Oscar Schmidt OQ40SE Quatro
Oscar Schmidt OQ40SE acoustic-electric Quatro
Monday, December 1, 2014
Over the years, I’ve developed a fascination, a fetish perhaps, with unusual instruments. The guitars and basses I’ve chosen come from years of watching my favorite bands perform in concert, on television, in movies and videos. I’ve been introduced to some of my less common instruments through other channels: watching a traditional band in a restaurant, seeing a bluegrass band at a festival, listening to old 78-rpm records of turn-of-the-20th-century popular music. But I learned of what is probably my most unusual instrument at an equally unlikely place: a science fiction convention. Let me explain.
My exploration into the world of stringed instruments has led me down some interesting paths. I’ve delved into transposed guitars (baritone, alto and bass); ukuleles (soprano, concert, tenor and baritone); double-coursed instruments (12-string guitar, mandolin, bajo sexto); and traditional and ethnic instruments (banjo, sitar). Each of these instruments brings a different voice to the choir, and at the same time, relates back to the instrument I’m most familiar with: the guitar.
During my time playing with The Grape Ape Trust, our guitarist Bryan had a penchant for science fiction and gaming, which led the band to perform regularly at the Des Moines Science Fiction Society’s annual Demicon gathering. It was there that I met Eric Coleman of the band Toyboat, and later of the duet Cheshire Moon. Eric was always bringing along interesting instruments like cajons, hand percussion instruments, and odd stringed instruments.
It was about this time that I first picked up a banjo for serious study, and had recently taken up the baritone guitar. I took my baritone Telecaster along to an early Demicon to show to Eric, and he brought along an instrument he’d been working with: a Puerto Rican instrument called a quatro. (Eric now uses the quatro almost exclusively in his work with Cheshire Moon.)
The quatro (alternatively spelled cuatro) has five pairs of doubled strings, tuned a fifth up from a traditional guitar: bBeEAADDGG. This makes the quatro similar in some respects to a 12-string guitar, an alto guitar, and a ukulele, and the tuning is basically an octave up from a baritone guitar. Eric and I were able to pick up one another’s instruments and (pretty much) start playing without any delay. I liked the rich, bright sound of the cuatro, and filed it away as an instrument I’d like to add someday.
Quatros are descended from the guitar, the lute, and a 15th century Portuguese instrument called the cavaquinho. There are several modern variations in different Latin American countries, including the 4-string nylon Venezuelan quatro, and other variatiants with four, five, eight and ten strings of steel or nylon. Eric’s and my quatros are based on a Puerto Rican cuatro, which is shaped more like a violin than a guitar. It’s quite a bit shorter than an acoustic guitar, which lends to its bright, trebly tone.
I ordered my quatro through Uptempo Music in the Beaverdale neighborhood of Des Moines. They’re an authorized Oscar Schmidt dealer and they’ve been very helpful with some of my odd instrumental requests over the years. Oscar Schmidt, founded in 1871 by brothers Oscar and Otto Schmidt, and currently a subsidiary of Washburn, has been long known for quality, low cost instruments for students and adult beginners. Their Latin instruments also include bajo sextos, requintos, and bajo quintos, and are one of the most reliable American manufacturers of Latin instruments.
That’s not to say that there were no bumps in the road with my quatro. The strings installed at the factory were of a fairly heavy gauge, and after less than a year, they managed to pull the bridge and saddle completely off the body of the instrument. I called Oscar Schmidt and had the quatro replaced under warranty, but they did admit that this was a recurring issue with the model.
I spoke with one of the technicians there, and suggested I could put lighter-gauge strings on it, and he agreed this would be helpful. But we were unable to find a mass-produced set of strings in the proper, proportional gauges to make it happen. I wound up putting a custom set together through JustStrings.com .. expensive, but ultimately the best option. I’ve not had any further issues with the bridge; partly because of Oscar Schmidt’s partial redesign, and further helped by the lighter strings.
The OQ40SE quatro has an MSRP of $399 USD, but I was able to get it through Uptempo for about half that. I tend to tune the upper course of strings to F#, to make the instrument respond more like a “piccolo baritone.” It has a very bright, trebly tone that might not work for just any arrangement, but it’s quite a nice option to have available. I look forward to using my quatro in some of the projects I’ve got planned for 2015 and 2016.
Photo by Kathy Thomas