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
Guqin strings manufacture situation of silk strings is not. Throughout the ages, particularly the political disturbances of the twentieth century as well as the popularity of the metal-nylon strings, has seen silk string manufacture decline. Plus the difficulty in obtaining the best quality silk and the difficulty in obtaining a high quality throughout has brought about only short phases now and again of silk string manufacture. There has been efforts to produce silk strings to the quality and standard that they were before the disruptions. Wong Shu-chee led the first serious undertaking to produce good quality silk strings around the turn of