Some lovely new claves

Well the postman arrived with some lovely new claves, and a guagua. Handmade in Belize by Isla Percussions. Seems like not a moment too soon. If you bloggers remember one of my more recent posts, my current set of claves had seen better days.

 

Anyways, I'm very happy to get these new claves, made from some exotic tropical Belize hardwood I don't even know the name of. I've spent a little time tapping away on them, trying to find the best pairs of machos and hembras. There is nothing worse than a bad sounding set of claves, cuz you're going to have to listen to them the entire rumba. Lucky for me they all sound great. They look great, and they are nice and light so they feel great too. Ah, no more splinters or nasty dirty tape on my claves for a while at least.

The guagua sounds great too. It seems to be made from 2 types of wood. I'm usually partial to the sound of bamboo and I've been making all my own guaguas from bamboo. But I'm willing to give this little guy a chance. It has a great sound, dry and cutting, not too shrill. I guess I'm going to have to figure out how to make a stand for it, I can't see holding it between the legs like I do with my bamboo ones.