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  #16  
Old 07-17-2013, 06:14 AM
Herb Hunter Herb Hunter is offline
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Originally Posted by Dr_H View Post

Worrying about catching leprosy from a charango is like worrying about catching AIDS from a toilet seat.
I would say concern of catching leprosy from a charango is like worrying about catching bubonic plague from a stuffed rodent bought at a garage sale. Bacteria isn’t going to survive the preparation process prior to assembly of the instrument any more than it would survive the taxidermy process.

Frankly, I don’t believe there is a significant number of people afraid of charangos as public knowledge of armadillo susceptibility to leprosy appears to be rather limited.

Most charangos made from armadillos are not fully playable as they are made for the tourist trade as novelty items and musicians seem to prefer the tone of a wooden charango anyway. I’m fortunate to have a 43-year-old, professional-grade, armadillo-backed charango made by a renown Bolivian luthier who once had made a special guitar for Evita Peron.

The same luthier made a guitar out of a turtle shell. I offered to buy it without even playing it as it was missing two strings but he surprised me by being unwilling to sell it. Also in his shop in for repairs was a dual-chamber, Argentine guitar. Inside the guitar which was slightly larger than a typical classical guitar was sound chamber similar to that of a mandolin to better reproduce the higher frequencies. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to play it but it is a safe bet that it wasn’t a very successful design or it wouldn’t be so rare.
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  #17  
Old 09-19-2013, 02:11 PM
Dr_H Dr_H is offline
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Originally Posted by Herb Hunter View Post
I would say concern of catching leprosy from a charango is like worrying about catching bubonic plague from a stuffed rodent bought at a garage sale. Bacteria isn’t going to survive the preparation process prior to assembly of the instrument any more than it would survive the taxidermy process.
OK, sure, that works too.

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Frankly, I don’t believe there is a significant number of people afraid of charangos as public knowledge of armadillo susceptibility to leprosy appears to be rather limited.
You're probably right, although I have seen the topic come up in online forums from time to time.

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Most charangos made from armadillos are not fully playable as they are made for the tourist trade as novelty items and musicians seem to prefer the tone of a wooden charango anyway.
Ah... there I'm not sure I agree. Well, I suppose it's true in the same sense as saying 'most guitars made aren't fully playable', since there are an awful lot of crappy guitars out there, sold in toy stores and such.

But sometimes I think people lose sight of the fact that certain instruments evolved as folk instruments, and the charango is certainly among them. Armdillos were likely originally used because they were plentiful and more or less free, whereas seasoned wood was scarce, expensive, and luthiers weren't actually abundant. Sure, now we have luthiers who specialize in these things, and access to properly prepared tone-woods, and we like to use little frills like bridge saddles. But the people who invented this instrument mostly didn't have these things, and they managed to create, play, and pass on a substantial body of music with them, nonetheless.

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I’m fortunate to have a 43-year-old, professional-grade, armadillo-backed charango made by a renown Bolivian luthier who once had made a special guitar for Evita Peron.
Cool. A friend of mine has a $15K Powell flute; she also has a $9 bamboo sulin. When she performs with the orchestra, she plays the Powell. But when she performs with her Gamelan Angklung, she plays the funky cheap hand-made bamboo flute.
Not to press my point too hard.


Quote:
The same luthier made a guitar out of a turtle shell. I offered to buy it without even playing it as it was missing two strings but he surprised me by being unwilling to sell it. Also in his shop in for repairs was a dual-chamber, Argentine guitar. Inside the guitar which was slightly larger than a typical classical guitar was sound chamber similar to that of a mandolin to better reproduce the higher frequencies. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to play it but it is a safe bet that it wasn’t a very successful design or it wouldn’t be so rare.
I once saw a guitar made from a turtle shell; didn't get to play it, though. Wonder if that's where the guys at Kaman got the idea for the the Ovation line?

As regards the Argentine guitar, too bad you didn' t get to play it -- I'd be really interested in how it sounded. It might even be a good idea, but it sounds like it would be a real b|tch to make -- that alone could be a reason why it wasn't successful.
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  #18  
Old 09-19-2013, 03:34 PM
Herb Hunter Herb Hunter is offline
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Originally Posted by Dr_H View Post
Ah... there I'm not sure I agree. Well, I suppose it's true in the same sense as saying 'most guitars made aren't fully playable', since there are an awful lot of crappy guitars out there, sold in toy stores and such.

But sometimes I think people lose sight of the fact that certain instruments evolved as folk instruments, and the charango is certainly among them. Armdillos were likely originally used because they were plentiful and more or less free, whereas seasoned wood was scarce, expensive, and luthiers weren't actually abundant. Sure, now we have luthiers who specialize in these things, and access to properly prepared tone-woods, and we like to use little frills like bridge saddles. But the people who invented this instrument mostly didn't have these things, and they managed to create, play, and pass on a substantial body of music with them, nonetheless.
I wonder if you missed my point which is that for the last few decades most armadillo backed charangos have been made as novelties for the tourist trade and that contemporary musicians prefer wood backed instruments. That doesn’t mean that farther back in time, musicians didn’t play armadillo backed charangos almost exclusively or that the original instruments which probably evolved from the vihuela or mandolin brought by the Spaniards weren’t made from the leprosy susceptible critters. They most certainly were.

I commissioned my Charango in 1970 and evenback then, at least one of the more prominent luthiers catering to musicians was already reluctant to make charangos from armadillos out of concern that the result might adversely affect his reputation as a master charango luthier.
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  #19  
Old 09-23-2013, 06:08 PM
Dr_H Dr_H is offline
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Originally Posted by Herb Hunter View Post
I wonder if you missed my point which is that for the last few decades most armadillo backed charangos have been made as novelties for the tourist trade and that contemporary musicians prefer wood backed instruments. That doesn’t mean that farther back in time, musicians didn’t play armadillo backed charangos almost exclusively or that the original instruments which probably evolved from the vihuela or mandolin brought by the Spaniards weren’t made from the leprosy susceptible critters. They most certainly were.
Sir, I bow to your broader experience.

I will say, though, that I own both armadillo ("Quirquinchu"), and wood charangos, purchased in the past 6 years, and am quite happy with the playability and sound of both.

Perhaps I was just lucky.
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  #20  
Old 09-23-2013, 11:42 PM
Roselynne Roselynne is offline
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The first charango I ever saw was on ShopGoodwill. To me, its top looked odd enough, but that scaly, bristly back gave me the shivers!

A local shop has had a scaly (but not bristly), armadillo charango up for sale for several months now. Once again, the first thing I noticed was the oddly proportioned top. Next, I observed that this thing creeped me out completely. After that, I recalled that I do have guitars with bone nuts and saddles, and said appointments most assuredly had not grown on trees.

So ... on my next visit, since I felt silly about feeling squeamish, I picked up the creepy charango. Its lack of bristles helped a lot, plus it didn't smell. Don't know any charango chords (couldn't even tell if the thing was in tune, but this shop is really good at keeping its stock tuned up), so I just strummed at random and picked a few notes. Sounded to me like a mellow mini-mandolin with banjo undertones and uke-ish tendencies. Quite pleasant, really. Now I totally understand the inspiration behind the armadillo-backed charango, and why it's endured. Still ... brrrrrrr. Also ... ewwwww.
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  #21  
Old 09-24-2013, 03:27 PM
Dr_H Dr_H is offline
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Originally Posted by Roselynne View Post
Now I totally understand the inspiration behind the armadillo-backed charango, and why it's endured. Still ... brrrrrrr. Also ... ewwwww.

Well, it is the only instrument I own that has it's own hair.
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  #22  
Old 09-25-2013, 04:33 PM
Navid Navid is offline
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I just bought a Charango from a friend. It was made by Mendoza in Peru. It's beautiful, he sold it to me for $50 bucks. Great deal. It's all made out of wood, it's not made with an armadillo thankfully.

I like it because I'm a Mandolin player and two upper courses are the same as a Mandolin and then the other intervals resemble a Ukulele so it's easy enough to figure out at least in jam sessions. But I have to get new strings for it.

I don't know, I prefer my Ukulele to this. I may buy some Aquila nyglut mandolin strings and put them on because I've ALWAYS wanted a mandolin with a softer tone. That would be fun, the two upper courses sound just like it.
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  #23  
Old 09-27-2013, 03:06 PM
Dr_H Dr_H is offline
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Originally Posted by Navid View Post
I just bought a Charango from a friend. It was made by Mendoza in Peru. It's beautiful, he sold it to me for $50 bucks. Great deal. It's all made out of wood, it's not made with an armadillo thankfully.

I like it because I'm a Mandolin player and two upper courses are the same as a Mandolin and then the other intervals resemble a Ukulele so it's easy enough to figure out at least in jam sessions. But I have to get new strings for it.

I don't know, I prefer my Ukulele to this. I may buy some Aquila nyglut mandolin strings and put them on because I've ALWAYS wanted a mandolin with a softer tone. That would be fun, the two upper courses sound just like it.
I love the charango -- 5ths on the top, 4th on the bottom, with that low string in the middle, the funky re-entrant tuning... When I improvise on it I come up with completely different kinds of melodic lines than on guitar or mandolin. Often the melody gets split between the middle finger and the thumb.

I've slowly been acquiring the various members of the charango family: I now also own a hualyacho and a ronrroco. I really like the ronrroco; being primarily a guitarist, the scale feels more natural to me.

I'd like to get a charangon, if I can find anybody who actually knows the difference between that and a ronrroco.
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  #24  
Old 09-28-2013, 11:58 AM
Herb Hunter Herb Hunter is offline
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The hualaycho (or walaycho) is smaller than a charango but has the same number of strings and is tuned either a fourth or a fifth higher.

The ronroco is larger than the charango and is typically tuned a fifth or fourth lower.

Despite having lived in Bolivia for a few years, I’ve not heard of the charangón but the suffix of the name suggests to me that it is larger than a charango. I had heard of a charango bajo (bass charango) and it may be that, charangón, is another name for the same instrument. Anyway, I’m certainly not an expert on the charango family of instruments.

Last edited by Herb Hunter; 09-28-2013 at 12:09 PM.
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