A perfect fourth above a guitar, and built that way on purpose
A requinto is tuned A2–D3–G3–C4–E4–A4 — 110.00, 146.83, 196.00, 261.63, 329.63 and 440.00 Hz. That is the guitar’s own interval pattern moved up a perfect fourth: same shapes, same relationships, everything a fourth higher. Its lowest string, A2, is where a guitar’s fifth string sits, and its 1st string is concert A at 440 Hz.
Almost everything that goes wrong with a requinto goes wrong here, before a peg is turned. It looks like a small classical guitar, so a guitarist picks it up and tunes what their hands have tuned ten thousand times: E, A, D, G, B, E. The instrument does not complain. It simply goes slack, buzzes, and stops matching any recording in the repertoire — and because nothing obviously broke, the player concludes the requinto is a cheap guitar rather than a differently-tuned instrument.
The short scale is the tell. A requinto measures around 530 to 540 mm where a classical guitar measures 650. That is not a portability decision; it is what makes the higher tuning structurally possible. Tension rises with the square of frequency, so raising a full 650 mm guitar by a fourth would demand roughly 178% of its design tension — the kind of load that pulls a top up and lifts a bridge. Shortening the scale buys that back.
Compare the first two tabs: a requinto starts where a guitar's 5th string is, and its 2nd string is already as high as a guitar's 1st. The third tab is the non-standard EADGBE tuning, if that is genuinely what your instrument was built for.
What EADGBE actually costs on a short-scale requinto
Nothing dramatic happens — no snapped neck, no cracked top. It is the opposite problem: not enough tension. Drop each string a perfect fourth and it holds about 56% of the pull it was designed for. What that feels and sounds like:
- Slack, unresponsive strings that move too far under a normal right hand and give you little back in volume.
- Fret buzz, because the string’s vibrating arc is wider than the action was set for.
- Poor intonation up the neck — a slack string stretches proportionally more when you press it to a fret, so stopped notes run sharp, and the further up you play the worse it gets.
- A body that never wakes up. A soundboard is a tuned system driven by the strings; at half the intended drive, a good requinto sounds like a bad parlour guitar.
The exception worth knowing: scale length decides what is correctfor your particular instrument. Longer “requintos” exist — 580 mm models that are sold tuned to standard EADGBE — and on one of those, E is the right answer and A–D–G–C–E–A would be the mistake. Measure from the nut to the saddle before you decide which camp you are in.
| String | Requinto | Frequency | Guitar, same string number | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | A4 | 440.00 Hz | E4 | a fourth above |
| 2nd | E4 | 329.63 Hz | B3 | a fourth above |
| 3rd | C4 | 261.63 Hz | G3 | a fourth above |
| 4th | G3 | 196.00 Hz | D3 | a fourth above |
| 5th | D3 | 146.83 Hz | A2 | a fourth above |
| 6th | A2 | 110.00 Hz | E2 | a fourth above |
Tuning routine
- Check the scale length first, once, and write it down.Nut to saddle. Around 530–540 mm means A–D–G–C–E–A. Around 580 mm means read the maker’s spec, because that size is sold both ways. Around 650 mm and it is a guitar.
- Start with the 1st string, A4. It is concert A itself, the note the dial is calibrated on, and the clearest reading on the instrument.
- Work down: E4, C4, G3, D3, A2. Watch the octave digit on each. The trap is the muscle memory of the letters — E, A, D, G, B, E is so automatic that people tune the right letter in the wrong place without noticing. There is no B string on a requinto at all.
- Approach every string from below. Nylon plus a tuning machine has slack in both, and a string you stopped while loosening keeps drifting for minutes.
- Go round two or three times, and more on a new set. Nylon creeps for days after a restring; on a short scale that creep is a larger share of the string, so the pitch falls further than a guitarist expects.
Where the requinto belongs
The requinto was made in 1944 by Alfredo “El Güero” Gil of Los Panchos, to give the trío a voice that could play melodic introductions and countermelodies above two rhythm guitars without fighting them for space. That is still its job: boleros, the sung repertoire of the trío romántico, the filigree between vocal phrases.
Worth being clear about one thing, because the instruments often get grouped together: the requinto is a trío romántico instrument, not a mariachi one. A mariachi rhythm section is the guitarrón, the vihuela and the guitar. What the requinto shares with those two is a family resemblance and a habit of being mistuned by guitarists — our Mexican instrument tuners page puts all of them side by side.
Two limits worth knowing at this pitch
Equal temperament is the right grid here — the frets are cut to it, so open strings and stopped notes agree with each other. Two caveats specific to this instrument.
The first is that a requinto lives high, and high is where small errors are loudest. A cent of error is a fixed proportion of pitch, but at A4 and above the beating it produces against another instrument is faster and more audible than the same cent down in a guitar’s bass. Requinto players tend to be fussier than guitarists for exactly this reason, and they are right to be.
The second is nylon and the short scale together. The same downward push behind a fret takes a bigger bite out of a 530 mm string than out of a 650 mm one, so a heavy left hand sharpens noticeably — most of all in the first few frets, where the string is furthest from the fingerboard. If every open string reads centred and your melody lines still sound sharp against the guitars, look at your left hand and at the action before you touch a peg. Our guide to cents puts numbers on how much that is.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just tune my requinto EADGBE like a guitar?
You can, and it will not break anything — but it is not what the instrument is for and you will feel it immediately. A requinto is built for A2–D3–G3–C4–E4–A4 on a scale around 530 mm. Tuning those strings down a fourth to E leaves them at roughly 56% of the tension they were designed to carry: floppy under the right hand, buzzing on the frets, and intonating badly because a slack string sharpens more when you press it down. It also puts you in the wrong key for the entire trío romántico repertoire, which is written assuming the requinto sits a fourth above the guitars. Longer instruments are a different case: some 580 mm requintos are sold tuned to E, and on those it is correct.
What is the difference between a requinto and a small classical guitar?
Pitch, and everything that follows from it. They look alike — nylon strings, six of them, a body that a guitarist recognises — but a requinto is designed to be tuned a perfect fourth higher, which is why its scale is around 530–540 mm rather than 650 mm. A short scale is what makes that pitch survivable: wind a full-size 650 mm guitar up a fourth and you are asking it to hold about 178% of its design tension, which is how tops get pulled up and bridges come off. The short scale is not a portability feature, it is a structural requirement of the tuning.
Do my guitar chord shapes still work on a requinto?
The shapes do; the names do not. All six strings move up by the same interval, so the relationships between them are identical to a guitar and every shape and scale pattern transfers unchanged. What changes is what comes out: a shape you know as E sounds as A, a C shape sounds as F, and so on — everything transposes up a perfect fourth. That is why requinto parts are usually written and thought of in the sounding key rather than in guitar shapes, and why a guitarist sitting in with a trío has to decide consciously whether they are reading shapes or reading pitches.
Which requinto is this — there seem to be several instruments with that name.
This page is the requinto guitar, also called the requinto romántico: six nylon strings, A–D–G–C–E–A, developed by Alfredo Gil of Los Panchos in 1944 for the trío romántico. The word requinto by itself just means a smaller, higher-pitched member of a family, so it also names a requinto jarocho from Veracruz, a requinto clarinet and others — different instruments with different string counts and tunings. If yours has six nylon strings and a body like a shrunken classical guitar, this is the one.
My 1st string keeps breaking. Is the tuning too high?
The tuning is not the problem, but it does leave less headroom than a guitar does. The 1st string is A4 — concert A, 440 Hz — and on a short scale it is already near the top of what nylon will hold, so anything that concentrates stress will finish it off. Look at the nut slot first: a slot that is too narrow, rough, or has a sharp front edge will cut a string at exactly that point, and that is where most breaks happen. After that, check the saddle edge and the tie block, where a string bent hard over a corner fails the same way. Fitting a heavier string is not a fix; smoothing the slot is.