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Guitarróns
Rene
Benavidez plays a guitarrón.
Photo courtesy of the International Folk Culture
Center
Q I am
a double bass player, and I need to find a guitarrón for
a special project. Could you give me some background on guitarróns
and some advice about where to purchase one?
Steve Arie
Sydney, Australia
A The guitarrón
is the large bass guitar–like instrument that provides the bouncy
groove at the heart of most mariachi bands. The development of the
guitarrón is commonly attributed to the Cocas people of Jalisco,
Mexico, who adapted European stringed instruments for their own
hybrid music. In earlier times a gut-string harp would have provided
the low end in a traditional string ensemble, but since the advent
of the guitarrón in the 18th century, its portability and
volume have made it more popular for standing and strolling than
the unwieldy harp.
With its short, fretless fingerboard; broad top;
and deep, protruding back, the guitarrón resembles a standard
six-string on steroids. The traditional tuning is A D G C E A, with
the lowest string an octave below the open-A fifth string of standard
guitar tuning and the high A string a minor third below the C of
the third string. Some modern players retune the instrument one
octave below standard guitar tuning--E A D G B E.
The instrument is used to play bass lines that parallel
chord progressions, typically with two strings plucked simultaneously
in octaves. The guitarrón tuning facilitates the unique percussive
style. The high action and stiff tension usually found on a guitarrón
require great strength and dexterity. It is not an instrument for
the faint-hearted or casual player.
Most modern guitarróns are constructed with
Mexican cedar backs and sides and a top made of tacota, a light
wood sometimes compared to balsa. Construction on most traditional
guitarróns is relatively simple, with few of the refinements
associated with top-notch lutherie. As a result, the instruments
are very affordable.
There are many sources for guitarróns within
Mexico and several sources in the U.S. The Mariachi Connection (www.mariachiconnection.com)
offers several models ranging from $600 to $800. You can also purchase
a guitarrón from Lark in the Morning’s online music shop
at www.larkinam.com. The company offers a standard model for $500
and often has one-off instruments of higher quality. Traditional
guitarróns are often fitted with wooden friction-style tuning
pegs, but the geared machines found on some instruments are much
easier to use for the novice.
While the guitarrón is the proper instrument
for traditional mariachi and similar conjunto musics, guitarists
and bassists wishing to add a low acoustic ax to their arsenal should
consider picking up the acoustic bass guitar. Many musicians find
these easier to play and more versatile than the guitarrón,
and their standard guitar tuning makes them a snap to play. There
are excellent fretted and fretless instruments made by Epiphone,
Martin, and many other manufacturers. These acoustic basses generally
need a little additional amplification, but even a small battery-powered
mini-amp does the job for most occasions.
––Paul Kotapish
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Neck
Resets
Q If
I change the neck angle on my 1986 Tony Rice Santa Cruz dreadnought
(to make it more playable), will it maintain its sonic quality and
value?
Henry Emery
Tucson, Arizona
A Resetting
the neck in order to lower the guitar’s action is preferable to shaving
the bridge too low. While some guitars have bridges thick enough to
withstand being lowered several times, the guitar top needs a certain
amount of stress and torque to sound right. How much is right? Tough
call long distance. I’d get a qualified luthier to look at it. With
a good neck reset, you get the best of both worlds--proper neck-to-body
geometry and the great tone of nice, aged topwood.
––Rick Turner
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Dissonance
Delight
Q I'm trying to learn
a new song, and the dissonance between some of the melody notes
and the guitar parts is driving me nuts. Is there some mistake in
the notation?
—Ellis Carmine
Jacksonville, Florida
A Dissonance can be described
as notes whose frequencies are less than harmonious to our ears.
For instance, playing notes that are a half step apart (the open
E string of your guitar, for example, played with a D# achieved
by fretting the second string at the fourth fret) is considered
dissonant by most people. Dissonance is an essential part of most
music; it provides "tension" that leads to "release." When you slowly
practice a new piece, you hear intervals (two notes) and chords
(three or more notes) out of context, which emphasizes the dissonance.
When you play the piece at performance speed, it's much less noticeable.
If the composer or arranger did his or her job, the dissonant interval
or chord will sound fine within the context of the moving music.
Dissonance is also in the ear of the beholder and is in part a cultural
phenomenon. People are conditioned by sounds around them as they
develop their musical ears. A half-step interval may be beautiful
to one listener and unbearable to another. In modern pop music of
the Crosby, Stills, and Nash variety, the harmony voices usually
sing lines that parallel the melody and create continuously harmonious
chords. In other music, such as the choral pieces of 500 years ago,
each voice has its own melodic shape and does not necessarily parallel
any of the others. This can lead to some chordal dissonance, but
that dissonance is wonderful-it's exactly the right thing for that
moment in the music. Opening your ears to sounds from different
cultures and different eras can be an educational and rewarding
undertaking. If you are interested in hearing how composers use
dissonance, buy a CD of Renaissance choral music by Carlo Gesualdo.
—Mark Hanson
SEND QUESTIONS, tips, or observations to Acoustic Guitar’s
online discussion forums at www.acousticguitar.com
or write to Dear A.G., Acoustic Guitar, PO Box 767, San Anselmo,
CA 94979-0767.
Excerpted
from Acoustic
Guitar magazine, January 2001,
No. 97.
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