Editing Charango (section)

==Construction==
[[Image:Parts of the Charango 1.jpg|thumbnail|283px|Designation of the parts of the charango]]
Traditionally a charango was made with a dried [[armadillo]] shell for the back and wood for the soundbox top, neck etc. While still common, this is no longer the norm: rather they are now typically made of wood, with the bowled back merely imitating the shape of the armadillo shell. Unlike most wooden lutes, the body and neck are typically made of a single block of wood, carved into shape. The charango's ten strings require quite a large headstock, often approaching or even exceeding the size of its diminutive sound box. Aside from these visual distinctions, it resembles something between a bowl-backed mandolin and a small [[ukulele]].

The overall length of a typical charango is about {{convert|66|cm}}, with a string scale length of about {{convert|37|cm}}. The number of frets ranges from five to eighteen. The most common form of the instrument has ten strings of nylon, gut, or (less commonly) metal.  (Variant forms of the charango may have anywhere from four to fifteen strings, in various combinations of single, double, or triple [[course (music)|courses]].)  The body generally has a narrowed ''waist'', reminiscent of the guitar family, and not the pear-shape of the lute.  There are many minor variations in the shape of the body and soundboard (top), and many different kinds of wood are used, although, like guitars, the preferred [[tone wood]]s for the top come from the cedar or spruce families. Old instruments had friction-style tuning pegs (similar to those used on violins), but today a classical guitar style peghead with geared "machine" tuners is the norm, though these are occasionally positioned perpendicular to the headstock.  Most instruments include some degree of ornamentation, which may range from simple purfling inlays around the perimeter of the top, to elaborately carved headstocks, and whole scenes engraved, carved, or burned into the back of the body.  Strap buttons are sometimes added, as are position marker dots on the fingerboard.

Variations may include a separate glued-on neck, a two-piece top plate of contrasting woods, old-style friction tuning pegs in [[palisander]] or [[ebony]], guitar-style box construction, or even a hollowed-out neck.  The size, shape, and number of soundholes is highly variable and may be a single round or oval hole, dual crescents, or even multiple holes of varying arrangement.  Another variant is a neck with two holes bored 3/4 of the way through, parallel to the fretboard and close to the headstock (an innovation said to color the instrument's tone).{{Dubious|date=March 2015}}{{Citation needed|reason=Source of the information concerning these holes? Have seen and played dozens of charangos, but never any with holes bored in the neck.|date=March 2015}}

More recently solid-body electric and hollow-body acoustic-electric charangos have become available. The solid-body instruments are built very much as miniature electric guitars, whereas the acoustic-electrics are usually a standard acoustic charango with the addition of a [[contact microphone]] or [[piezoelectric]] [[pickup (music technology)|pickup]] to run the output of the instrument through an amplifier.

In his book ''[[The Motorcycle Diaries (book)|The Motorcycle Diaries]]'', Che Guevara described a charango he saw near [[Temuco]], Chile, in 1952. It was "made with three or four wires some two meters in length stretched tightly across tins fixed to a board. The musician uses a kind of metal knuckle duster with which he plucks the wires producing a sound like a toy guitar."<ref>The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey. by Ernesto Che Guevara. Ocean Press. 2003. {{ISBN|1-876175-70-2}}</ref>