long necked bowl back

[chouse]

I recently inherited a mandolin through my in-laws that they called a long necked mandolin. It's 36 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the body, and has a 21 inch neck. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and since I would like to learn to play it, if it's some other form of mandolin would a 'learn to play mandolin' book be useful or would I need to look for a specialty book?66239662406624166242

[Tim2723]

Hi and welcome!

Your attachments didn't work so we can't see the pictures. From your brief description it sounds like you might have one of the larger members of the mandolin family, possibly a bouzouki.

[chouse]

Ok, I think I figured out the attatchments, and considering that these came from great uncle Georgalas, bouzouki makes alot of sense.

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[Jim Garber]

Greek made bouzouki it is. If there is a label, perhaps some greek instrument experts can tell you something about the maker.

[Tim2723]

Yup, no doubt about it. That's a bouzouki, and a real beauty.

As to your second question, a mandolin tutor will be helpful, but there are lots of good bouzouki tutorials out there that will be more specific to your needs. Here's a whole bunch:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bouzouki&sprefix=bouzouki

We have some specialized forums here where you'll find top players and experts of all kinds ready to answer all your questions, so hang out with us. Good luck with it and have a blast!

[allenhopkins]

Here's (http://www.bouzouki.com/default.asp?szNav=History) some interesting historical background on the instrument. The site owner also sells bouzoukis, so has some financial interest, but this page seems to be just history.

There is a Cafe forum devoted to "citterns, bouzoukis and octave mandolins," (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?50-CBOM) as well as mandolas, mandocellos, and other larger mandolin-family instruments.

[klaezimmer]

I think it is important to clarify here that the Greek bouzouki is designed to be tuned Cc Ff aa dd, and very lightly strung. The forum for CBOMs (cittern, bouzouki, octave mandolin) has been rightly mentioned, but much of the bouzouki information (not all) addresses the Irish bouzouki, which was inspired by the Greek instrument, but has developed into quite a different instrument. That should be taken into consideration when gleaning from the CBOM forum.

The Greek can be tuned as an Irish, but most of the Irish string sets will create excessive tension on the instrument and perhaps contribute to an early demise. While the Irish has a mandolinish tuning, the Greek has a guitarish tuning (CFAD being a step below the first four courses of a guitar at DGBE). What appears to be a D chord to a guitarist will be a C chord on the bouzouki.

Have fun. Although most of us non-Greeks find them difficult to hold, the Greek bouzouki has a very interesting voice. A guitarist can use patterns he is already familiar with, but they can be very mandolin-sounding in the upper registers with tremolo pick action.