melody on "Fully Rigged" and "Beyond the Stacks" with fiddler Aly Bain, and also the way Simon Mayor was multi-tracking his mandolin with mandocello and mandola accompaniment. To the extent I have any musical influences here, I guess they're fairly recent.

When I started gigging with the mandolin in a few local trios and duos, I began to think that adding a longer-scale instrument might open up some new band arrangement possibilities. So when a used Weber OM came up for sale at a very good price on Ebay, I jumped on it. I had wanted an archtop anyway, because my ears were drawn to that sound in the longer-scale instruments I'd heard on recordings. This particular Weber was also an F-style... totally outrageous-looking and difficult to justify on any basis, other than it looks _very cool_. It's hard to miss as a stage instrument.

So the Weber arrived, and I was thrilled with it. But I have to admit that incorporating it into band arrangements hasn't worked out quite like I thought it might, mostly because I'm usually the one playing the lead melody line alongside a guitar player doing backup. The OM and guitar occupy a similar pitch and timbre, so it's difficult to hear the OM's melody line unless a lot of work is put into an arrangement that allows that space. Working an OM into a band is much easier when it's mainly used for accompaniment under a higher pitched instrument like mandolin or fiddle, as in those albums that started me down this track in the first place. 

I haven't given up on trying to use it on gigs, it's still a work in progress. Slower tunes like slow reels and airs, with the OM capo'd up while the guitar stays un-capo'd has some potential. Meanwhile, I play the OM frequently at home as a solo instrument, and I enjoy that very much. I've also taken it to a few sessions as a backing instrument, although most of the time I bring the mandolin for melody.

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## Steve L

It was Planxty, De Danann, Silly Wizard et al as well as Gerald Trimble for me back in the late 70s,early 80s.  I had a Flatiron bouzouki for many years before I ever owned a mandolin.

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## NotMelloCello

I have no interest in Irish folk tunes, Bach cello suites, bluegrass, or any trad mandocello music. But during my many years as a stringed instrument repairman at a large music store (and then in my home shop), I fell in love with the sound of mandolin. It had such a sweet, lyrical tone! But the frets were too close together, and my fingers were too fat for the string spacing - so I never pursued it further.

Decades later, my arthritis was making playing guitar too difficult, although I could still play bass where there was plenty of room. 6 notes was just too hard for me! Then somehow the mandocello floated into my consciousness... and I realized that chords were still available to me. I bought a cheap Washburn electric, and converted it over to a mandocello. Instantly - I felt at home on it! I could handle the scale length and the string spacing - and it had a lovely baritone voice. I was smitten. I wish I had made the jump so many decades ago.

Now I am relearning all those jazz and pop tunes I love on the mandocello. I can hardly wait to find a nice acoustic mandocello to play, or a nice archtop jazz box to convert. If my playing skills improve enough, maybe you'll be seeing me on YouTube.... Until then, back to woodshedding - I have scales and fingerings to learn.

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## Mike Crocker

Several years of hearing folks play them at a celtic music festival, and the realization that I could play my mandolin tunes on one, and accompany songs much like I do with guitar. Frankly, I haven't used it much live, but there's always tomorrow.

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## garryireland

> For me it was Andy Irvine first and foremost, just Planxty at first, then I started discovering his other projects. And because of Planxty, Donal Lunny, which led me to investigate Bothy Band. This was all mid-late '80s, then as the '90s began I first heard Michael Holmes with Dervish, and Ciaran Curran with Altan, and by then I was pretty well hooked on the idea of it being something I had to try. Till that point I was a singer, and had played percussion in many styles of music and settled on bodhran, but loved the idea of singing and accompanying myself on bouzouki.
> 
> In the late '90s I met a guy from a Newfoundland outport, Lorne Warr, and we started playing together. He plays great guitar and mandolin and sings baritone, and I'm a tenor, so we started working out arrangements of songs we loved from Newfoundland, Ireland, and Scotland with lots of vocal harmonies, but I still had no CBOM as the only luthiers I had heard of were in the UK and Ireland, no local dealers, and out of my budget anyway.
> 
> Eventually we hooked up with various fiddle players and a terrific simple-system flute and tin whistle player, we were getting plenty of gigs so things were moving along, but I wasn't satisfied just playing bodhran and snare drum and singing. Can't remember how, but eventually I discovered Lark in the Morning in Seattle, and Lorne and I made a trip down to check out their "Hecho en Mexico" cittern at $300 US. That was a fun day - there was a Fylde mandola in the shop, which Lorne played beautifully to the amazement of the other customers. Very memorable, that Fylde. I bought the cittern and brought it back to Vancouver, had a piezo pickup put in, and started working out accompaniment in GDADG tuning, very basic strumming stuff. I think I just printed out Han Speek's GDAD chord chart, the only resource I could find
> 
> That instrument is now in the hands of a good friend and former bass player in the band, a little the worse for wear in the much drier climate of Alberta but still played regularly. He's in the market for a new cittern in the near term though, so I pass on what I learn here at the Cafe.
> 
> I had a long hiatus from playing until last year, just busy working my butt off, getting married, buying a house, and raising our boy, but got the bug again irresistibly and had to have a new bodhran and bouzouki ASAP (and damned if they didn't come up with an entirely new way of playing bodhran since I stopped - you bodhranistas know what I mean). I bought a really nice Trinity College TC-375 from a member here and am getting my head around the idea of counter-melody accompaniment and eventually melody playing. Won't be truly satisfied until I have a luthier-built instrument, but not in the budget at the moment. Am also going to take possession of my grandfather's 1966 Suzuki bowl-back mando shortly (which I posted about in 2012) and will try my hand at that. Meanwhile Lorne was nominated for an East Coast Music Award this year and moved back to Newfoundland. Makes me wonder what might have happened with me had I stuck with the band!
> ...


quite a story there Mike!

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## bratsche

As soon as I learned of the existence of a mandola, I knew I had to have one (now I have "a few" more than that!)  It was precisely because of Bach cello sonatas and violin partitas that I wanted a mandola - I had studied many of those pieces already, and was always enthralled by hearing them on a plucked instrument, usually guitar.  But I wasn't about to learn a new alien-tuned instrument so late in life, and thought I would only be able to appreciate plucked Bach by listening to recordings, until I acquired my first mandola.  And the rest is history.  My repertoire of Bach is becoming much larger now on mandola than it ever was on viola and/or violin!

bratsche

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## Mike Anderson

> quite a story there Mike!


Ah well, I write for a living so ought to be able to do something readable...BTW I should mention my bodhran is by Christian Hedwitschak if anyone's interested, and my tippers too. He's a gent, great to deal with, fantastic products and always includes some good German candies with every shipment.  :Grin:

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## Clement Barrera-Ng

Though I don't play a CBOM anymore, I started off on this mandolin journey first and foremost by playing bouzouki and citterns.  For me, it was after listening to Planxty's first album that got me interested.

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## Colin Lindsay

I didnt want to be just another guitar player.  :Grin:

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John Lloyd

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## garryireland

> I didn’t want to be just another guitar player….


people always assume i play guitar ( which i can but i dont tell them). ive just got a waldzither, and the new zouk coming tomorrow, long neck beast of a 5 string banjo, low whistle, harmonica, bodhran, it goes on and on. i like to stand out !

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## Lord of the Badgers

i wanted another instrument in the same(ish if you use GDAD of course) of tuning as mandolin. I was also drawn to the idea of having octaved pairs (my personal thing). I too get frustrated with the sheer masses of acoustic guitar players out there. 
I actually play up the neck far more on my zouk than on my mandolin. When I bought it I almost bought a Fylde Cittern, but I know I made a better choice for me on the day.

But ultimately, it was initially just Acquisition Syndrome - but in this case it was spot on judgement wise  :Smile:

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## allenhopkins

Got into a Celtic band with a Scottish fiddler in 1985, thought that the mandolin I was playing then was too much like the fiddle in terms of register and melody role, bought a Flatiron 3K OM which I still own, played a bit of alto/tenor-plus-chords on a Washburn bowl-back mandola which I bought, looked for something sturdier and more modern, and lucked into a Sobell short-scale OM which I restrung as a mandola.  All of this in the 1985-88 range.

Since then I've added a bunch more CBOM's, just because I like different instruments with different sounds.  Still play the Sobell and the Flatiron in my very-part-time Celtic band _Innisfree,_ and both mandolin and mandola in a Jewish-plus-originals trio _Love & Knishes._

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## Mike Anderson

> _Love & Knishes._


GREAT name!  :Grin:

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allenhopkins

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## Marcus CA

> Judging by this site, there are alot of zouk, mandola and cittern players out there. What made you guys pick one up and decide that was what you wanted to play?


The first three notes of "Gator Strut" made me want to learn mandocello.  I love that beast of an instrument!  I also have a cittern, but it has a flat top and back. So, I use it when I want a prettier sound (like for playing fiddle tunes), but I use my carved top-and-back mandocello when I want power in the sound.

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## Mandobart

> I didn’t want to be just another guitar player….


I totally agree.  I didn't even start mandolin family instruments until about 5 years ago.  Since then I have enjoyed so many musical opportunities, because I do something a little different from the mass of singer/songwriters/pickers out there.  Had I not picked up mandolin (and 'dola, OM and 'cello) I would just be another one of millions of mildly competent guitar players.  Now I'm one of dozens of mandocello players, possibly competent.

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## jmp

Like others I came to OM from guitar. It was a very natural transition. I like the range, tone, and sustain and versatility of OM better than soprano mandolin. I can always play above the 12th fret if I need a mandolin sound. I had thought about getting a mando for many years, but a friend let me borrow her OM and I couldn't put it down. I ended up getting my own a month later and have never looked back. The guitar doesn't get played as much anymore.

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## Paul Kotapish

Heard Dave Richardson playing his Sobell with Boys of the Lough in '76 and then heard Andy Irvine, Johnny Moynihan, and Donal Lunny in various bands--Planxty, Sweeney's Men, Celtic Folkweave/Bothy Band--and had to have one.

There were virtually none to be had in the U.S. back then, but I wrote to Rich Westerman in '77 or so and he agreed to build me a koa/cedar OM. I played the heck out of it with various folk/Irish bands in Oregon and Seattle, and later toured and recorded a bunch of things with Kevin Burke and Open House with it, too. It changed hands among players in the NW about four times over the years, had pickguards added and removed and various hardware replaced. I bought it back from Clyde Curley a decade or so back and got it fixed it up with a new fingerboard, tailpiece, etc., and it still plays and sounds great. Wish I had more time to play the dang thing.

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## jdsobol

I was a guitar player. Started with classical and for a while was a standard tuning snob--believed that if you couldn't play it in standard it was because you just couldn't figure it out. Then one day in '85 I stopped in a pawnshop in Greensboro NC and found a 1913 blacktop Gibson H-2 mandola. It had a wide open heel crack that scared the pawnbroker into giving it to me for $50. Had the crack repaired very nicely and that thing played perfectly. Because I had no reason to feel pride over my pedigreed mandolin chops, and was too lazy to learn all the chord shapes in fifths, I tuned it C-G-C-G. That was my gateway drug to open tunings in mando-family instruments. I was just going into doing a lot of school gigs just then, and the H-2 was a huge crowd-pleaser. You could wail away on old-time and Irish tunes all by yourself and keep a gymnasium full of middle schoolers stomping and clapping the whole time. The sonority was huge, and hugely pleasurable. 

A couple of years later I saw my first Sobell 10-string, and it seemed to have everything the Gibson did and then some. In those days you could pick up a used Sobell for around $1000. Alas, no more in this world. But I got one from Elderly in 1990 and that was that.

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## scifi

I once listened to a Arabian Zither and thought that I would like to get a similar sound on my steelstring guitar. I am actually a guitar player. Then I found by chance a used Octave Mandolin by Oakwood and one thing led to the other :-)

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## Carl Robin

I received my mandola in the mail yesterday.  I decided to get it after playing the mandolin for a few years, and learning Irish music.  I was curious about how it would sound, and wanted to learn to stretch my fingering out on a bigger instrument.  The next step will be, eventually, an octave mandolin.  To tell the truth, I was surprised by it'size--16 1/2" string length, and when I started tuning it, eventually realized CGDA was the right way to go. The first tune I played was The Reel of Mullinavat.  The mandolin is still number one, but I think the mandola is going to be fun to play, especially when it has strap buttons, and a strap.

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## acousticphd

When I was pretty new to the mandolin, I started hearing some mandola or OM for the first time by a few of the musicians I was listening (Tom Rozum, Tim O'Brien, Peter Ostrouschko).  I've had and played a mandola for ~a dozen years, and use it a ton in old-time and celtic/irish settings.  My OM experience so far is limited to some experimenting with tenor guitars and a tenor-to-OM conversion, but I hope to own a quality 8- or 10-string OM or bouzouki someday.

To those who mentioned Andy Irvine, through the miracle of Youtube I've only recently been discovering early Planxty, Bothy Band, and early (and later) Andy Irvine/Paul Brady stuff, which I can't get enough of lately.

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## catmandu2

Like foldedpath, Ale Moller inspired me further down the dola/zouk/cittern path.  Although my sound was eventually assuaged more by oud and Arabic and Moorish music.

My gaelic itch is assuaged by clarsach, flute, fiddle and box...so I rarely play mandolins anymore

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## zoukboy

I started on it out of the mistaken notion that since I already played guitar, a fretted instrument would be "easier" to learn Irish traditional music on.  :-)

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## Bob Clark

Three reasons.  Here they are.

Reason one: It was an extension of why I took up mandolin.  I started with the Mandolin because I had been listening to the Baltimore Consort playing Renaissance music on period instruments and I wanted to play that music on an instrument from our modern era.  Mandolin seemed a perfect fit, and proved to be.  Later, I also wanted an instrument with a deeper voice for that music, and the OM filled that bill.  

Reason two:  I plan to play in one of the Philadelphia area mandolin orchestras as soon as my schedule will permit (another few years, most likely) and I thought that playing OM as well as mandolin would make me more versatile and hence more useful to one of those groups. I was operating under the assumption that people must be waiting in line and going through a difficult audition process to get one of the few, available, coveted seats.  I now realize that I may have been over-estimating the competition for seats in these ensembles.  Still, the logic of being more versatile applies. 

Reason three: I just plain fell in love with the sound. It was as simple as that.  Even if the other two reasons did not exist, had I encountered the OM, I probably would have taken it up.  I just love the sound.  Is there a better reason to play any instrument?

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## catmandu2

> I started on it out of the mistaken notion that since I already played guitar, a fretted instrument would be "easier" to learn Irish traditional music on.  :-)


Roger, did you play ITM on guitar (before CBOMs)?  My entrée into ITM was actually through Pierre Bensusan

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## Bernie Daniel

> .....What made you guys pick one up and decide that was what you wanted to play?





> I started on it out of the mistaken notion that since I already played guitar, a fretted instrument would be "easier" to learn Irish traditional music on.  :-)



I agree!  same story,  I believe I was temporarily out of my mind?   I thought the larger mandocello fret board and tuning would give me a *easy to play* "guitar" range instrument.  Wrong!  But it is too late now!

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## EdSherry

I've doubled on various instruments for years (starting on guitar, adding banjo, then mandolin, then dobro, then ...) and like the ability to add another tonal palette.  

I really can't recall when/why I started playing OM, but it came out of playing Irish music (more songs than ITM tunes).  I'd been playing mandolin for a number of years, somewhere (I can't recall now) ran across an OM for sale, and liked the tonal range.   Then I got hooked.  I now have way more OMs, 'zouks, citterns, mandolas, etc., than is good for any individual to have.  A VERY bad case of OMAS (as well as MAS, GAS for guitar, BAS for banjo, etc., etc.).

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## Charlieshafer

Mandocello about 50% of the time for about 6-7 years, I guess. Then the cello, then the mandolin. I play with so many fiddlers and violinists, the low voice just adds a lot more to the overall sound. With fiddlers bowing, the flatpicked mandocello can add either interesting counter-lines, or can add chords for extra depth. I'm not trying to be the lead guy, so adding the low floor to everyone else makes the whole thing better. Another high voice for what we do just doesn't add anything.

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## Barry Wilson

I got into it because of this forum. I bought the mandolin on a whim and liked it... never even knew there were such instruments as mandola etc. I heard various people on the site here and links to video clips... and I built my first om from a kit from Don Kawalek... Then I ordered the Godin mandolin and a gold tone om came into the store I shop and he had it set aside for me... yup took it as well, then ordered the matching mandola about a month later..

I don't play traditional music... in fact I am doing a solo gig and doing a whole set on the om (the band, alman bros, doobies and such) in a week. I do one set on guitar and the other 2 are different instruments... I don't have enough mandocello to take it yet but open mic next week I am going to take mine just to be different hehe I play rush, ozzy and stuff like that on mandocello 

add that I prefer to sing in D, G and C and these instruments are made for me

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## Jim M.

I played fiddle in an Irish band, and I got interested in CBOM because one of my bandmates had one. But what really gave me the itch was Roger Landes' "Dragon Reels" CD, http://rogerlandes.com/recordings.html#dragon, a must have for any CBOM player, imho.

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## vernob

I got Gerald Trimble's record "First Flight" in the 80's and was drawn by the sound of the cittern. It was made by Stefan Sobell and I found that I couldn't afford one.I found that Robin Willamson was playing a cittern too. Been a fan since the Incredible String Band days. I also liked what Andy Irvine was doing. A band member (bluegrass) got an octave mando. I loved the versatility. You could play a tune but also accompany the voice. It was pitched near a guitar, my main instrument. So last year I built a zouk and a cittern. I love playing them. Mostly I use them to accompany songs but also to play old time, celtic, fiddle tunes etc.

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## zoukboy

> Roger, did you play ITM on guitar (before CBOMs)?  My entrée into ITM was actually through Pierre Bensusan


catmandu2:

I was playing classical guitar at the time, and yes, I did try playing tunes on it but quickly decided I needed an instrument that sounded more "appropriate" and was louder. And I, too, went through a Bensusan phase ("Pres de Paris" and "Pierre Bensusan 2").

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catmandu2

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## zoukboy

> I played fiddle in an Irish band, and I got interested in CBOM because one of my bandmates had one. But what really gave me the itch was Roger Landes' "Dragon Reels" CD, http://rogerlandes.com/recordings.html#dragon, a must have for any CBOM player, imho.


Aw shucks!   :Redface:   Thanks!

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## catmandu2

> catmandu2:
> 
> I was playing classical guitar at the time, and yes, I did try playing tunes on it but quickly decided I needed an instrument that sounded more "appropriate" and was louder. And I, too, went through a Bensusan phase ("Pres de Paris" and "Pierre Bensusan 2").


Yep, those are the ones I had--I think Merrily Kissed the Quaker is the first tune I ever learned

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## John Flynn

I've played in church music ensembles for 35+ years starting with guitar, then switching off between guitar and mandolin, and then mandolin and harmonica. I was never satisfied with how the mandolin did on straight rhythm playing. It was in too high a pitch for church music. I found out about CBOMs here on the Cafe', played a few in music stores and spent some time trying to decide among mandola, OM and 'Zouk. I chose OM as a "middle of the road," compromise choice and have never regretted it. It has a very majestic, "church-y" sound on rhythm. Now I play mostly melody on the mandolin and mostly rhythm on the OM. 

Now I also take it to jams where either I know there are not going to be any other rhythm instruments, and/or I will not know all the melodies on mandolin. It gives me something to switch off to that makes the sound of the group more full and keeps all the melody players on track.

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## klaezimmer

Having played mandolin since the late 1970s, I was familiar with the mandola and mandocello.  A little over a decade ago, in search of new tones and textures I could bring to a session, I began looking for a Greek bouzouki on the internet since they weren't available locally (central Kentucky), and I began to come across Irish bouzoukis, octave mandolins, and citterns with which I was unfamiliar.  The non-standardness  of the cittern caught my interest.  I could tweak it to fit the music I play, and no one would be there to say, "You can't do that."  I appreciated the challenge presented by an instrument for which there were no commercially produced chord charts.  

So, for me, it was to add another color to my musical palette.  That enables me to participate in a musical event armed with a selection from a dozen or more instruments that are otherwise unlikely to show up at the proceedings.

Ron

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## vernob

Talk about the Sobell 12 string. Do you tune it like a guitar or GDGDGD?

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## lucho

Also I agree with some of you.... I played mandolin and charango and I didn´t  like the idea of another guitar player..... so I heard my first bouzouki at the Kent folk festival in the early 90s.... so I was hooked...  first on mandola and tenor banjo, and then OM, bouzouki, laud  and anything with a different sound...

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## catmandu2

> catmandu2:
> 
> I was playing classical guitar at the time, and yes, I did try playing tunes on it but quickly decided I needed an instrument that sounded more "appropriate" and was louder. And I, too, went through a Bensusan phase ("Pres de Paris" and "Pierre Bensusan 2").


Roger, I forgot to ask: do you play guitar in trad-style now?   (I'm a former nylon player too--but before I left guitar I became increasingly interested in 12-string -- in ITM, etc...seemed to be more harp-like for me)

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## zoukboy

> Roger, I forgot to ask: do you play guitar in trad-style now?   (I'm a former nylon player too--but before I left guitar I became increasingly interested in 12-string -- in ITM, etc...seemed to be more harp-like for me)


Yes, I picked up DADGAD from Bensusan back in the day but didn't like it for nylon string, so I started playing steel string again. In Irish traditional music it definitely takes a back seat to my bouzouki, mandolin, and tenor banjo playing, but I do play occasionally play backup (with a flatpick) and fingerstyle in DADGAD (and sometimes DADGAE). I still play nylon string for some non-Irish things, and I play electric guitar in a instro surf rock band called Los Changos del Mar (standard tuning, though).  :-)

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## Eddie Sheehy

Back in 1973 a friend brought one back from Greece and I bought it from him so I could emulate Donal Lunney, Johnny Moynihan, and Andy Irvine... still tryin'...

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## catmandu2

> Yes, I picked up DADGAD from Bensusan back in the day but didn't like it for nylon string, so I started playing steel string again. In Irish traditional music it definitely takes a back seat to my bouzouki, mandolin, and tenor banjo playing, but I do play occasionally play backup (with a flatpick) and fingerstyle in DADGAD (and sometimes DADGAE). I still play nylon string for some non-Irish things, and I play electric guitar in a instro surf rock band called Los Changos del Mar (standard tuning, though).  :-)


Ever have the hankering to use the 12-string?  (wrt this thread--it may be what got me going toward cbom...but otoh, my first decent guitar was a 12-str, so maybe i was ripe for cbom from the outset--although I didn't find them until much later :-( .  Those open tunings really ring on 12-str.

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## zoukboy

> Ever have the hankering to use the 12-string?  (wrt this thread--it may be what got me going toward cbom...but otoh, my first decent guitar was a 12-str, so maybe i was ripe for cbom from the outset--although I didn't find them until much later :-( .  Those open tunings really ring on 12-str.


Yes! I am thinking of getting a 12 string and tuning it in a variant of bouzouki tuning.

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## Eddie Sheehy

I've converted the top neck of an Ovation doubleneck into a 10-string zouk...

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## catmandu2

Right on.  I've found that Ovations make for an excellent "zouk"-variant -- without so much of the bottom-end of large wooden bodies

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## Taylor and Tenor

The first session I attempted to play at already had two guitar players.  I was told a third basher would not be welcome.  However, the session leader suggested that I buy a mandolin or OM and he would help me learn some tunes so as to join in which he did.

I now play a tenor guitar tuned DAEB capoed at the fourth fret to shorten the neck and a 1924 Gibson TL1 tenor lute.  I am a part of a regular Monday night slow session still learning tunes.

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## Tom Haywood

Needed a specialty instrument for a Middle Eastern sound; built a full scale Irish bouzouki; now have to learn to play it.

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## Colin Lindsay

> Needed a specialty instrument for a Middle Eastern sound; built a full scale Irish bouzouki; now have to learn to play it.


Surely such a pure-bred instrument as the Irish bouzouki could never sound like a middle-Eastern instrument??  :Wink:

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## Tom Haywood

> Surely such a pure-bred instrument as the Irish bouzouki could never sound like a middle-Eastern instrument??


Well, it was a compromise because I couldn't figure out a good way to hold a bowl back while standing. In an open tuning, it captures the sound pretty well. Now I have to learn the Irish sound.

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## Colin Lindsay

> Well, it was a compromise because I couldn't figure out a good way to hold a bowl back while standing. In an open tuning, it captures the sound pretty well. Now I have to learn the Irish sound.


Lol yes, well I know that feeling! I had to sit to play my first bouzouki, it was a nightmare to hold straight and these days my lute slides about all over the place especially when doing Mark Knopfler on it. A friend uses velcro stuck to the back of her bowl-back and it appears to work. Pulls lots of fluff out of her clothes tho  :Smile: 

(For a good laugh the pic is from around 1982. dont even MENTION the wooly pullover.)

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## Nick Gellie

> Well, it was a compromise because I couldn't figure out a good way to hold a bowl back while standing. In an open tuning, it captures the sound pretty well. Now I have to learn the Irish sound.


I have played my Crump bouzouki in all sorts of music.  You can play Balkan and middle eastern music and it will sound authentic.  Superb instrument - best bouzouki I have ever owned!

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## Mike Anderson

> Lol yes, well I know that feeling! I had to sit to play my first bouzouki, it was a nightmare to hold straight and these days my lute slides about all over the place especially when doing Mark Knopfler on it. A friend uses velcro stuck to the back of her bowl-back and it appears to work. Pulls lots of fluff out of her clothes tho 
> 
> (For a good laugh the pic is from around 1982. dont even MENTION the wooly pullover.)


What, that's a great picture! Nothing to be embarrassed about there.  :Smile: 

I'll have to review all my Planxty videos and see what Donal and Andy were doing with their bowl-back bouzoukis. I know Andy played sitting a lot, but not always.

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## violmando

I was a double bassist with 2 music degrees who knew next to nothing about mandolin, but finally bought one. Then, almost 10 years ago, the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra was trying to get up and running and I heard there was such a thing as a mandocello. I played the first couple years on a borrowed one, then got my own. I was HOOKED as soon as I heard that plectrum sound!

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## brdmartin

I grew up playing the Viola, and always enjoyed the deeper richer sound it had compared to the violin. I needed a change in instrument, but I really didn't want to do the guitar, since everyone and their mother plays the guitar. I've been playing OM for about 4 years, and LOVE it. I'm about to get a custom built instrument, which is going to make it just that much more fun.

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## dulcillini

I heard some mandola players and really liked the sound.  I have not found a group setting yet for my mandola playing, but enjoy playing it just the same.  Larger sound box and more mellow sound is very nice.

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## Eddie Sheehy

I had an old Greek zouk that I had a square of sandpaper taped to the back... the wooley jumper held the zouk in place - predated Velcro...

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Tom Haywood

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## vernob

I started to play a CBOM when I built a zouk and have since built a cittern. Mine are no great pieces of art, but they work. The cittern sounds especially good.

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## chuck3

to the original question - I'm a bass player (upright and electric) who came way later in life to mando.  But obviously the lower end of the mando family was of great interest to me.  I've got a mandola and I'm shopping for a zouk, which the guitarist in my main band (who is Irish-American) would also like to try his hand at.

but thanks to all for introducing me to Planxty on this thread - wow, not sure how I missed them back in the day.  Their youtube of The Blacksmith on the Late Late Show (whatever that is) is phenomenal!

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## chuck3

> to the original question - I'm a bass player (upright and electric) who came way later in life to mando.  But obviously the lower end of the mando family was of great interest to me.  I've got a mandola and I'm shopping for a zouk, which the guitarist in my main band (who is Irish-American) would also like to try his hand at.
> 
> but thanks to all for introducing me to Planxty on this thread - wow, not sure how I missed them back in the day.  Their youtube of The Blacksmith on the Late Late Show (whatever that is) is phenomenal!


referring to this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3A5Tgy47M

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## Rob Zamites

> referring to this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3A5Tgy47M


That video is so inspiring to me. I got into cbom's because *everyone* played guitar, and I just didn't like to be like everyone else. I've been away for awhile, but back in it with a fever. I'm even going to sell my ukulele and mountain dulcimer, just so I have $$$ to throw at another cbom!  :Whistling:

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## JeffD

After my very first mandolin self destructed in the back of a closed car one hot summer day, I called up Elderly Instruments (no internet in those days) and ordered my first serious (not beginner) instrument, a Flatiron 3MW mandola, you know the pancake style with a sort of herringbone binding. It was made in 1984, and I bought it new.

I played the potatoes out of that thing, tuned CGDA, sometimes capo 2. It was my main axe for a long while, because that, and an old Martin bowlback in rough shape, were my only mandolins. 

I only recently sold it, to the mandola player in a little quartet I play in, and that is the best way to sell something you have loved, sell it to someone you will be playing music with for a long time, so you still see the thing being played and enjoyed, and you get to love on it a little now and then.

Now I have gone the other way, and I play a sopranino, which is a fourth above the mandolin. Which puts it CGDA, where I am comfortable, but an octave above the mandola, two octaves above the mandocello. All the trigonometry I used to do to play fiddle tunes on mandola serves me well. 

Though capo 2 is not an option anymore.

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## Rob Zamites

> After my very first mandolin self destructed in the back of a closed car one hot summer day, I called up Elderly Instruments (no internet in those days) and ordered my first serious (not beginner) instrument, a Flatiron 3MW mandola, you know the pancake style with a sort of herringbone binding. It was made in 1984, and I bought it new.
> 
> I played the potatoes out of that thing, tuned CGDA, sometimes capo 2. It was my main axe for a long while, because that, and an old Martin bowlback in rough shape, were my only mandolins. 
> 
> I only recently sold it, to the mandola player in a little quartet I play in, and that is the best way to sell something you have loved, sell it to someone you will be playing music with for a long time, so you still see the thing being played and enjoyed, and you get to love on it a little now and then.
> 
> Now I have gone the other way, and I play a sopranino, which is a fourth above the mandolin. Which puts it CGDA, where I am comfortable, but an octave above the mandola, two octaves above the mandocello. All the trigonometry I used to do to play fiddle tunes on mandola serves me well. 
> 
> Though capo 2 is not an option anymore.


{redacted due to my inability to click the link}  :Redface:

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## Eddie Sheehy

Well, there I was, marooned on the Island of Misfit toys when...

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## kmmando

Because of Alec Finn, and Andy Irvine too.

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## kmmando

These guys had a lot of influence, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny.

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