1970s Enos Hernandez Requinto

A consignor sent this well-built, gutsy-sounding requinto to the shop a couple weeks ago and I finally had a chance to get to the light work it needed. It's built light, has a fast and comfortable neck, and there's a lot of fullness and punch to the sound -- just what you'd need in an instrument meant to take the lead/fill role in a duo-guitar situation.

For those not in the know, requintos are roughly 3/4-size classical guitars and typically tuned ADGCEA like a guitar with a capo on the 5th fret (this is technically called a "quart" guitar tuning). Because this has regular-gauge nylon strings on it rather than the slightly-lighter requinto strings, however, I've just tuned it GCFBbDG instead (which is "terz" guitar tuning).

I'm pretty sure the label style and general build of the guitar make this a late-'70 or early-'80s product, but there's a chance this may have been made into the '90s, too. It was made in Paracho (a famous guitar-making town in Mexico) by Mr. Enos Hernandez. I'm pretty sure the tuners are later replacements and those had a couple damaged-beyond-use shafts so I replaced those (the plastic always wears on them) with some parts from the bins.

Other work of mine included a fret level/dress, side dots install, regluing a bit of the bridge (the top is so thin that the top below the bridge has deformed just slightly between the braces and so in one section I just needed to glue it back to the bridge base), one back brace reglue, cleaning, and a good setup. It's healthy, plays spot-on with 3/32" action at the 12th fret (can be lowered if desired), and has a straight neck. It has a mild amount of use-wear throughout but is overall very clean and has no cracks.

Specs are: 21 5/8" scale, 2" nut width, 1 3/4" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" spacing at the bridge, 13 3/8" lower bout, 10 1/2" upper bout, and 4 1/8" side depth. That extra depth compared to "average" fractional-classical designs is what gives these "little guitars" their extra presence despite their size. The neck has a slim-to-medium D-shaped back profile and flat fretboard.

Woods are: solid cedar top, solid palo escrito back and sides, Spanish cedar(?) neck, and rosewood headstock veneer, fretboard, and bridge. The nut and saddle are bone.

The cutaway gives easy access to higher-up frets.

It's hard to complain about bling around the soundhole like that!

The string-mounting holes at the bridge weren't cut with perfect alignment, so cut light slots in the saddle to get the strings even spacing between one another.

That back...!

The icing on the cake is the pink-lined, awesome old hard case with its two-tone tan/brown finish and music-note arched lit.