Requinto

The requinto guitar (or simply "requinto") exists in several guises, but the most common is the 6-string requinto with a 535mm scale tuned A D G C E A - more on the next page. The requinto teams up with the classical guitar and either the contrabass or guitarron to form the "trio romantico" - a group in which the instruments are tuned in E (classical and contra) and A (requinto and guitarron).

It's always risky to make a generalisation, but South American requintos often have a deep body whereas the Spanish models are often proportioned like a slender guitar, as in the Raimundo 1498, which hago owned in our early days.

The requinto is one tone below the alto guitar but has the same scale length, so one can swap simply by fitting the appropriate strings. Like the alto, some requintos have cutaways, some don't.