Other Plucked Instruments

This is an interesting percussive instrument. I haven't been able to find too many of these around, and this is the one that I usually see for a relatively cheap price. According to the people I've discussed and my own attempts at playing the pandeiro, I must say that I think this one is pretty good. Many people seem to confuse these things with tambourines. While they look and feel somewhat similar, the pandeiro is cool in that it is far more flexible. For instance, the skin can be tuned in order to produce different pitches, both high and low. Thus, the instrument is capable of a far wider variety of sounds than the tambourine. For instance, Airto Moreira is capable of emulating the sounds of an entire percussion ensemble with a pandeiro.
As far as this brand is concerned, it's OK, but nothing too crazy. The price makes it worthwhile, if you aren't a serious student of the instrument, you might not really want to shell out a ton of bucks for it. This instrument is more than competent to make a good introduction. When Italian percussionist came into the studio where I work, they probably won't be using this, but it's great for the beginners, and it's expensive enough that if you decide to eventually buy a good one, it won't have been too much of an investment. It also gives you enough flexibility with the tuners to understand how to get the different tones out of different parts of the instrument. Other, nicer pandeiros will be capable of delivering more subtly, and will be easier to play to a certain extent. Just to reiterate, this is clearly a beginners instrument. To wrap up, a quick warning; learn how to tune it properly! You could damage it irreparably if you tune it way too tight in my opinion!

The Harpejji is a very nice instrument which is somehow intuitive to play for a keyboardist. But while it's easy to play an easy piece of music, there's still a long way to go to rival with Mathieu Terrade's playing technique

Its building quality is top notch, and it's easy to tune in spite of the important number of strings involved.

I've used it with Amplitube 4, and it sounds terrific!

The Cavaco itself has a much thinner more Mandolin type neck than my other Cavaquinhos but the body is much bigger. The Soundboard is pine with that lovely pine lumber yard smell. With the steel strings and the narrow neck I find it much harder to play than a Ukulele or even the other Cavaquinhos?

It is marked inside as the "Estudante" model and is dated 2007. When you look at today's range there is an Estudente but it doesn't have a slotted headstock or a pine soundboard, so this is probably better quality than the current one? The closest now is the Classico or the Studio but neither of those are quite right either?

It may have been labeled as the student model but it is more than good enough for most serious players - the person I sold it to was going to use it in a London based Brazilian music band so he certainly thought it good enough to use professionally (except he was going to have a pickup retrofitted)