I’ve always enjoyed listening to the smallest of guitar-like instruments, but never enough to actually spend hard cash on one.  Imagine my delight today when I saw one for free on Facebook Marketplace, 10 minutes from where I live. The kind donor even apologised for the dusty case!

It’s a Tanglewood TWM O VS which I guess is a few years old, since I can’t track it down on google (other than on ebay). It plays nicely, although I broke a top string as I tuned it up to pitch – slightly scary how high the note is compared to a guitar and the strings are well past their sell-by date. The tiny gaps between frets will also take some getting used to!

They are traditionally tuned G-D-A-E, which is the opposite to guitar. It may be that I can imagine chords upside down, but it’s probably easier to simply relearn them. I’ve yet to properly achieve this with my Irish bouzouki, my plan is to sit in on some folk sessions and just quietly strum along.