Timple

{{Short description|String instrument}}

{{Confused|text=the tiple, also a stringed instrument}}

{{Refimprove|date=February 2008}}

Image:Timple.jpg

Image:Timple Front.png

Image:Timple2.jpg

Image:Timple Side.png

The timple is a traditional five-string plucked string instrument of the Canary Islands.{{Cite web|url=https://stringedinstrumentdatabase.aornis.com/t.htm|title=The Stringed Instrument Database: T|website=Stringedinstrumentdatabase.aornis.com|access-date=20 April 2021}} It started being manufactured in the 19th century.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hellocanaryislands.com/canary-islands-timple/|title=The Canary Islands timple|date=10 November 2017|website=Hellocanaryislands.com|access-date=20 April 2021}}

In La Palma island and in the north of the island of Tenerife, many timple players omit the first (D) string, in order to play the timple as a four-string ukulele, though this is considered less traditional by players and advocates of the five-string version. The players of the four-string style, in return, say that they are simply playing the timple in the old-fashioned way from before the time when a fifth string was introduced in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} The common tuning is GCEAD.

Notable timple players (timplistas) are Benito Cabrera (Lanzarote), Germán López (Gran Canaria), José Antonio Ramos, Totoyo Millares, and Pedro Izquierdo (Tenerife).