Mariachi Instruments
Westbank String Shop imports quality, hand-crafted mariachi instruments directly from Guitarras La Española - the premier family guitar manufacturer in Mexico. Located in Paracho, Michoacan, the Guitar Capital of Mexico, this factory produces fine guitars, mandolins, vihuelas, and guitarrons using exotic Mexican woods.
Lauded as producing the best acoustic sound anywhere, fine crafted Paracho guitars often require several months wait to acquire. We import these instruments directly from the factory to our store in Austin. To date, these fine instruments are used in schools in Austin, College Station, and Dallas.
The following instruments are available for wholesale and retail purchase through Westbank String Shop and will be delivered with gig bags and straps.
Interested customers may contact us at (512) 326-4898.
NEWS link: Oak Hill Gazette feature on Westbank String Shop Mariachi Instruments.
Bajo Sexto
Model: 16F A bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a type of 12 string guitar, fused with a bass, used in Mexican music. It is used primarily in norteño music of northeastern Mexico and across the border in the music of south Texas known as "Tex-Mex," "conjunto," or "música mexicana-tejana". The bajo sexto sound provides a strong rhythm in the lower pitched end of a Conjunto or Tejano band and also provides a strong projection of chord changes across songs. |
Vihuela
Model: 21F Vihuela is a name given to guitar-like string instrument from 20th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands. The Mexican vihuela is a small, deep-bodied rhythm guitar built along the same lines as the guitarrón. Its five nylon strings are tuned like the first five of a guitar, but with the fourth and fifth tuned up an octave, ukulele-style. The Mexican vihuela is used by mariachi groups, most notably in central Jalisco, Mexico. It is played with fingers strumming open chords on the fretted part of the neck. |
Guitarron
Model: 22F
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The guitarrón (literally "large guitar" in Spanish, the suffix "-ón" denoting "large") is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass played in mariachi bands. Although obviously similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de uña. It achieves audibility by its great size, and does not require electric amplification for performances in small venues. The guitarrón is fretless, the strings are heavy gauge, and the action is high, so that quite a bit of left hand strength is required. |
