HYBRID XALAM PROJECT
First off, let me say that xalams and their other African cousins are spike fiddles; the neck and dowel do not go all the way through the sound chamber. This instrument is more like a very small-scale banjo, but I opted for a tailpiece design that is more like something found on a kora. I did take the idea of using four strings with a short high drone string from xalams, ngonis, and related instruments.
The instrument itself is a collection of disparate parts from around the world, which somehow found their way into my basement. Two feet in overall length, the neck and dowel were shaped from a single piece of quarter sawn Honduran mahogany, with the exception of building up the heel with maple and African mahogany. The 7 inch pot was made from a Pakistani hand drum. The origins of the wood and skinhead are unknown, which may be a good thing. The fretless fingerboard is rosewood and maple with a Siberian mammoth tusk nut. The end of the dowel is inlaid with maple triangles. The ebony violin tuners were courtesy of
Master Violinmaker Phillip Injeian
. The mismatched tuners add to the overall cabinet of curiosity look. In keeping with West African tradition, the strings are nylon fishing line and the tailpiece is a brass washer tied on with rawhide. An iron ring would have been ideal but there has not been a decent blacksmith in the neighborhood ever since Home Depot moved in. The headstock was inlaid with cowrie shells. Finally the whole neck/dowel was finished with tung oil.
Not knowing how the finished instrument would actually sound, I was pleasantly surprised. Currently, I have it tuned gDGC, but am still experimenting with other tunings. The high g gives a percussive plink rather than a musical tone and the low D string gives it a Gnawan sound on pull-offs and slides.
Playing the instrument is taking some getting used to, as with anything new. The charm is that nothing is set in stone and everything is up for grabs. My plan is to keep trying to refine it, using this one as the prototype. The next one will have a much narrower neck. I was hoping to use a gourd for the body, but will have to wait on that, as this year's crop failed.
Listen to the hybrid xalam
