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 is closer to the D3A3D4 tuning of the Greek trichordo bouzouki than is the guitar-like tuning C3F3A3D4 used on the modern Greek tetrachordo, and is particularly well suited to a modal harmonic approach to accompaniment as used in Irish traditional music. Alec Finn, playing a Greek trichordo bouzouki, uses the traditional D3A3D4 tuning with the octave pair on the low D course changed to unison. Amongst many luthiers and musicians the Irish bouzouki is considered to be part of the mandolin family, but for others this new family of instruments is a separate development. In actuality, the mandolin and lute