Madeiran Machetinho – 14 inches

Beautiful custom Machetinho handcrafted in Madeira, Portugal by Carlos Jorge Pereira Rodrigues – one of Maderia’s most foremost instrument luthiers. This instrument is 14 inches in total length and is a homage piece to an original machetinho from the mid 1800s. The back and sides of the body were handcrafted of Cedar da Iiha or ‘Cedar of the land’, an endemic wood to Madeira frequently used on instruments of yesteryear as well as today. The soundboard used is spruce that was repurposed from an old piano on Madeira. The neck is also of a local wood to Madeira and was hand carved of Vinhatico wood. The fingerboard and pegs are hand crafted as well of Dalbergia sprucing with cow bone bridge pins and a custom made coffin case. The tuning of this instrument is GCEG and is taken from the Machete tuning of DGBD barred at the fifth fret.

A truly wonderful example of a historical machetinho by one of Madeira’s top luthiers, this instrument has excellent projection and note separation with great clarity as well. Historically these were tuned with gut strings but they have also taken on a steel string tuning in recent years. As a point of reference and comparison of the actual size of this instrument photos were taken with this instrument adjacent to a historical 1870s Octavianno Joao Nunes Machete, a historical 1930s Leonardo Nunes soprano ukulele, and a 2016 Kamaka 100th Anniversary tenor ukulele. ID#190077

Price: Not For Sale