Type: Plucked Lute > Chordophones.
Region: Peru > South America.
Dimensions: Scale length 650 mm.Luthier: Huaman, Cusco Peru.
Acquisition date: Circa year 2002, Christmas.
Acquisition source:
Custom made by
Huaman, a luthier who is now out of business. At the time his shop
was located in Cusco Peru.
Description: The 18-string guitar is
a member of the lute family of cordophones. It maybe played with a
plectrum or strummed. In Peru this instrument came slightly after the
guitar roughly around the 1800s. This type of guitar had a brief debut
and it did appear in the Lambayeque department located near
northern-Western Peru and near the Ecuadorian border.
Re-stringing
This Type of Guitar: All of the strings I use for re-stringing the 18-stringed guitar are from two packs of the lightest tension 12-string guitar strings. The process of restringing this type of guitar is laborious. In using the lightest guage of strings available (as featured in the table below) one can use the D G C F A D tuning which with each tripple course becomes DDD, GGG, CCC, FFF, AAA, DDD. For the first two tripple courses being E E E, B B B, I use the plain steel strings. For the four bottom strings I string them in the following order plain wound plain.
Pitch |
Tension |
D |
.010 |
A |
.014 |
F |
.023 |
C |
.022 |
G |
.030 |
D |
.047 |
Foot Notes: My
guitar
was made by a luthier known by the name Huaman. I acquired this
instrument through order. My teacher Rene picked up this guitar and
brought it back from its maker to me in person. Please keep this in
mind that one cannot obtain this instrument in any music store
chain. This 18-string guitar was also designed under supervision by
my teacher Rene Hugo Sanchez. My teacher commissioned the maker
Huaman who is based in Cuzco (Rene tells me that Huaman is now out
of business or may have moved to another location).
Citations: Rene Hugo Sanchez >