Hi! I ordered myself a bouzouki that will arrive in a couple of days. I chose a 6-string. But I'm afraid it was the wrong decision. As I am mostly inspired by Johan Papaconstantino and other modern / folkish Greek music. Would you recommend me to send the 6-string back and order a 8 string? I have good musical sense and play the piano and drums. But my theoretical knowledge about keys and tuning (chromatic etc) is very little.
You can actually tune the 6-string bouzouki differently, by tuning the deepest pitch pair of strings DOWN a whole tone, & also tuning the middle pair down also by a whole tone. That'll make the 3-course bouzouki sound C-G-D. This tuning makes major & minor chords LESS of a stretch. Oherwise you can buy a pair of thinner strings & use those for the highest pitch pair of strings, but tuned up a whole tone, to E. This gives the same pattern of notes as before, but based on D instead of C.
Cut the d strings off the 8 string bouzouki? So keep the other strings put and tune d a d? Ok I'll see how it works. The rembetes will be smiling at you.
