The Portuguese guitar is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses watch-key or Preston tune
Left: Coimbra guitar; right: Lisboa guitar
Fado, by José Malhoa (1910)
António Chainho and his Portuguese guitar (Lisbon model)
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information
Portuguese guitar
…six courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses watch-key or Preston tuners. It is iconically associated with the fado musical genre. The Portuguese guitar most diffused today has undergone considerable technical modification in the last century (dimensions, mechanical…
Maria Severa, fado singer (1820–1846)
Coimbra students playing fado in a serenade at the front door of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra (Sé Velha)