Bouzouki heavy mother-of-pearl ornamentation often seen on modern bouzoukia is typical of bouzoukia of the period. It has tuners for eight strings, but has only six strings, the neck being too narrow for eight. The luthiers of the time often used sets of four tuners on trichordo instruments, as these were more easily available, being also used on mandolins. This type of bouzouki has 8 metal strings, which are arranged in 4 pairs, known as courses, typically tuned CC–FF–AA–DD (i.e., one whole step below the four high strings of a guitar). In the two higher-pitched (treble) courses, the two strings of
Irish bouzouki De Dannan, obtained a "trichordo" Greek bouzouki on his own. With a few exceptions, bouzouki players playing Irish music tend to use the instrument less for virtuoso melodic work and more for the chordal or contrapuntal accompaniment of melodies played on other instruments, such as the flute or fiddle. Because of this, it is common to use matched strings on the two bass courses, tuning to unison pairs in order to enhance the bass response of the instrument. Almost immediately after the Greek bouzouki's initial introduction, new designs built specifically for Irish traditional music were developed. The body was widened