Requinto Guitar

Requinto Guitar
The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument, thus you can have requinto Flutes, Clarinets and other aerophones, Drums and other membranophones, as well as a whole host or requinto chordophones.

Sometime this smaller instrument has more common alternate names like the piccolo clarinet rather than the requinto clarinet or even a whole new name like the fife rather than the requinto flute. The main reason for including this Ukulele Wiki, (apart from just to educate generally which is a goal in itself), is because two of the most common facts about the Requinto Guitar are that it is the same sort of scale length, (500-575mm ~ 19½-22½ inches), as a Baritone Ukulele and has, most commonly, the same, A~D~G~C~E~A tuning as a Guitalele. For these reasons it is often seen as, and sometimes referred to as, a Jumbo Guitalele or even just a Guitalele, ignoring it's own history as the Ukulele/Guitalele becomes more pervasive in the minds of the world.

The history of the Requinto Guitar is, (as with most instruments except the Ukulele), fairly murky. Obviously it started out a variety of Lute; like all of this sort of chordophone, and it first appears to crop up on its own in Spain and Portugal. These were originally played in a finger picking classical Guitar style but as the instrument spread to the new world, where it is more popular that its old world counterparts, its style of play loosened up and it now features in the Mexican Mariachi band with that style of playing.

I have also seen it said in a number of places that the new world Requinto Guitars are built with a deeper more full body than the Iberian counterparts.