Re: Octave mando 4 or 5 courses?
I have an OM and a cittern, and I use and enjoy them both. If you made me sell one, though, it would be the cittern, but very reluctantly. (My cittern has a longer scale, so it's tuned like Mandobart's five-course mandola, but an octave lower.)
Since you're planning to build two instruments and you have never played either one, I'd suggest building one of each, so you can see what you prefer. You're obviously right about the extended melody lines that you can play with a fifth course on either end, but the narrower neck of a four-course instrument is easier to move around and has less potential for hitting the wrong string. Tim O'Brien, Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Sierra Hull, et. al. have done just fine playing OM's or bouzoukis without a fifth course.
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