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I call it a bouzouki, actually, but it really could be called any number of things: a mandocello, a mandola, a tenor bouzouki/mandola/mandocello. I bought an irish bouzouki in 2005ish when I wanted to try my hand writing on some different and strange instruments. The Irish bouzouki itself is a kind of bastardization of the greek bouzouki, which found its way into Irish/Brit folk music in the 60s (John Moynihan, Anne Briggs, Terry Woods). I use to see bouzouki in Terry Woods' instrument credits in The Pogues records and always wondered what it was... He's my first bouzouki hero. Andrew Mowry, a luthier in Bend, OR, offered to make me a mandolin some years ago so I commissioned a bouzouki that was shaped like a guitar, one that you could rest on your lap (the teardrop shape of a traditional bouzouki was always awkward, I thought, for playing while you are sitting down). So that's how we arrived where we are today...
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