OM vs Irish Bouzouki

[andrea rose]

does anybody know what tuning Sarah Jarosz uses on her OM and some chords for that tuning.. I am wanting to use mine for vocal back up song writing.I'm trying to learn OM .. been playing guitar for years and this is totally different.. #newbie

[vernob]

Sarah Jarosz uses GDAE on her octave mandolin, which is guitar shaped in the videos I've seen. Here's a trick to making the transition: the bottom four strings of a guitar are EADG. The four courses of an OM are GDAE. Each is just the mirror image of the other. Of course, learning to play "backwards" is difficult. But if you are comfortable with your guitar chord forms, turning them around gives you a head start.

[andrea rose]

oh wow!! i didnt' even realize that !! I'm gonna try that !! thanks!!

[red7flag]

This thread not only got me to get out my GOM, but to measure the scale -- 22 inches. Andrew Mowry did an excellent job on this instrument. I do find that the G (tuned GDAE) is a bit wobbly. Andrew recommends the following gauges 52w, 36w, 22w and 13. What would you guys suggest?

[michaelcj]

This thread not only got me to get out my GOM, but to measure the scale -- 22 inches. Andrew Mowry did an excellent job on this instrument. I do find that the G (tuned GDAE) is a bit wobbly. Andrew recommends the following gauges 52w, 36w, 22w and 13. What would you guys suggest?

Gauges on my Clark are; .052, .034, .023, .013…. but it is a 20.25" scale…

Seems to me that the G course is always going to be a bit of a compromise between "a bit floppy" and "total thud" on an OM. when you get to a Zouk scale of 24.75" to 26" I think you can expect more of the "guitar" bass clarity and "ring".

[mandroid]

IDK Sarah's gear , but because the Irish Bouzouki is a lot longer neck* , than the Octave Mandolin

to reach the same GDAE octave pitch, the strings are a Lot thinner ..


* fits in a Banjo case.

[michaelcj]

A guitar of about the same scale length of a Zøuk has [medium set]

A string of .045w one step higher than the Zouk G
D string of .035w same for Zouk D
B string of .o17p one step higher than the Zouk A
E string of .013 same for Zouk E

For regular Double Courses I would guess you would have to be confident in your neck construction/truss rod, but I don't see why the G and A Zouk strings couldn't go a bit thicker with the lower pitch.

With octave courses on the G and D I would think you could increase the G even a bit more.

[Bertram Henze]

I do find that the G (tuned GDAE) is a bit wobbly. Andrew recommends the following gauges 52w, 36w, 22w and 13. What would you guys suggest?

I have 52-36-24-15 on a 21" OM. The G is nice and booming that way, and I wouldn't go any heavier than 52 on a 22" length.

[KevinThomas]

As has been stated many times in this thread. it's a pretty grey area. I think the biggest defining characteristic is the scale length. I've got a bouzouki with unison strings tuned GDAD, I do a variety of different things on it: chording, arpeggiation and double-stops, as well as playing fiddle tunes and some soloing and lead work. It is definitely not as easy to pull off fiddle tunes on the longer scale length but it just takes some getting used to.
Even with the unison sets all the way across I still consider it a bouzouki because of the scale length.

Just my two cents, for what it's worth.

[Colin Lindsay]

I find that too Kevin - playing at the zero fret can be awkward at speed but moving to the fifth (G) is a lot easier.
Re Red7flag: when I had my Fylde Octavious I found the recommended string gauge of 52 very very floppy indeed, in fact it spoiled the playing of the instrument completely as it was always very dull and nothing I tried improved things. The extra scale length of the bouzouki enables me to use guitar strings in unison (many more versions to choose from than bouzouki strings) and it plays so much more brightly.

[Whitepaws]

Can an Irish Bouzouki be tuned GDBD, the same as a banjo open G tuning?

[DavidKOS]

Can an Irish Bouzouki be tuned GDBD, the same as a banjo open G tuning?

G banjo tuning is G DGBD

I assume with the right gauge of strings you could tune to that.

[OneChordTrick]

Can an Irish Bouzouki be tuned GDBD, the same as a banjo open G tuning?

Yes! I’ve just tried it; at least on my OM. As David said if you have the right gauge strings.

I tuned it back though as I have enough problems playing in GDAD/E and don’t want to confuse my brain further.