Name: (General classification), 18-string guitar
Type: Lute > Chordophone
Region: Peru > South America
Luthier: Huaman, Qusco Peru.
Source:
This guitar was custom-made by a maker named Huaman, who is out of
buisness now. Although his shop at the time was based in Cusco Peru.
Acquisition date: Circa 2002, Christmas.
Description:
The 18-string guitar is a relatively rare chordophone in Peru. The
development of this type of guitar came slightly after the guitar
roughly 1700s to 1800s. The 18-string guitar had a brief debut did
appear in the Lambayeque
department located in northern-Western Peru and near the
Ecuadorian border.
Anatomy of the 18-string guitar: Originally the 18 string guitar had
wooden tuning pegs and they must have been incredibly difficult to
tune many of these guitars would have gone out of tune during long
periods of use. The neck is re-enforced with tropical woods. A total
of 19-frets and the neck is reinforced. The back of the guitar is
constructed from two pieces.
Re-stringing the 18-string guitar: To re-string the 18-string guitar I
prefer to use two packs of light gauge strings for the 12-string
guitar. The beginning of this laborious process starts with the
selection of the plain steel strings of the thinnest diameter for the
G-B and E strings. From the lowest pitch of the strings being the
top sets of strings E-A-D. I omit the thickest brass wound E – A
strings. Because using the thickest strings would cause warping of
the neck and front parts of the body. The warping would be due to too
much too much tension applied from using the thicker strings. From
experimenting with different string sets, I found the wound D-string
to be the appropriate diameter for the A-string. For the E-string I
use the A-string of the 12-string guitar packs.
18-string guitar tuning
dDd-gGg-cCc-fff-aaa-ddd |
Foot Note: Upon request I did have the instrument
made by a known maker named Huaman in Peru. Huaman is now out of
business. This project was made available to me by a pre-order
through my music teacher Rene through Huaman. The project was
commissioned and supervised from beginning to finish by my teacher
Rene Hugo Sanchez. The whole instrument from the body, neck and head
stock is a custom design. I usually go with the lightest in tension. Please bear
in mind that one cannot obtain this instrument in any music store
chain.
Citations: Rene Hugo Sanchez >
