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
Bouzouki the mainstay of most Rebetiko music. It has fixed frets and 6 strings in three pairs. In the lower-pitched (bass) course, the pair consists of a thick wound string and a thin string, tuned an octave apart. The conventional modern tuning of the "trichordo" bouzouki is DD–AA–DD. This tuning was called the "European tuning" by Markos Vamvakaris, who mentioned (but failed to describe) several other tunings, or "douzenia", in his autobiography. The illustrated bouzouki was made by Karolos Tsakirian of Athens, and is a replica of a "trichordo" bouzouki made by his grandfather for Markos Vamvakaris. The absence of the