How the guitalele makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the guitalele belongs to the lutes: strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck – the family of the guitar, violin, sitar and oud.
More broadly it is one of the chordophones (string instruments), where sound comes from vibrating strings, amplified by a resonating body.
Press play above and watch the spectrum: the evenly spaced peaks are harmonics, and their relative strength is what gives the instrument its character.
From Wikipedia
A guitarlele (sometimes spelled guitalele or guilele), is sometimes also called by brand names such as a ukitar, or kīkū, is a guitar-ukulele hybrid, that is a tenor or baritone ukulele body size, and a cross between a classical guitar and a tenor or baritone ukulele. The guitarlele combines the portability of a ukulele, due to its small size, with the six single strings and resultant chord possibilities of a classical guitar. It may include a built-in piezo saddle element pickup and equalizer preamp that permits playing the guitarlele either as an acoustic guitar or connected to an amplifier. The guitarlele is variously marketed (and used) as a travel guitar or children's guitar. The Guitarlele was introduced by Yamaha in 1997 and is the first commercially produced instrument of its kind. Many people mistakenly claim that it’s based on earlier instruments like the requinto or Quint guitars, but it is not the same in size or timbre.
Other lutes
Frequently asked questions
What does a guitalele sound like?
As one of the lutes, its sound comes from the way strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck.
What type of instrument is the guitalele?
It is classified as lutes (Hornbostel–Sachs 321.322).
Sources & credits
- Wikidata Q1426973 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Guitalele – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by No machine-readable author provided. Marcel~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). – CC BY-SA 2.5