The name chillador can refer either to two related types of charango. The First type, simple called chillador is a type of charango which has a flat back and is usually steel-strung. It exists in both 10-and 12-string forms. When strung with 10-strings (in 5 courses) it is tuned the same as a charango. With 12 strings, courses 2 and 4 are triple-strung, and the (re-entrant) tuning is more like that of a charangone or ronroco in Argentine tuning. The chillador charango is a standardly-tuned charango but with a body built from bent sides and a flat back like a (smaller) guitar,

Chillador or steel-strung type

A chillador is a very small

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-shaped fretted

stringed instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...

, usually with 10, 12, or 14 metal strings, in paired or tripled courses. It is played in southern

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and northern

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. The chillador has 5 courses like its cousin, the

charango The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish during c ...

, and has a similar tuning to the charango. The chillador is a common instrument of

estudiantina The Estudiantina waltz (or Band of Students Waltz) is a musical arrangement, made in 1883, by Émile Waldteufel, his Opus 191, No. 4. Its melody was composed earlier in 1881 by Paul Lacôme, with lyrics by Julien de Lau Lusignan. Waldteufel firs ...

ensembles, and is typically strummed rapidly, rather than plucked. There are several characteristics that separate a chillador from a charango: The chillador has a smaller scale length (31 cm) than a charango (37 cm); the chillador typically has 12 or 14 metal strings while the charango has 10 strings which are typically nylon; and the chillador has a flat back with laminated wood sides like a guitar, while the charango usually has a one-piece carved wood back or uses an armadillo shell. The chillador is an essential instrument of Kajelo music.

Chillador charango

The chillador charango is tuned like a standard charango with 10 nylon strings in 5 courses, but it is built differently, with bent sides and a flat back like a guitar or ukulele. It is often deeper than a ukulele, in order to get a similar sound as the standard carved charango.

References

Charangos Necked bowl lutes Peruvian musical instruments {{Lute-stub