played by Bulgarian / Macedonian tamburas or Greek bouzoukis in their native setting. Tuning By far the most common tuning for the Irish bouzouki is G−D−A−D. The G−D−A−D tuning was pioneered by Johnny Moynihan, presumably in an attempt to replicate the open, droning sound of Appalachian "clawhammer" banjo, first on the mandolin and then transferred to a Greek bouzouki. It was later picked up by Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny, and quickly became the next thing to a standard tuning for the instrument. Other tunings used, although by a minority of players, are "octave mandolin" tuning G−D−A−E, and "Open D" tuning A−D−A−D. "Open G" G−D−G−D, is used by some players and has proven useful for "bottleneck" slide playing. The G−D−A−D tuning is closer to the D−A−D tuning of the Greek trichordo bouzouki than is the guitar-like tuning C−F−A−D used on the modern Greek tetrachordo, and is particularly well suited to a modal harmonic approach to accompaniment used in Irish traditional music. Alec Finn, playing a Greek trichordo bouzouki, used the traditional D−A−D tuning with the octave pair on the low D course changed to unison. Name and categorization For many builders and players, the terms "bouzouki", "cittern", and "octave mandolin" are more or less synonymous. The octave mandolin is usually regarded as having a shorter scale length than the Irish bouzouki, in the vicinity of 20 to 23 inches (50 to 59 cm). Irish bouzoukis most often range from 24 to 25 inches (60 to 65 cm), with some long-scale instruments extended to 26 or even 27 inches (66 to 68 cm). Mandolin luthiers producing an octave mandolin are more likely to use mandolin tuning machines and reproduce the details and styling of their American-style carved top and back mandolins. Some luthiers choose to refer to their clearly bouzouki-style instruments as "octave mandolins", or even as "mandocellos", despite optimizing the design for the G−D−A−D tuning. 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, in the study of musical instruments the mandolin-like and lute-like instruments are part of a single, large family of plucked stringed instruments that includes all types of bouzouki. Since the genesis of the Irish bouzouki in the late 1960s, some luthiers have incorporated so many aspects of mandolin construction – particularly when building arch-top