...Balalaika ...tuned EEA ....its half a Uke chord (tuned GCEA) ...with the E string part doubled ...Ah ,but you have to fret with your thumb on the E or both E s and the A is steel....I love it ...oh and no nails or picks ...it all the fleshy parts (ooer missus) ....its mad ...and I luuuuurve it.
Yeah, I grok it's like a mutant dulcimer-'uke. If I can't find a decent one at a decent price I may have to build my own. Wow, I haven't touched one for a long, long time...
Hm . . . tell me more about that 'Irish" tuning . . .
Talk to some old-time fiddlers and mando-pickers and they'll mention Eye-talian (standard)
GDae tuning, and power-chord Sawmill
GDgd tuning, and good old Irish
GDad (Gee, Dad!) tuning. Sawmill is good for modal stuff, almost a heavy-duty dulcimer. Eye-talian is for the usual, and 'most everybody does it. Chord forms are simple and easy to move around but they make for some strange stretches, and the tuning isn't great for open strings and droning.
'Irish' Gee-Dad! is like a mix of mando and guitar, or a compromise between standard (closed chords) and Sawmill (open tuning). Chords aren't quite as portable and flexible as standard 'Eye-talian' but some are much easier, and I can play guitar tricks on the top courses. And 'Irish' (so named after a common Irish Bouzouki tuning) allows for singing drones in a few keys: F, G, A, C, and D especially.
Another mando trick is blues tuning. At least one blues-mando great, Yank Rachell, tuned down 3 half-steps from
GDae to
EBf#c# which allows easy playing along with guitars in E, a great blues key. My funkiest mando is now in Irish Blues
EBf#b tuning which gives me the ease of 'Irish' chords with a low bluesy funk and chunk from detuning. I use medium-heavy strings for that lower range.
Probably the 'uke equivalent of 'Irish' (but with a very different effect) is slack-key, dropping ('slacking') the top on a re-entrant axe, going from
gCEa to
gCEg. Do that with a 8-string 'uke and it's Taropatch, or so I'm told. Both Irish and Taropatch allow a smoother approach to the instruments IMHO. And those singing drones give the music more texture.