Made a Palito today! - ...or bamboo crafts at home

[bongosnotbombs]

That there is some pretty nice bamboo! Whatcha gonna make with that?

Maybe a guagua or two......or twelve!

[Chupacabra]

Every time I see a stack of bamboo it reminds me of the drum stand that I want to make and have it planned out on paper but have never picked up enough ambition to physically get into it yet!
The palitos that I made a few months back have been played a fair bit and have held up well. Bamboo is amazing stuff, I love it!

[bongosnotbombs]

Every time I see a stack of bamboo it reminds me of the drum stand that I want to make and have it planned out on paper but have never picked up enough ambition to physically get into it yet!

Sounds like a cool idea...

[rahalak]

Just now reading through this thread - nice work BNB. I have a few comments:

I've found some pretty nice lengths of bamboo, though not as thick as these, at Michaels Arts & Crafts stores.

Quote <I guess I could put holes on both sides so a pole would go all the way through and then I could clamp like a cymbal with the felt pad?> I did that on one of the katas I made and though it worked, it weakened the bamboo and it broke after some use...

As for the names, Guagua means bus, and in addition to "driving the rhythm" a proto-typicical bus is long and yellow, like a length of bamboo. (I think Cua, the Puerto Rican name for the instument, also means bus.) And the name kata (or cata) is onomatopoetic - the "palitos" rhythm sounds like, kata-kata-ka, kata, ka taka...
Chris

ps- onomatopoetic = the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it

[bongosnotbombs]

Been developing my design. I got this idea from a book on how to make
the Shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute.

It doesn't affect the sound at all, I'm hoping it makes the guagua/cata more
durable. I repaired a cracked guagua like this, I hope this technique will prevent some
cracking.

I've been coating them with this oil made to seal bamboo cutting boards and stuff.

I think it looks pretty good too, I've seen people use hose clamps, but those don't really
go with my design sensibilities, anyways I heard they can get loose and rattle a bit too.

[windhorse]

I'm sure the tightly wound string would work fine, but that creates an unplayable spot on the surface of the cata. So, it'd be great to put it on as an addition, but I wouldn't go making them right out of the box that way.. Just my opinion..
Reason I say that is that I like to sometimes play all over mine to experiment with nuances in tone and overtones.

[bongosnotbombs]

I'm sure the tightly wound string would work fine, but that creates an unplayable spot on the surface of the cata.

Maybe it's just another nuance of tone, my man!

[bongosnotbombs]

a few more and a pole for I'm going to be making some more out of.
The crucial thing in pole selection is length of the nodes, at least for me,
I play these held between the legs. A stand is just one more thing to carry and worry about.
With these I shove them inside my conga before I put it in a conga bag and away I go.

[bongosnotbombs]

I really envy you guys with garages and shops and things like power tools.
...but I guess the people that started this music with these instruments
didn't have these luxuries either.
Part of that pole is going to me, most of it to congaplace members who have ordered one
of my instruments.
The shekeres are going to be a guiro / agbe set I am making. I've painted the insides with a hard drying
acrylic and they are drying / draining. It's an experiment, we'll see how it works out.

[Joseph]

I really envy you guys with garages and shops and things like power tools.

....sigh...the grass is always greener syndrome...

I really envy you guys that are located in areas with many varied outlets for percussive expression.
But for a few friends, who "get" my interest in Afro-diasporic percussion, I'm laboring out in the redneck wilderness here.

I'd gladly trade my garage/shop / power tools for the daily /weekly/monthly/yearly opportunities for percussive learning & expression that are available in NoCal /SF.

Keep up the good work!

[windhorse]

Great stuff Geordie!!! You are really getting the touch for crafting GREAT instruments!!!

[bongosnotbombs]

So all my bamboo is spoken for instruments for various forum users,
when I get some more I'll post here, but for know unless we've been in
communication already I don't have anymore guagua's available, maybe in 2 weeks
we'll see.

[tocandorumba]

Check out how the palito player mounted this one! 0:42 right after the chicas lindas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfw4hBQLWbk

[KidCuba]

Brining this discussion back to life, with a question for those of you who have made a guagua, kata, palitos, etc...

What do you find to be the most desireable diameter for the instrument?

Thanks,

[Chupacabra]

The methods that I used to determine the best diameter for the guagua I made are not very scientific at all... I just looked at the overall condition of the lengths I had and cut the sections that looked the nicest and had at least 25 centimeters between each node. One of the lengths I had turned out to have a pretty thin wall thickness (about 6 mm) and I couldn't use that. It was all pretty much using the old "by guess and by gosh" method!