Hi everyone - my first post here, as I've been interested in learning to play the octave mandolin or Irish bouzouki for a while, and have decided to finally go for it. I want to make a good choice from the beginning, but it’s tricky with a less common instrument.
I played woodwind instruments as a kid, so I’m familiar with reading music, but my experience with string instruments is limited to a ukulele that I can doot around on for fun, so this would be a big learning process. A few years ago at a local Renaissance fair I tried out a bouzouki and loved it, but at the time I was in no financial position to buy an expensive toy. Recently I inherited a pretty old mandolin and thought I’d practice on that as a kind of stepping stone, but after a few hesitant forays into tuning and picking on it, I opened the case to retune it and found that the neck had popped right out of its socket. I could take it to be repaired, but it made me realize that I’d have a much better time, and be better motivated, if I was playing what I really wanted.
Internet research has given me a vague idea of the similarities and differences of OM and bouzouki, but having only played one in person, it’s hard for me to compare. I think I like the GDAD tuning better, but it might be nice to be able to switch to GDAE, and I’ve heard tales of bouzoukis not being able to handle the high string being so tight. I definitely prefer the octave strings for the lowers, but I imagine I can do that to either type. I’m a very small person (with arms stretched out I have a reach of exactly five feet) so I’ve considered that the length of the octave mandolin might be easier for me to deal with, but if there’s a big difference in sound I’d probably go with the one I prefer regardless. How would you characterize the differences between them? Or is it more a factor of individual instruments?
The other question is budget and availability. Online searches have overwhelmingly presented me with Gold Tone and Trinity College instruments, and from what I’ve read, the verdict on these is that both of them are Very Ok. The bouzouki I played with was a TC, and I liked it, but again I have no frame of comparison. I know that with these kind of things you get what you pay for, and I’m willing to pay a few hundred dollars, but my nervousness increases with price up to about a thousand dollars, at which point I hit my limit for first instrument anxiety. I would be very cool with buying used, but am unsure how to find something I can test out before buying (I'm in Maryland, and not familiar with anyone building instruments nearby).
So, to put it more generally, what advice do you have for me? What should I consider when I’m comparing, and where should I be looking?
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