I Likey this Cavaquinho 8-)

Ahnko Honu

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I came across this Portuguese made Cavaquinho which really caught my eye. The sound hole shape is cool but what really appealed to me was the unusual headstock shape and tuners, very cool IMMHO. What I really like too is the solid wood construction at a very reasonable price.

Here's a seller's discription:
Portuguese Ukulele/Cavaquinho- Ray Mouth
(Exclusive Portuguese machine head model)
made with the finest materials.
Specifications:
Backs and sides - Solid Platano
Top -Solid Limewood
Neck - Solid Cedar
Finguerboard - Solid Rosewood
Machine head - 2-2 Nickel
Made in Portugal
We use only solid wood on our instruments!!

If I only had an extra $150 to blow.
Cavaquinho1.jpg

Cavaquinho2.jpg

Cavaquinho3.jpg

Cavaquinho4.jpg

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370307701325&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
 
That's really cool!

Out of curiosity, can that be put into ukulele tuning?

Also, I wonder how much of a bear it is to change the strings with tuning heads like that. :p

Edit - It looks like it's 55cm long, which means (if Wikipedia is to believed) that it's somewhere between a soprano and a concert in size. Interesting...
 
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That's really cool!

Out of curiosity, can that be put into ukulele tuning?

If you're asking if you can tune those strings to uke tuning, i'm not sure.

My mom's going to Brazil at the end of the month and I was going to have her pick a Brazillian cavaquinho up for me. However, I did some research to see how uke strings/tuning works on them. It turns out that because of the way they're braced/made uke strings make the instrument way to quiet.

This is from http://www.ezfolk.com/forums/forum19/5183.html

"I had one like is pictured here and the string tension is very tight and it would wear your finger out and I was use to playing a mandolin. I tried using nylon strings and tuned gcea, But the instrument is built with a lot of bracing as Will stated, So the sound was not there with them. They do sound good, But I sold mine a couple of years ago because of the string tension."

But to stay on topic....

That is a very beautiful instrument. I love how they look, it's just too bad that GCEA doesn't work that well.
 
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