El Tres Cubano

On the left an ordinary "classic" Spanish guitar, in the middle a Cuban Tres and on the right a Colombian Cuatro.

In the summer of 2001 I saw a band playing Cuban music. The most important chords playing instrument was the Cuban Tres, a somewhat smaller guitar with THREE (tres) pairs of strings. The Tres is more or less played like the piano in the Salsa music; walking rhythmically through the notes of the chord with now and then the full chord. Until that day I had concentrated my guitar studies on the Colombian Cuatro, a four-string and much smaller guitar. The Tres however, is much more dominant, so better usefull in small bands; put a bass player, a bongo player, a guiro player and a trumpet player together and the sound is complete!
I've got thick fingers so I never got used to play a normal guitar, too many many string at such a tight range... Therefore the Tres became my favorite guitar.

I bought my Tres in Holland from a Dutch guy who fabricated it in Holland. But he was a bass player in a Dutch band, playing Cuban music.
At the start I had some difficulties in tuning my little guitar and I found out that there are different tunings in use... As far as I can see the most common tuning is G C E (from top to bottom, the bottom string is the one closest to the floor when you're holding the Tres)
Are you having trouble with tuning your Tres, then listen to these tuning mp3's:

Tres_tuning1_48kbs.mp3 (123kB) Picking each string separately, from top to bottom.
Tres_tuning2_48kbs.mp3 (69kB) Picking each pair of strings separately, from top to bottom.

I did already some research on the Tres chords, perhaps it comes in handy for you too:
Tres chords more Tres chords empty page
Any supplement is welcome!

My favorite song in which the Tres plays an important role is Un monton de estrellas from Polo Montañez