the story on this instrument

is that it is tuned to a delicious japanese scale called aki-bono. this is a pentatonic scale.

can you say monkeypod apple? i found a wooden bowl, carved from monkeypod wood, shaped like an apple. i drilled it for a 1/4 inch guitar jack and shaped a solid pine top to fit it. i stained the pine to match the bowl and added my highly engineered bridge system to hold the eleven keys.

this electric kalimba sounds very, very japanese.

click here to hear it

this is a very cute and great sounding acoustic-electric kalimba.

  it started life as a jewelry box probably made in south asia. the checker board pattern on its sides is inlaid boxwood and rosewood. i found it broken/lidless in a thrift shop and realized it would make a great kalimba body. so i drilled a sound hole in the what would now be the front, and put in the pick-up and jack to electrify it. i added one of my highly engineered bridge systems and 12 keys with buzzers.

  you can download a sound sample of this instrument being played at:

               http://imputor.com/ekalimba/rk390.mp3

it is tuned to G major, and if you buy it i will add a nylon soft case to put it in for no extra charge.

   reuse reduce recycle!

i'm going to tell stories about the kalimbas that i have for sale.

at any given time i will have 40 or more electric kalimbas for sale. i make new ones all the time. and people buy them and they are gone all the time too.

the picture above is some months old, and several of these beauties are gone now.

i will also tell stories about kalimbas and kalimba experiences and African music in general.

if you have bought eKalimbas from me in the past, i would love to hear your eKalimba stories too. i could see publishing some of them in this space too.