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Acoustic Bass Guitar |
Guitarron |
Bordouna |
Acoustic bass guitars were originally devolved in the 1960’s. Created
in San Luis Obispo, California by Ernie Ball. He first came up with the idea
after realizing that if an electric guitar had an electric bass guitar then
the Acoustic guitar should also have a counterpart. At this time he realized
that the closest thing to his idea was a Mexican “guitarron” and
he went to Tijuana played around with it. He soon teamed up with a former employee
of fender named George Fullerton to develop and introduce the Earthwood Acoustic
Guitar in 1972. “The Ernie Ball company describes Ball's design as "an
idea before its time"; the instrument was little-used in acoustic musical
performances until the late 1980s, when the acoustic basses were used in performances
on the MTV Unplugged television program.” 1 The guitar was also very deep
and bulky because of this the Acoustic Bass guitar was taken out of production
in 1974. It was brought back by an employee of Ball years later and then was
taken out of production again in 1985.
The instrument is a large hollow wooden guitar that is mostly fretted but sometimes
fretless. The bass has 4 strings just as the electric bass with notes tuned
to E A D and G. It is sometimes difficult to hear an Acoustic bass so they have
pickups so they can be plugged into an amp or a PA system.
There are many manufactures of bass guitars including the following Alvarez,
Breedlove, Cort, Crafter, Jerzey, Dean, Eston, Gibson, Washburn, Ibanez, Maton,
Ovation, Michael Kelly, Prestige Ribbecke Halfling Bass, Sunlite, Takamine,
Tacoma, Tanglewood, Fender and Martin.
Guitarrón in Spanish Really means large guitar. It is a 6 stringed acoustic
bass guitar. Early guitarrons had five gut strings and were unvarnished. It
is an element of a mariachi band which includes at least three violins, two
trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela and one guitarrón. Due to the
guitarróns large size it does not need an amplifier because of its deep
body it works well at projecting sound. The strings are very heavy in guage
and it has no frets. It is also said that it takes someone with a strong left
arm to play the guiarron. The hard resistance when striking a string with a
pick is impeccable as it takes great skill. It inspired the creation of the
Acoustic bass guitar. It was very popular in Spain and France as well as the
Latin countries. Since it has six strings, an interesting fact is that three
of the strings are nylon-wound with a nylon core, and the other three strings
are metal bases that vary between copper, brass, bronze, or steel.
The Bordouna is a guitar native to Puerto Rico with a large deep body that comes
in many shapes and sizes, some are known to look like Panama, but definitely
much larger. It is the biggest plucked instrument of Puerto Rico. The original
Bordouna has evolved from the 16th century from a Spanish Baja de uno. In the
1920’s and 1930’s the Bordouna served as an accompaniment to melody
instead of the typical bass role. Today, all Bordouna are used as bass guitars
as they promote folk music. There are many different bordouna types today depending
on the number of the strings it has. The six-string bordouna is called the “6-string
Bordouna,” the eight string bordouna has four pairs of strings attached,
and the most common type of bordouna contains five pairs of strings also known
as the “10-string bordouna.” The guitar boudouna has the deepest
voice of all the instruments in Puerto Rico which is why it is able to be played
as a melody or chord.
From the bordouna guitar branches off a smaller version called the bandurria
which are the same as the larger version. They have a figure eight shape and
a very narrow waist between the upper and lower bouts.
It was virtually replaced by the classical guitar because of its melody. Bordouna
artists have developed great sounds and styles of playing called "lloriqueo"
and "gemido.” The Bordouna is now in disuse asides for the special
orchestras devoted to keep folk music alive.