Acacia wood Kora - Traditional 21/22 string African Harp (made to order)

Traditional African harp Kora. Handcrafted from natural materials with respect to the musical tradition of West Africa and pursuit of minimalist design.

Please read the description carefully! If you have any questions, we will be happy to answer them. We draw your attention to the fact that our traditional African harps are made to order after payment and consultation with the customer.

The body of our traditional harps is made from authentic kalabash pumpkins imported from Burkina-Faso.

Each kalabash is specially selected. Our suppliers select the smoothest and most round calabash with the optimal size and thickness.

To protect the kora body from dirt and damage, the calabash is covered with a layer of varnish on the outside and also impregnated with a special solution inside. The rim of the calabash is smoothed and rounded for an optimal fit of the skin membrane.

The membrane / deck is made of specially treated calf or goat leather. Leather suppliers collect the hides from rural Russia, which guarantees a humane way of raising the animals. This also allows you to support and help residents of small family farms. Leather dressing and preparation are handled by masters of their craft. Thanks to this, we always get skins of excellent quality, appearance and characteristics.

When installing the membrane, we try to comply not only with all the requirements necessary for a good and bright sound, but also strive to arrange and fix the skin as neatly and symmetrically as possible. High quality furniture nails are used to fasten the leather. We use no more and no less nails than necessary. providing a secure fit and a minimalist design.

The neck, handles and bridge of this African harp are crafted from authentic Acacia (Gleditsia triacanthos) wood.

Acacia (Gleditsia triacanthos) is one of the densest and most beautiful types of wood used in the manufacture of traditional African harps both in West Africa and in Russia in our workshop.

The density of Acacia (Gleditsia triacanthos) wood allows to achieve the strength of the harp structure, a beautiful appearance and, most importantly, a bright and rich sound.

We have the opportunity to personally select the highest quality workpieces from suppliers. Ensuring correct alignment of the fiber in the workpieces, no defects, cracks or chips.

In the production of all wood parts, high-precision CNC processing and a lot of manual labor are used. As a result, we guarantee excellent and consistent quality of our traditional African harps.

All wooden parts are coated with a mixture of shilak, oil and waxed to protect the wood from dirt and moisture changes and for an exceptional appearance.

We use modern tuners to tune our traditional African harps.

To maintain an affordable price for our harps, we use a Chinese-made open-type tuning machine with nylon stems.

Open type tuners can be serviced, replaced and repaired if necessary. At the request of the customer, for a separate fee, we can install more expensive tuners.

As is customary in West Africa, we put nylon fishing line as the strings on our traditional African harps. Separate attention was paid to the selection of the required string diameters according to accurate calculations.

The most important achievement was the ability to find strings of the required diameters from one manufacturer, which allows to achieve consistent quality, strength and density of strings.

To fasten the strings, we use high-quality metal anchors and a dense nylon cord 2 mm in diameter. This allows you to conveniently and quickly change strings if necessary.

Our traditional African harps have neat eyelets where the strings touch the neck.

Summery:

Kora body - Calabash from Burkina Faso 40-45 cm in diameter finished with varnish and glue impregnation.

Kora membrane - treated goat / calf leather, fixed with furniture nails.

Kora neck - 145-150 cm in length finished with oil/shellac/wax.

Strings Material - nylon. Configuration - Right Handed 21 strings. Tuning - C Mixolydian (traditional adapted). Mechanics - open type, modern.

Carrying bag included.