Timple seen from front
Timple seen from side
The timple is a traditional Spanish plucked string instrument of the Canary Islands.[1]
In La Palma island and in the north of the island of Tenerife, many timple players omit the fifth (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] The common tuning is GCEAD.
Timple players (timplistas) of note are Benito Cabrera, José Antonio Ramos, Pedro Izquierdo.