Thomann Cuatro Venezolano Standard

This Venezuelan Cuatro is made for Thomann in Portugal in the factory APC. It is very nice and good instrument with quality wood and materials. The sound is good and vibrant, it's comfortable to play and good made. There are some small things that I did not like too much - it is open pore - that means without varnish and the saddle was cheap plastic. The last I replaced with bone saddle the same size and the correct shape. Everything other is perfect with this Cuatro and it is the most traditional model with 14 frets. It is small - little bigger than Tenor Ukulele. Better put new strings and not use the factory ones - there are for sale too at the site. However I found better to use thicker nylgut strings for the A3 and B3. The bridge design is pass through, so you have to put the string from the top and try to insert as much as you can initially. This way it will be easy for you to find with the other hand the string end from the sound hole :) Then make a good knot - I use 'figure 8 knot' for the thick strings and 'Ashley stopper knot' for the thin ones (search in Google :) You can use whatever big stopper knot maybe. So after that you can route the string securely over the bridge holes. I think this design not only looks clean when finished but also adds to better vibration transfer to the soundboard. So this is very good and nice instrument. I wish Thomann will offer more Cuatro Venezolano choices to choose from and I want 17 fret Concerto size too :)

I bought this to learn the instrument, while the sound was generally good my only down to this particular model is the width of the fretboard which is wider than the normal one. Therefore the effort you put in your hands is higher. If you have small hands, you will suffer a bit. Now, I got one from Venezuela and the fretboard is 0.5cm less than this one and it is way more comfortable than this one. I think if you have long hands that is not a problem.
The rest it has all the complements on marking some frets which is helpful and the other thing that is great is the size... because it only has 14 frets which is normally one for acompañamiento, it is great to travel, and maybe you cannot reach some solista notes but it is perfect to travelling around and keep learning.
If the makers could make the fretboard less wide this will become a must have for learners because... you never know if you will continue or even if you are going to like it, so it is good approach to the instrument... but they must fix this.