Charango

[Hippety Hop]

One of my mate Zeke's workmates loaned him a charango for a week, and I had a ball with it. Any uke player would love it I reckon. Same or similar tuning. We traced the shape onto paper. They were originally built with an armadillo shell, or alternatively by carving the complete instrument - except for soundboard, fretboard and bridge - from one piece of wood.

Here's a tutorial in Spaniola, which I think I found via MIMF. I only speak gringo lingo, but it's not hard to work out what he's talking about.

I suppose the tuning racks would be a little difficult to find.

Cheers Hip.

[Steve]

Hi Hip,
You know you can translate most web pages into Gringo Lingo...
http://translate.google.com/#
But, like you say, the pictures do tell most of the story. It does look like a lot of fun.
Steve

[Allen]

That's a brilliant instrument and site Hip.

Gaby brought a carved body instrument to the Uke Club a few months ago along those line. Just the standard 4 uke strings though. It had an incredible sound, perhaps due in part to the very solid body and neck combo.

[Gaby]

Funny how this thread caught my eye...my uke is based on the charango and made in Bolivia.

Charangos were originally made with an armadillo back, but these days they often carve out a piece of wood or even make normal back and sides.

The one thing I don't like about charangos is the weight of the neck compared to the body. Due to the width of the neck plus the amount of tuners the neck is very heavy and the instrument is a bit awkward to hold.

But the volume of these one-piece (plus soundboard) instruments is amazing, and the richness of tone is unique. It defies luthier logic in some ways, as the carved wood is thick and heavy (ebony in my case, but they use all types of wood) and the top is thick as well. Obviously the resonance makes up for all of this.

[Rick Turner]

Somewhere in my piles of boxes of misc. lutherie detritus I have a shaped armadillo shell...a charango back...that I picked up from a luthier's shop near the Ecuadorian town of Otavalo in the Andes. I was on the hunt for two charangos...but they only had one for sale. My driver/guide was a guitar player who spoke English quite well, and he understood my disappointment, and conveyed it...and the fact that I was a guitar maker...to the guys in the shop who sold me the one completed instrument to take back for a friend in the 'States AND they gave me the shell so I could make my own charango.

Got to find that thing! It might be great for a Pan-Pacific taro-patch outfitted with PegHed tuners to keep the weight down. Gaby has that peghead balance thing right...they're downright weird.

[Hippety Hop]

Ecuador, Tasmania. You sure know how to have fun Rick.

One of the two concert ukes I'm working on will be a charango. Just a uke body with a couple of fan braces, and uke pegs - 2½ sets. The Peruvian charango (wikipaedia) has such a body.

Suppose I'll have to learn that Michael Martin Murphy song "...I wanta go home with the amadillo..."

Kiwis could make them out of hedgehog.

They're probably protected - hedgehog, not kiwi - but it's for a good cause.

Dinsdale would approve.

Cheers Hip.

[Nick]

Kiwis could make them out of hedgehog.

They're probably protected - hedgehog, not kiwi - but it's for a good cause.

Dinsdale would approve.

Cheers Hip.

Why ruin a perfectly good hedgehog when they already make excellent bedroom slippers?

[kiwigeo]

Hedgehogs are not native to New Zealand, in fact theyre considered a pest by some.

Kiwis could make them out of hedgehog.

They're probably protected - hedgehog, not kiwi - but it's for a good cause.

Dinsdale would approve.

Cheers Hip.

[Rick Turner]

How 'bout an echidna, then?

Naah, they're such cute little critters. Louise has 'em in her back yard.

[Hippety Hop]

Wouldn't be so cute after he's had his little sides bent.