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Bandolin

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2000s unmarked Ecuadorian bandolin

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Arabi, Portuguese Music on Bandolin

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Rumi tio - Sisay (Bandolin cover)

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Bumangon ka by Arthur Batoon Bandolin Jr

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Bandolin cover

The Trinidad bandolin is a variation of the mandolin, smaller, approximately 24 x 40 centimeters. Its identity as a distinct instrument comes partly from changes made to the instrument on the island after World War I. Before that time, the instrument had a rounded back made of strips of wood, or occasionally the shell of a turtle. Today it can have either a flat or rounded back; the two are generally though not totally considered to be separate instruments. According to Lise Winer in the Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago: On Historical Principles, some people use the term mandolin for the flat-backed instrument and bandolin for the round-backed instrument. The instrument has four courses of steel strings, like a standard mandolin and distinct from the Ecuadorean bandolin. The latter uses four courses of triple strings and is tuned in fourths. A standard mandolin uses four courses of double strings and is tuned in fifths.
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