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Traditional Irish Music is almost a misnomer, as it is such a wonderful LIVING tradition, adopting new instruments all the time. We talk about traditional Irish Bouzoukis and Octave Mandolins. Fact is, it was Andy Irvine, I believe in the Irish band Planxty at the time, who starting playing a bouzouki he obtained in Greece, retuned and set up for traditonal Irish tunes...about 35 years ago.
The Irish "Cittern", later more properly called the Octave Mandolin quickly followed, as Irish luthiers quickly noticed the trend of players using a mandolin-like instrument tuned an octave lower...and re-purposed bouzoukis were REALLY unweidy, with the longest neck length to body ratio you have ever seen...and the bowl back of the bouzouki makes it a real pain to hold.
My brother, Bobby Rickert, artist/maker, noted Irish tenor banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, tenor guitar and Irish cittern player and luthier, modified a number of Greek bouzoukis for use in Irish music, shortening their necks by as much as 8 inches. Bobby was known for sawing parts off of instruments' necks the minute he got to his shop with a new acquisition (we won't talk about the fact that some of these instruments were rented!).
The surprises of evolution are such that we now have Irish Bouzoukis, Irish Octave Mandolins as distinct instruments. Some would say that the Irish Cittern is distinct, but it is usually used as another name for the Irish octave mandolin: See the images below of some of the finest examples of an octave mandolin by Gold Tone and an Irish bouzouki by Trinity College. See the images below. You can click on them for full-size.
See our online store if you are intersted in muciscal instuments (in additon to fiddles, of course) for traditional Irish music.
You should also read our next post about Cello Banjos in traditional Irish music.
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