Description:
The ronroco is a 10 stringed lute found in Peru and Bolivia. In
appearance it is slightly larger then the charango yet similar in
construction. When comparing the tuning and size of the two instruments
of the ronroco to the charango One can use the analogy like the mandola
is to the mandolin. The ronroco is played either solo or with other
instruments, charango, guitar and percussion. Often the ronroco is
tuned to a fourth, fifth or an octave below. The ronroco does very
slightly in size. The body of the ronroco is hand carved from a tree
trunk. It is then roughly shaped into the body. The body is then
sculpted into detail and then sanded down. The body and neck are carved
from the same pieces of wood, they are separated during the process
then re-attached together. The fingerboard is of some tropical
hardwood, ironwood or rosewood with slightly angled strips of bamboo in
the neck for ornamentation. In my specimen a sound hole is drilled into
the behind of the neck, as an acoustic means to amplify the instrument
apparently a recent method. Other specimens of ronroco may have a
couple small sized grooves carved into the neck before the finger board
is carved. On the front of the sound board its cut from two pieces of
wood a hardwood and what appears to be pine. The same string-set
available for charango may also be used for the ronroco.
| Standard for charango | C-G-E-A-E |
| 2 cemitones below | D-G-B-E-B |
| 4 cemitones below from charango | C-F-A-D-A |