Mexican Bass Guitars
Traditional music of Mexico features varieties of acoustic bass guitars. The bajo sexto, with six pairs of strings, resembles a twelve-string guitar tuned an octave lower. The heavy gauge strings generate a large string tension, yet the guitar is built relatively lightly. The bajo sexto began to be used in Texas in the 1920s with the rise of "Tex-Mex" music, where it continues to be used to play the parts that would be played by the piano in traditional American popular music. It matches the standard tuning of a 12-string guitar, one octave lower. The tuning of these instruments is (capital letters are an octave lower than small letters):
- BAJA SEXTO - Ee Aa Dd Gg Cc Ff
- BAJO SEXTO - Ee Aa Dd Gg Bb ee
The guitarrón is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass guitar played in Mariachi bands. Other Latin American acoustic bass guitars exist as well, see: Bordonua.
Read more about this topic: Acoustic Bass Guitar
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