Markus Schmid's Page

With a wide chisel and a spokeshave roughly shape the body:

While hollowing the charango body in the following steps, tiny cracks may begin to appear and open more and more at the end grain (near the neck and at the end). To avoid this, moisture the wood in the critical areas regularly with a wet rag (especially when you note opening cracks - they will close again completely later on, so don't worry too much about this). Keep the…

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Interested in building a charango? Well, I will not provide a perfect tutorial, but I can present some important steps in building a carved charango, starting with hollowing out a block of wood.



There are charangos made from just one solid block of wood, and there are others made of several pieces. Doing it in several pieces you'll have more control of warping and it's way less waste of precious natural resources, so it's the multi-piece charango I'll go for.



Here is a… Continue