Stringed Instruments

[xoxoxoBruce]

I hadn't seen a 16 string acoustic guitar. This picture was taken in Peru, way out in the boondocks, around 4200 meters(13,780 ft) up, so it's where they say you've got a pretty mouth, not some conservatory.

[Undertoad]

I can't make head or tail of this picture. It looks like there are 16 tuners, but only 12 in use, and strung in a 4x3 configuration. There are a few rare basses strung like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-string_bass

This is not that though, so I dunno what it is.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I tried Google for 16 string and found 12, 14, 16 18, and more but they are all Frankensteins some musician has dedicated their life to. From this picture, even playing with it in Photoshop I can't make out how the strings are grouped. This picture came from tonight's Peru IOtD, but the only one of any instrument.
Damifino?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I Googled Peruvian folk instruments and got the 10 string charango, then the usual daisy chain of links led me to these...

Chango a larger member of the charango family, from 104 to 108 cm long with a scale of about 80–84 cm. It has 20 nylon strings set in ten courses, two strings to a course, and is tuned in fifths. Invented in Bolivia by the Shuarscovliente brothers, it has no frets; the strings are played open.

Moquegua: Charango with 20 strings arranged in five courses of four strings each. Tuning is like the standard charango with the third (central) course using octave doublings.

Pampeno (also Arequipeño): Another rustic, guitar-style, plywood charango used in the Arequipa region of Peru. It's 15 metal strings, triple strung in 5 courses, are tuned: C# - F# - C# - A - E, with the third (middle) course in octaves.

Sonko: A large heart-shaped instrument with 13 (and sometimes more) strings. It is a fairly recent development, first designed in the 1970s, by Gerardo Yañez. It has not yet acquired a standard tuning.

[Gravdigr]

From Atlas Of Plucked Instruments



Maybe.

[Undertoad]

Looks like it, good find digr

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, bravo Digr.

Oh Christ, I went to read about the Bandurria and there were two more.

BANDOLA - Some bandolas have 12 strings (in 6 double courses, like the Spanish bandurria), but most of the Colombian bandolas have 16 strings, with the 4 top courses triple. Note that in the Philippines exists a similar looking bandurria with 14 strings.
The tuning is like a Spanish bandurria in 5-5-5-5-5 (frets) : f#f# bb e'e'e' a'a'a' d''d''d'' g''g''g''.

BANDOLIN - The bandolin from Ecuador has a body shaped much like a bandola or mandolin, but it has 5 courses of triple metal strings, in a guitar-tuning. The bandolin is made like a guitar, with a flat back. The fingerboard is slightly raised above the front, and has metal frets. The long flat tuning head has 7 tuning machines on the right side and 8 tuning machines on the left side of the open pegbox. The 15 metal strings (in triple unison courses, with only the two lowest ones with a low octave string in the middle) run over a loose bridge to a metal stringholder on the end of the body. This makes it different from the bandurria from Peru, which has a similar body shape, but with the strings fixed to a guitar-like bridge.
The tuning is guitar-like : e"e'e" a"a'a" d"d"d" fis" fis" fis" b"b"b".

South America sure has a shitload of different instruments, lot of pluckers down there.

[Clodfobble]

There is also such a thing as a mandurria, and a mandola. Basically all three suffixes can start with B or M.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, but I think the Mandurria is 12 string and the Mandola is 8 string.

[Gravdigr]

24 string bass...

[Undertoad]

For the record, I am totally and entirely against those monstrosities. That one they just built to show off their strings, but other luthiers have gone for similar "extended range" basses, and in my eyes they are an abomination, and only played by attention whores.

It takes all my energy not to be angry at any bass with 7 or more strings.

[Gravdigr]

I was surprised by their range of gauges.

.266 - .008 I think they said.

Plus, it looks like a fucking monster.