Questions: Requinto Plans

by William Cumpiano and Luis Alberto Paredes Rodríguez

Originally published in American Lutherie #87, 2006

Chip H. from the Internet asks:

I’ve been looking everywhere for a set of plans for a requinto. Any thoughts on where I might find one, or some generous soul that might send me the dimensions and scale length?

William Cumpiano of Northampton, MA responds:

I doubt anyone has ever produced plans for a requinto, or at least offered one for commercial distribution. For most Hispanic luthiers I know, sharing information with strangers is a low priority. I’m an exception.

Requintos are made just like a Spanish guitar, with a smaller template but full guitar-depth sides. They are tuned like a guitar capoed at the 5th fret, A to A, with the same intervals between the strings as a guitar. Scales vary from 21 5/8" to 22 1/8". Cutaways are very popular. Thicknesses of all the top, back and side plates are the same as the ones chosen for the larger Spanish guitar. Five fan braces with two cutoff bars on the bottom are most common. Strings chosen are the same as for full-size guitars, but understandably the gauges on the lightest-tension sets are preferred. All other full-size guitar dimensions and construction details apply.

Luis Alberto Paredes Rodríguez from Bogotá, Colombia responds:

Here are the basic dimensions of the requintos we make in our shop. The body measurements are similar to those of the Colombian tiple: upper bout = 25CM; waist = 21.4CM; lower bout = 32.5CM; body length = 42CM; body depth = 9CM–9.5CM. The scale length varies from 540MM to 560MM. But we find the ideal scale to be 550MM. The other neck dimensions are the same as the guitar and the neck joins the body at the 12th fret. Some have a body cutaway. The instruments invariably have a pickguard. (Editor’s note: GAL Instrument Plan #51, the Colombian Tiple, was drawn by Sr. Paredes. It may be ordered from the GAL website.) ◆

(See also our Instrument Plan #54, Mexican Requinto)

The Colombian Andean Bandola

by Luis Alberto Paredes Rodríguez and Manuel Bernal Martínez

previously published in American Lutherie #96, 2008

The Colombian Andean bandola is a transcultural product similar to plectrum-played antecedents from Asia and Europe. It is a 12-string, 6-course soprano instrument with “flat” top and back, and is the solo melodic instrument in the Colombian Andean quartet, which consists of two bandolas, a tiple (see Big Red Book Volume Seven, previously published in AL#82), and a classical guitar.

The name “bandola” comes from the old Persian-Arabic word pandura. Derived from the name of the European lute, the word refers to a great variety of instruments of medium and high register with melodic functions. The direct ancestor of the bandola is the guitar through the Spanish bandurria and the soprano guitars, and which after taking its form in Colombia during the 19th and 20th centuries, continues to undergo transformations in its morphology and usage.

The Colombian Andean bandola has two developmental lineages: on one hand, the denomination line which makes reference to its name, and on the other, the construction line which makes reference to its morphological features (Bernal, 2003). The name of the bandola comes from the pandura (known since the 10th century) following the European lute, and one of its families known as the “mandoras family.” These 4- to 6-course instruments with thin bodies had a variety of pitches (a mixture of perfect fourths and fifths) and scale lengths ranging between 37CM and 42CM. By the year 1700, the mandolines emerged in Italy when the size of the mandola was reduced, prevailing and persisting in Italy in two different models: the Milanese mandoline with a thin, slightly arched body, and six courses of either gut or metal strings tuned in perfect fourths; and the Neapolitan mandolin with a bowl back body, a cranked (bent) soundboard just where the bridge is placed, four courses of metal strings tuned like a violin, and strings fastened to the end of the body by way of a tailpiece. The scale for both models is about 32CM to 34CM. In the 18th century, mandolins began to be manufactured with flat or slightly arched sides and back, especially in France, Germany, and Portugal.

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