Re: Bouzouki, OM, or Mandola?
I would vote for mandola, as well; its voice is somewhere around the 5-string's, so you'd be playing in familiar territory, above the guitar and below the fiddle/piccolo, and you could combine chords with doing some counter-melodies and harmonies.
I've posted this MP3 about a half-dozen times, so I apologize. It's an old "live" recording of my band Innisfree (which partially explains the haphazard engineering -- right off the PA), and illustrates how the Sobell mandola I'm playing interacts with Mark Deprez's lead mandolin-banjo. I'll play some chords, but mainly I'm working in harmonies below the lead. I find this role for the mandola very satisfying. Even if you're just playing rhythm chords, you won't be encroaching into the guitar's space much, and the tonal quality of mandola chords differs enough from guitar chords, that you won't be just duplicating.
If you do go for bouzouki, be aware that most instruments sold to Celtic players as bouzoukis are just longer-necked octave mandolins, not tuned or played like the traditional Greek bouzouki. So there's a good deal of overlap between the two instruments.
Notes on the MP3: the tunes are Irish Washerwoman/Swallowtail Jig/Saddle the Pony, three jigs, and the other musicians are Barbara Jablonski on hammered dulcimer and Kathleen Cappon on 12-string guitar.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Bookmarks