This may be the cure for MAS

[nickster60]

If you had one of these it may cure the dreaded affliction of MAS. I am sure you would be the only guy at the jam with one and it looks like a dilly.

http://staugustine.craigslist.org/msg/3157167911.html

[catmandu2]

You're easily cured

It would take something more like...this...to assuage my MASisms




*although I love the fur coat...you probably wouldn't need to stick a rattler in there or anything else, for m'bira...

[Steve Ostrander]

That's a one-piece armadillo back, right there...do you still have to put a rattlesnake rattle in it? That thing needs a haircut.

[foldedpath]

That's a Charango (not "Charanto") and it comes in both haired and hairless versions. Also wood back and sides. I think they sell the armadillo versions mostly to tourists these days.

I bought a hairless one many years ago on a trip Down South, and it lived on my wall for a few years before the top cracked. You have to be very careful about humidity control with these things. The top wants to move and the hard-shell back won't budge. It was fun to mess around with, but I never felt a strong urge to get another one after the first one died on me.

[JEStanek]

They aren't as much fun to sniff as old mandolins. They can be fun to dare others to sniff, however.

Jamie

[Jim Garber]

A friend of mine told me that the armadillo-baked ones are judged best when the hair continues to grow. I have a wooden one. BTW it is tuned more or less like a ukulele: gceae.

[allenhopkins]

I have one, armadillo shell and all. Only instrument I own with real ears attached.

[journeybear]

Maybe the hair will help keep the wee beastie from slipping around on your lap.

[Wilbur James]

Mandolin on the half shell?

[Jim Bevan]

I go to Chile often, and from what I've been told, they don't make churangos from armadillos anymore because they are considered an endangered species.

For that price, I'd grab it if I were you...

[Bernie Daniel]

If you had one of these it may cure the dreaded affliction of MAS. I am sure you would be the only guy at the jam with one and it looks like a dilly.

http://staugustine.craigslist.org/msg/3157167911.html

I think this might be one of those times that the cure is worse than the disease...

[nickster60]

If I brought that thing home I am sure I would find my bags on the front lawn.My wife doenst think much of dead critters around the house. I think the dog would have to make sure the armadillo was dead and that would be messy. In the interest of harmony at home I will leave the little guy in St Augustine

[padawan]

That's the first instrument that I've ever seen that had the scales built in.
Must be great for students.

[rb3868]

That is so weird. My Great Uncle Cecil - who lived in St Augustine (passed away decades ago) - had one of those armadillo instruments. I wonder what the odds are that I might have held that when I was 10

[allenhopkins]

I've owned my armadillo-shell charango for maybe six or seven years; I never play it, but not because it's creepy, just because I do most of my ukulele-like playing on ukuleles. Never really gotten into Bolivian music, other than listening to Simon & Garfunkel's El Condor Pasa and playing it occasionally (on a mandolin).

I think the incorporation of natural native materials, if the species isn't endangered, is part of what makes different styles of ethnic music "authentic." Hey, many of us who play banjo (or drum for that matter) pound or pluck away on the tanned skin of a calf or perhaps a goat. Our fretting fingers may glide over the former "innards" of several mollusks, and fiddlers saw away with hairs plucked from a horse's tail. And don't get me started on gut strings... Quite a few lambs may have given their skins to make the little air flaps in my three concertinas; their bellows are leather, which to my knowledge you can only get by cutting up an animal.

Of course, there's a difference when the instrument's component incorporates so much of the "donor's" original form. My charango looks like an armadillo, hair, ears and all, while my gut strung banjo doesn't look much like a calf (head) or sheep (strings). Still, that's where the parts came from.

[Skip Kelley]

The hair is just a big turn-off for me!!!

What I can't understand is how you glue the top and neck to the armadillo!