Description
Besides the guitarra portuguese the Portuguese Fado is also accompanied by a normal looking classical guitar, called a viola de fado. Notice that all the other violas are different : they are smaller and have double strings. The main difference with a normal classical guitar is that the viola de fado does not have nylon strings, but steel strings. Sometimes it has a small narrow piece of pickguard at the right side of the strings between soundhole and bridge. The tuning of the viola de fado is like a normal guitar. The player plays (without a plectrum) the chords and especially the typical bass riffs. Sometimes a 4-string acoustic bass guitar (violão baixa) is also part of the fado instruments to accompany the singer (man or woman). (Source – ATLAS of Plucked Instruments)
