The Crucial Importance of Strings for the Charango
In this article, I want to share with you an interesting experiment I conducted: changing a set of strings on a high-quality charangón. This experiment highlights how essential it is to have high-quality strings to enhance the tone and sound projection of the charango.
The charango is an instrument that requires strings of high brilliance and durability to fully express its sound potential. Strings significantly influence the tone, sound projection, and sensitivity of the instrument. Using low-quality strings can compromise the entire musical experience, while excellent strings can transform the charango’s sound, making it brighter, more balanced, and more enjoyable to play.
The Sugar Strings: The Best Choice for the Charango
The Sugar strings, specifically designed for the charango, charangón, and ronroco, are the result of a long collaboration between Charango.it and Aquila Corde Armoniche. This project has contributed to the definition and refinement of strings for these instruments, ensuring they meet the highest demands of musicians. Today, they represent the best choice for those seeking quality and performance. In this experiment, I used a set of Sugar strings on a charangón belonging to my Chilean friend Eduardo Cornejo, a talented luthier who produces excellent instruments.
Results and Considerations
As you can see in the video, compared to the classic Medina Artigas, the new Sugar strings have radically changed the voice of the instrument. The tone has become much more vibrant and bright, essential characteristics for a high-quality charango. The brilliance of the strings is evident in both fingerpicking and strumming, offering great sound projection.
Another aspect that makes the Sugar strings superior is the balance between the bass and treble strings, ensuring a harmonious and balanced sound. The sensitivity of the strings is extraordinary, making them soft to the touch and facilitating the execution of complex techniques such as fingerpicking, intricate chords, and barring. Even on a charangón with a 45-scale, which naturally has a tense fretboard, the Sugar strings prove to be easy to play.
Finally, the strings’ resistance to breaking is impressive: they can last for months even under high stress conditions.