1970s Mexican-made Requinto

Above: video in "standard" E-E tuning

Above: video in "terz" G-G tuning

Update 2022: the owner has decided to let this go (his loss, what a nice little guitar!) and he'd been using it tuned to standard E-E so I restrung with a slightly heavier gauge of strings and tuned it down. That's why there's a second video with it in E-E like it is at the moment. It's such a lightly-built, responsive guitar that it sounds terrific this way as well! Now back to the (updated) original blog description...

A local buddy dropped this off (along with a number of consignment instruments) a long while back. It didn't need much, so while I was doing a set of bridge reglues on other guitars, I replaced the missing bridge on this one and got it going.

It's unmarked but almost certainly Mexican-made. The age of the tuners and the style of the build suggests a '70s or '80s make to me. It has a solid (cedar?) top over solid mystery-wood (to me, anyway) rosewood-family back/sides. I like that rosewood binding, too.

Requintos are normally tuned ADGCEA (low to high, like the 5th fret with a capo) above guitar's E-to-E, but because I only had normal strings around, I originally strung it up light and tuned it GCFBbDG low to high (3rd fret of a normal guitar) instead. With heavier strings it happily tunes down to normal E-to-E and serves as a travel/compact guitar, too -- which is what it's been doing for its owner since 2020.

As you can hear in the clip -- it has a full, strident sound with good sustain and snap. Notes pop right out and carry. I had to back the mic off like crazy because it has a punchy bass that was woofing it too much. 

Repairs included: a bridge reglue/replacement, fret level/dress, restring, and setup.

Setup notes: action is bang-on at 3/32" at the 12th fret overall. The neck is straight and there's room to adjust the saddle.

Scale length: 22 3/8"

Nut width: 2"

String spacing at nut: 1 3/4"

String spacing at bridge: 2 5/16"

Body length: 17"

Lower bout width: 13 5/8"

Side depth at endpin: 4"

Top wood: solid cedar(?)

Back & sides wood: solid rosewood-a-like

Bracing type: fan, light

Fretboard: rosewood, bone nut

Bridge: rosewood, bone saddle

Neck feel: medium D-shape, flat board

Neck wood: Spanish cedar? (mahogany-family)

Condition notes: it's quite clean but does show minor finish aging and usewear throughout. There are no cracks and everything but the bridge is original.