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Originally Posted by Bud Rink Huh! I always thought the Mariachi bass line was provided by the guitarron. |
Actually, the Guitarron plays the part of an Upright Harp.
In the dim, distant past, Mariachi groups included a harpist, who provided low-end on the long strings of the harp.
They typically played for tips on street corners, and if a corner wasn't a rich one, or played itself out, they would go look for a better one.
This meant that the group included an extra member, who was a vocalist only.
He sang, but his MAIN function was to help the harpist move the harp around when the group went looking for a better place to play. To that end, he couldn't have an instrument of his own.
Development of the Guitarron allowed them to eliminate a member from the group, and start splitting the tips fewer ways. I have the same philosophy. In my band, if you sing but don't play an instrument, you're baggage...
It's a six-string instrument, with the strings typically being plucked two at a time, in octaves, and typically tuned A-D-G-C-E-A
Next time you see Mariachis with a guitarron, watch how the guy plucks it... you'll see the connection back to harp.
As for the bass, nobody here or anywhere else could tell me what it was when I was asking about mine.
Like you, I had never heard the low-end coming from anything but a guitarron.
Apparently, though, these "strolling basses" are used more commonly than guitarrons for groups that are actually IN Mexico, rather than in the USA.
Perhaps the Guitarron was a Mexican-American invention, and the Strolling Bass is what was developed across the border, both to replace the low strings on a harp.
The strolling basses aren't a really recent innovation, since this one was made in the mid-fifties.
When I got it, the old tuning machines were barely turnable. I put some liquid teflon into the gears and worked them quite a bit, and now they are nice and smooth.
After I picked it up, I called my favorite luthier, to see about having him look at it, see what it needed, and what it WAS.
I told him that it was an old half-size, with a wooden endpin, and a highly-flamed back... flamed with an airbrush.
He asked me whether it was a roundback or a flatback, and I told him that it was not exactly either one, being a roundback, but with hardly any swell.
Then HE asked ME if the f-holes curled around normally, or if they were't cut all the way through at the tops & bottoms.
When I said they weren't continuous, he continued to describe it to a tee, and told me what it was.
