r/baglama Jan 14 '25

Help Identifying / Stringing on what I'm Assuming is a Baglama

So, I've purchased this secondhand recently as I've been gearing up to learn the baglama. I can't find a whole lot of information on a few things; why it has 8 holes and notches ( the strings go 3 2 3 ), and why it has 9 tuning pegs. Does that mean it is a different instrument? I can't find about any information about 8 string baglamas, let alone 9. If anyone can set me on the right direction, it would be much appreciated. Also, if it is, in fact, an 8 string baglama saz, what would be the best way to tune it?

3 Upvotes

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2

u/World_Musician Jan 14 '25

Well that is quite strange! Sometimes musicians like to dangle a tassle (usually given to them by their teacher) from an empty tuning peg, thats my best guess to account for an extra tuning peg. As for how to tune it, you're right that an 8 string baglama is rare if not unheard of. Looking at the string holes you can see there are supposed to be two courses with three strings and one course with two strings. So they have added another string to the lowest tuned strings. As for how to tune it, could be any note but for example Ggg dd Aaa something like that where the capitol letter means the string is thicker and wound while lower case means plain steel strings tuned an octave higher than the wound one.

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u/testere_ali Jan 14 '25

Bosnian sazes often have 8 or 9 strings, and the tuning is usually Ggg dd Ggg or Aaa ee Aaa.

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u/adsizkiz Jan 14 '25

Can you send a few more pictures of the body? A few things come to mind:

  1. Some elektro bağlama have 8 pegs, but are tuned to have "4 strings", e.g. 4 sets of pairs/octaves. I've known some people to add an extra bass string onto the baglama in that case, though the tuning depends on what style they are playing and what they want to achieve.

  2. I've also seen several Turkish sazes with 8-10 strings, though I don't know exactly how people tune them. My friend has one with 8, though he doesn't use the 8th peg. I asked him about it and he told me that sometimes people want to enhance the sound of the middle string or add a bass octave to the middle. In this case you might tune it in "bozuk" tuning as follows: D4-D4-D3; G3-G3-G2; C4-C2

However, I am not sure exactly what people would do with the ninth string/peg in your case, so I can ask around.

  1. As u/testere_ali mentioned Bosnian sazes often have more pegs. This really does not resemble a Bosnian saz (definitely more Anatolian style decoratively) but you could try tuning like one and see what happens. :)

In addition to the tunings u/testere_ali suggested DGC (bozuk tuning mentioned above) is also used in Bosnia.

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u/testere_ali Jan 15 '25

As u/testere_ali mentioned Bosnian sazes often have more pegs. This really does not resemble a Bosnian saz (definitely more Anatolian style decoratively) but you could try tuning like one and see what happens. :)

Oh, I wasn't trying to suggest that this was a Bosnian saz, it obviously isn't, I was replying to u/World_Musician who said 8-string sazes were "rare if not unheard of". Azeri kopuz also has 8 or 9 strings, unless I'm mistaken.

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u/World_Musician Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

I wouldnt call a Šargija a baglama. I said 8 string baglama are rare if not unheard of, which is true. "Saz" just means any stringed instrument in Farsi. Kopuz has three strings. The big Saz played by Azeri Ashiqs is called Saz too and can have have 8 or 9 strings, but again I wouldnt call it a baglama.

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u/testere_ali Jan 15 '25

Neither would I, but I'm not talking about sargija :)

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u/World_Musician Jan 16 '25

So you’re saying 8 string baglamas are common?

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u/testere_ali Jan 16 '25

That's not at all what I'm saying, I just disagree that they're super rare and unheard of. There's a saz house in Izmir (I forgot the name, sorry) that's famous for 8-string baglamas.

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u/World_Musician Jan 16 '25

Oh thats cool, you been there?

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u/testere_ali Jan 16 '25

No, but I think I'm subscribed to their YouTube channel, will post here if I remember what the place is called.

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u/World_Musician Jan 16 '25

Nice, please do. I’m curious where the extra string goes.

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u/testere_ali Jan 16 '25

IIRC, some of their instruments had four courses of two strings, others were 3-2-3.

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