4 string Domra

This is  a, (possibly Ukrainian?) Domra. 

Now I don't know a lot about Domras beyond they are an eastern European Folk Chordophone, usually with a bowl back, 4 strings and smaller than a Guitar. I think there may be size differences and I have seen them, (or something very similar), with diatonic fretboards and also as a 3 string instrument. Anyway a woman was selling two of them on eBay with a 99p starting price, one ready to go and the other, (which I actually liked more), listed as "for spares or repair" I asked what was wrong with it and was told it needed a new nut. Well that's not a difficult job so I thought it worth a punt, and though I ended up going to my maximum, it was still fairly cheap and now its coming to Ukulele Corner. I hope it is just the nut and it is an easy fix, then I can find out how to tune one and play some rock and roll on it.

The Domra has arrived now and is only missing the nut, everything else is fine. The only problem, (apart from what strings? and how do you tune and play it?) is that the neck is very  narrow and all of my spare Ukulele nuts are too wide. I ended up making a new nut by cutting an old nylon saddle to the right length and filing some slots in, but it seems to want to sit at a funny angle like the nut on my Cak.

The tuners are fine but obviously not both original as one side is white and the other black and on a raised rail, (probably originally to fit over a thinner headstock?), but the buttons are the same design, if not the same colour and this gives an interesting, and not wholly out of play look to the headstock. The other end is interesting too. The tailpiece is not a tailpiece as such, it is more like 4 bridge pins, but on the base, (and thankfully they are all there). The trouble I am having with them now is whilst they are all there they are much bigger that Guitar bridge pins and there is not split or anything in them so I have tried both nylon and steel, (I guess they should probably be steel), strings but when I put the pins back in, the extra width of the string means they no longer fit properly?

I have gone with loop end steel strings and I have widened the loop a little so the pin fits inside the loop. I don't know if its the right way to do it but it seems to work