what's a 10 string uke called?

[Len Biglin]

Hi guys , what do you call a 10 string uke with nylon strings ? Maybe a Vihuella ? Scale is about 16 3/4".

[Donald A. Fortune]

I have an instrament that has a bowl back and 10 strings that are nilon and it's called an OUD

I'll post a pic if you wish---

[Donald A. Fortune]

My mistake on the oud- it has 11 or 12 strings that are nylon  -- DAAAAA

[Rick Hoey]

Probably a Tiple

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kODRy4VN6TA

[Tim Mace]

Chiranga????Armadillo or tortoise?Terrible neck joint? How about a tiplelele?A picture is worth 1000 saved turtles or armadillos.

[Kerry Krishna]

It's a tiple.

[Mark A. Kane]

If it's a tiple (tee-play) I charge triple (tree-play). :)

[Frank Ford]

All the tiples I've known have been high tension steel string instruments, with ten strings in four courses.

 

Charango is more like what you describe, with ten nylon strings - in five courses, if memory serves.

 

Check out the charango ninja on YouTube:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWKkacSgxlg

[Ted Kritikos]

So Cool!  I gotta get me one!  One of my South American friends told me that the backs are traditionally made from armadillo shells!

[Mike Kolb]

...I think it's called a nightmare :)

[Paul Verticchio]

"Nightmare"...."south of the border" name....OMG..... it's the Chupacabra!

[Mark Pollock]

The untunable.

[Markus Schmid]

I would call it 10 string ukulele...

If you are sure it's NOT a 10-string uke a picture would help to identify the item.

 

It's certainly not a Vihuela. The Renaissance Vihuela had 6 courses (most probably a 12 stringer), the Mexican Vihuela which is a completely different animal has 5 strings.

 

There existed baroque guitars with 5 courses (ten strings, and also 9 strings but 10 tuner holes) which fell into the scale range you mention.

 

The charango which mentioned Frank might be the one you are talking of; it's probably the most popular 10-nylonstringer of today. It comes in a huge variety of scale lengths, body shapes, construction methods and tunings. There even exist 4 course / 8 strings,  5 course / 6 strings and 5 course 20 strings - charangos. And everything in between. The 20 stringer (and some other charangos such as the armadillo ones too) have light gouge metal strings though (all the same gouge!)

 

The most common charango scale length is 370 mm but it ranges from about 230 mm up to more than 500 mm. (Sorry about the metrics - divide millimetres by 25.4 and you'll get inches).

 

There are not only wooden bowl shaped and armadillo charangos but also those with guitar-like boxes which best could be described as as 10-string uke (the latter ones most common in Perú), while the former ones are more common in Bolivia).