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Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:54 pm
by seisporocho1
BNB,

I also use natural wood beads but I use them as accents throughout the shekere. Do you cover them with any varnish or polurethane to make sure they don't get brittle and crack in time? I don't because I only use a few but if I were to do a whole net with them, I imagine that might be needed.....

BTW, your gourds are just beautiful. I don't have the benefit of personally visiting a farm and picking my own gourds so you are a lucky enthusiast!!! :)

Thanks for posting your pics. I like the aesthetics of the traditional style.

peace

Here are pic of my latest creation:

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:56 am
by bongosnotbombs
That a nice looking instrument 6x8. I remember you showing some
of the gourds you had stained some really nice colors.

I don't coat my wood beads with anything, I never thought about them
getting brittle. I don't know if they will or not, I guess time will tell.
If some break, you can always cut a wood one in half and glue it together
in place.

Being able to pick out the gourds from thousands makes all the difference.
Luckily the farm is only a little more than an hour drive away.

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:52 am
by seisporocho1
I hear ya on the wood beads. That is a great idea in case I ever have to fix any of them!

Here are a few more shekeres I did recently:

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:11 pm
by windhorse
Mic's too close to the shaker and far from the voice,, but oh well, I'm not going to record it again..
This is my re-beaded shaker,, done by Carol Twombley in Nevada City CA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR4niWiWt8Q
Dave

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:43 pm
by windhorse
Here's a closer view of the bead work and you get a taste of how much action with little effort harder beads and a tighter weave gives you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBeilyzM3C8

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:00 pm
by el-pulpo59
Image

some of my kids...living in france.

fred el pulpo

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 8:42 pm
by yeeman
I've had these gourd shekeres for many years...picked up the fiberglass one last year. I tend to use the blue/white one the most.

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 4:43 pm
by willie55
i had this one made for me in philly, Puerto Rican flag style, named her EDIVIA after my wife, big, loud and beautiful. link to who made it for me. Photo of it now and when new. they us it on there into page.
http://www.sekere.com/

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:51 am
by congamyk
willie55 wrote:....named her EDIVIA after my wife, big, loud and beautiful.


:D cool Willie

very nice shekeres!

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:51 pm
by bongosnotbombs
These two are very nearly done. The wood beads is going to my dad for a birthday present, and as it turns out I'm going to be keeping the red and white "Candy Cane" shekere. It is a very good match for my red and black one, so now I got the caja and mula, on to the cachimbo.
DSCF1993.JPG

DSCF1995.JPG


Then this white one here was sold a while back, it used the largest beads I have. I nice old school sound,
like older records, deeper and gravely. A lot of modern shekeres sound like maracas, bright and sharp.
That greenish one in the background I was working on for a friend who bought it on ebay, he didn't like the action.
I myself did not like the sound, the small tightly packed beads would strike the gourd all at once and sounded more
like someone hitting the gourd with a stick, than any kind of shaking sound.

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:53 pm
by roberthelpus
Here are the three that I have kept. I've made about 7 or 8 and have sold some smaller ones. I give my gourds three coats of old school wax and use dacron kite string. Usually a bit of sanding with very light sandpaper or scotch bright pads to clean things up but not much though. Never could find glass or ceramic beads at a cost that I could afford to make a whole gourd out of so I have used them only as accents like the white that you see in the middle one.

The middle one was my first ever shekere, I bought it. It was strung with waxed Irish linen which made it stiff and unresponsive. That actually made it good to learn on as it slowed things down and was more controllable. I was playing at a dance class once and kept noticing little things flying past my sight. I thought, Oh no "The Bats" are back. I saw those one time hitchhiking from Boston to Cincinnati after staying up for around three days. Turns out that it was the wood beads breaking and flying off. I shied away from wood beads ever since. After making some of my own I wasn't very happy with it, the tone wasn't too hot either. I was looking at it with my friend Steve, talking about restringing it and he, very wisely noticed how the neck started to taper off. It was about 4" longer that it is now. So I cut it off where the taper started to increase and it just made it come to life. This is the one I play the most.

The blue one is the first larger that I have made. It came from a gourd that I grew myself and SW Ohio isn't the best climate for it. It is very thin skinned, has little tone, and I would not have used it today. It is super responsive though and very loud. If I ever get a gig playing death metal this would be the one.

The small one is just keep to have a small one around at it does have some of the best tones for a gourd that small that I have found.

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:18 am
by JohnnyConga
I made this shekere years back in the 90's why i put the V on it I don't know. Now I know it was for VOLCANO!...." "JC" Johnny Conga
DSCN0104.JPG

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:51 am
by vasikgreif
Stan from Pacific Coast Percussion sent off today a set of chekeres for me, looking forward to them! Anyone knows about some instructional DVD on playing shekere? (as I don't know about anybody who would play it good here in Czech republic). I do have the congamasterclass.com lessons, any other source?

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:12 pm
by vasikgreif
Got the shekeres last week, but they were by a friend till now, and today I picked up the middle one. I'm amazed by the sound, nice tone and crisp and really loud beads sound - these are my first shekeres though, so don't have anything to compare. I can definitely recommend Stan from Pacific Coast percussion and his work, he's really nice guy to deal with and I love the shekeres...

Re: SHOW ME YOUR SHEKERE!

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:49 pm
by OLSONGO
Here are some recent shekeres up for sale, here first before they go on CL and Ebay .
Peace
Olsongo