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Hello there, I'm from México and I'm building a requinto jarocho. As there is not a category for this instrument, I posted it here because it's about the size of an ukulele.

I'm carving all the instrument from a single piece of wood, something called "cedar root" as is the tradition with this type of instrument (wich is, in fact, root from a tree called "cedar" here in México, and I'm not quite sure, but I think is Cedrella odorata). This means that the back, sides, neck and head are a single piece of wood, no glue joints. Same wood for the Top, and something called "granadillo" for the fretboard (I think is Platymiscium yucatanum but you can not be sure with local names...).

It's gonna be a "Segundo 3/4", wich means it will have a little bit longer scale than the commonly used 550mm scale. I'm going to use a 600mm scale. As a traditional instrument, it will NOT have a trussrod.

The most common strings used are ADGB from a classical nylon-stringed guitar, tuned in CDGc. This means that the D string in the requinto will be under less preassure than in a classic guitar (because of the reducen scale lenght), leading to a lifeless sound (not really, as I have played many requintos stringed this way and is not the case, but I want to improve the sound)

So my question is... wich kind of strings can I use (for getting an increased amount of preasure in the string)? Or even a different tunning?

Are you using steel strings or nylon strings?

Bob

Traditional instruments use nylon strings.... It its believed that steel strings put so much preasure in the bridge that it will break or the neck will bend, as it has no trussrod.

I want the loudest instrument possible

Saludos!

I can't help with string choice off the top of my head, but it would be cool to see pictures of the instrument. I love Son Jarocho and really binged on it for a while as a listener. Hard to tell from here what the best source of recordings is, or who are the best artists.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I did finished my first build back in november. Now I'm building another one, but looking for diferent tonewood.
some pics of the finished requinto (from instagram)...





Saludos!

Very interesting instrument. I particularly like the fact it's carved from a single block of wood. Sorry can't help with the strings


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Very nicely done Alex!!! Great job!!!