My step dad just got back from Equador. He brought me a stringed instrument from said place. It has 10 strings in 5 courses of 2.
What the heck is this thing and how do you play it? How is it tuned? Is it a real instrument or is it just a tourist gizmo.
It has a great sound and stays in tune with itself though I have no idea what the actual tuning is supposed to be.
This is the string layout. I’ve numbered the strings in terms of thickness from 1 (the thinnest) to 4 (the thickest) strings. They are all nylon.
Note that the middle course is composed of a thick string and a thin string, leading me to believe they are supposed to be tuned an octave apart but I can’t be sure since I don’t even know what this thing is.
This is the head part
This is the back. It doesn’t have anything to do with the sound but it’s quite pretty.
OK. It’s a Charengo. Check out Youtube and search on Charengo.
I think it was great of my step dad to think of me and bring it back from Equador for me. My only fear is I may have to restring it someday. If you saw the bridge you’d see why.
On this CD, Gustavo Santaolalla plays the Charango
and its larger cousin, the Ronroco. (From what I can tell,
the relationship can be described by this SAT analogy… Ronroco : Charango :: Bazouki : Mandolin)
Ah, yes. Youtube has plenty of examples if you search for “charango”.
Here, you can watch a gentleman who looks impossibly huge playing
the tiny instrument: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF1peTu32CM
![http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/flyingcursor/instrument1.jpg[/IMG]](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/flyingcursor/instrument1.jpg%5B/IMG%5D){kind=link}