Stringed Instruments

[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.