Mike's Oud Forums

Converting 3/4 guitar into Cuban Tres!

bulerias1981 - 12-24-2014 at 09:27 AM

This is a fun easy project. To do this you need a 3/4 size guitar, (steel string model holds the tension better than nylon) Fill the bridge pin holes with matching wood bridge pins, cut the heads off, fill the holes as needed with a mixture of sawdust/crazy glue, sand if flush. Drill the new holes, ream the holes for the new bridge pins. Then you have to layout the spacing for the strings, file the groove in the saddle and the nut. There are 3x double strings. Install proper tres strings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq9pJ2Bc1WE&feature=youtu.be

Jody Stecher - 12-24-2014 at 09:48 AM

Hah! I like your method of filling the old bridge pin holes. At once clever and obvious. So obvious it might not have occurred to *me* for 2 years.

bulerias1981 - 12-24-2014 at 10:50 AM

The only tools you'd need for this is the bridge pin reamer, mousetail file (for the grooves)

I tried it on a 3/4 classical guitar and the bridge was about to be ripped off. In Cuba they seem to use nylon string style guitars, however they are most likely braced for the extra tension that the steel strings requires. You can use nylon strings, but it wouldn't give the right sound in my opinion.


Here is a nice group from Cuba that utilizes the tres instead of a piano to play the montunos. Don't mind the beautiful Cuban ladies! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZRrkAWJuTQ

Perhaps one of the greatest virtuosos on tres is Cuba's Pancho Amat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndr6yoyxZYc

The tres is also played in Puerto Rico, but it has a different shape body, more pronounced bouts, and 3x TRIPLE strings instead of 3X DOUBLE strings like it's Cuban counterpart. It's commonly used in various musical forms, the most popular is Salsa, but many other folk and traditional forms.

(Puerto Rican tres) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aLLEfyOLog

Jody Stecher - 12-24-2014 at 12:45 PM

Thanks for the links to the videos, John. I enjoyed them all. I have a theory about another member of this instrument family. You know in Puerto Rico (and Venezuela, and Trinidad) they have the instrument called cuatro. It rarely has four strings or four courses. The Cuatro Puertorriqueño usually has 5 courses. My idea is that the word "cuatro" may not originally have signified "four". The existence of the instrument called "tres", having three courses, suggests that cuatro must mean "four". But suppose the name, like so many Spanish words in the New World, has Arabic origins. I think the name may be derived from "kwitra", the instrument of Andalus music in North Africa, which has metal strings in double courses. I can't prove it. It's just a crazy idea that might be right.

bulerias1981 - 12-24-2014 at 01:16 PM

Of course I know the cuatro, I'm half Puerto Rican and I grew up hearing it. My grandfather was very fond of the Jibaro music (the Jibaro are the hard working people in the interior of the island, farmers, self sustaining. Often made fun of and considered uneducated by the metropolitan people of San Juan) The instrument is not played very much in salsa music, but one such cuatrista legend brought it to salsa. Yomo Toro.. when he was with Fania All Stars, the biggest salsa band ever.

By the way, the cuatro in Venezuela and Colombia is a completely different instrument.

Right now there are cuatristas (cuatro players) playing all over the island, because festive music and Christmas are inseparable. Originally the instrument had 4 courses, but then they added an extra course. In fact, I always say the cuatro as the poor man's vihuela!!

Here's some nice cuatro music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7tI4wzoWvY&list=PL059B458A43991...

Here's a family playing with two cuatros https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHM_rSqszJ8

Jody Stecher - 12-24-2014 at 02:49 PM

I know the aguindaldo music well that happens this time of year, and the other Jibaro music all the rest of the year. I grew up in Brooklyn and it was on the radio. And Yomo Toro lived in Brooklyn too. THere was an oud presence on Atlantic Avenue as well, even a luthier named Maliha. He later moved to my neighborhood and had a shop a few blocks from where I grew up. But by then, instead of making ouds, he was making bamboo violins. (really!). Sometimes I play in a bluegrass band of sorts. Called "Kleptograss" because we steal from everyone. Eric Thompson, who plays cuatro as well as mandolin etc, wrote a bluegrass Jibaro tune he calls Jibaro Hoedown that goes down well with the Kleptograss audience.

Yes I know the other cuatros are different. I'm only talking about the possible origins of the *name* "cuatro".

The progenitor of the mandolin in Europe is an obsolete instrument called "quintern". The quintern is often portrayed in early church art. There are two angels. One plays the lute. The other appears to be playing the lute as well but close examination shows it is a different instrument with not such a steep angle to the peghead. That is the quintern. The proportions and shape are a bit different from lute as well. In fact the differences are akin to the differences between oud and kwitra. So I think the name "quintern" comes from "Kwitra" just as "lute" comes from "Al Oud". Cuatro also has the kwtr consonant combination so it may be a derivative word.
Quote: Originally posted by bulerias1981  
Of course I know the cuatro, I'm half Puerto Rican and I grew up hearing it. My grandfather was very fond of the Jibaro music (the Jibaro are the hard working people in the interior of the island, farmers, self sustaining. Often made fun of and considered uneducated by the metropolitan people of San Juan) The instrument is not played very much in salsa music, but one such cuatrista legend brought it to salsa. Yomo Toro.. when he was with Fania All Stars, the biggest salsa band ever.

By the way, the cuatro in Venezuela and Colombia is a completely different instrument.

Right now there are cuatristas (cuatro players) playing all over the island, because festive music and Christmas are inseparable. Originally the instrument had 4 courses, but then they added an extra course. In fact, I always say the cuatro as the poor man's vihuela!!

Here's some nice cuatro music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7tI4wzoWvY&list=PL059B458A43991...

Here's a family playing with two cuatros [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHM_rSqszJ8
[/url]

bulerias1981 - 12-24-2014 at 08:42 PM

So you really are a worldly man with knowledge of the world! Where in Brooklyn are you from?

lol @ Jibaro Hoedown

Jody Stecher - 12-24-2014 at 09:38 PM

Quote: Originally posted by bulerias1981  
So you really are a worldly man with knowledge of the world! Where in Brooklyn are you from?

lol @ Jibaro Hoedown


The first eight years were at the top of Union Street. I could see the Soldiers and Sailors Monument (the huge arch) out my front window. Then we moved to East Flatbush (aka Kensington) near Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue. I moved to the west coast in the late 1960s. Before that some of the oud players who were around were Khamis El Fino, Hamza El Din, Chick Ganemian, and Ajdin Aslan. Marko Melkon was there too, and I think he lived in Brooklyn, but I did not get to hear him. Long before my time was Şerif Muhiddin Targan (Haider). He was living in Queens in the 20s and early 30s!