Mario Vorraro
This is a particular folk guitar with an harmonic box higher than usual and a curved back.
Its tuning is very particular because this instruments allows only for high strings. As a consequence, among the five strings the interval is not superior to six diatonic notes.
Here is the typical tuning :
As you can notice, the last two strings (4^D, 5^A) have the same height of the first (1^E, 2^B) and this particular arrangement produces those strong harmonics and oscillations of sound which are absent in ordinary guitars. Moreover, sometimes the third string may be eliminated and the whole tuning condenses itself of five diatonic notes. The term “hitting” (battente) is probably due to a particular technique which sees the hand involved in plucking strings and hitting the front of the harmonic box during musical performance.
This type of guitar, once very popular in the Middle and South of Italy, has today almost completely disappeared from musical traditions. Because of the very few experts able to build one, this guitar is undergoing an extinction process.
Time required for construction : four months
Weight : 1000 grams (2,2 LBS)
Lenght: 930millimeters (368 Inch.)
Types of wood employed : (traditionally only leftover wood) walnut, cypress, mahogany, rosewood and maple wood for the body, cedar and mahogany for the fretted neck, walnut wood, ebony and rosewood for the fingerboard, cedar for the front of the harmonic box.
Polishing : we suggest the opaque solution in respect of folk tradition
Diapason : 600 millimeters (240 inch.)
Number of frets : 10
Strings : steel 1^E 0.10 (Inch.) – 2^B 0.11 (Inch.) – 3^G 0.14 (Inch.) – 4^D 0.10 (Inch.) – 5^A 0.14 (Inch.)
Sound range :
Models with various bellows models
Some construction phases
Video