The guitarron mexicano (literally "Mexican large guitar" in Spanish) is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass played in mariachi groups. Although obviously similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de una. It achieves audibility by its great size, and does not require electric amplification for performances in small venues. The guitarron is fretless with heavy gauge strings, most commonly nylon for the high three and metal for the low three. The guitarron is usually played by doubling notes at the octave, which is facilitated by the unusual tuning of A D G C E A. Sometimes the high A is lowered an octave putting it just one octave above the low A.
The guitarron was the inspiration behind Ernie Ball's development of the first modern acoustic bass guitar, released on the market in 1972.
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