Thread: Kora Rebuild

My brother Martin Tucker http://www.siroccoz.com/s_bios.htm is one of Australia's leading Kora players. He also has a lot of experience building and repairing them. Give him a call on 0407618725 and tell him Matthew said to call.

He was in Newcastle only last week.

(thinks ... or is that his kora??)

Don't you just love this forum?

P

I used a piece of 40mm dia "mountain ash" for my Kora neck and it is fine.
Any of the australian hardwoods should be stiff enough, but make sure you have a piece with minimal runout.
jeff

Hey Matthew that is amazing.
The site looks good. I will have a closer look later.

They have a great sound for such a strange looking instrument.
This Kora belongs to Afro Moses who comes from Ghana but lives in Newcastle now. He plays lots of different instruments and has an amazing collection.

It would be good to find a big Calabash gourd so I could make a Kora for myself.

I chose a piece of Red Ironbark to replace the neck. It would be as strong as any timber I have.

I marked the location of the holes for the strings and the machine heads onto a story stick. They weren't evenly spaced and their didn't appear to be any system.
I spaced them evenly.

First I removed drilled the holes for the machine heads then routed the waste for the recess. Drilling was likely to be easier while the timber was square and should give neater holes.

Then I used a roundover bit on the router table to create the curved top.


Next to fit it to the calabash.

Yes Biting Midge it is a unique forum.

Here is some information I found about how the Koras are made in Africa.
The pic is of Afro Moses playing at a local festival with some of his students.

The musicians usually make their instruments themselves. The materials needed are available at every Westafrican market or in the neighborhood. However, there is one Kora maker - Alieu Suso in Bakau, Gambia - whose instruments are very estimated in all of Gambia and beyond.

The sounding corpus is made of the half of a calabash gourd covered with untanned hide of sheep, cows or antelopes. A sound hole and holes for the neck are cut in the calabash. The wet, depilated skin is pulled over the open half of the calabash and shrinks when drying thus fitting very tightly like a drum skin and then is attached at the edge with nails. Those nails are also driven in the corpus in decorative patterns (for example the Koras of Alieu Suso can be recognized by a double spiral pattern).

A round stick made of Keno wood (African rosewood, free of knots) - the neck, where the strings will be mounted - is inserted vertically through the calabash. For each string a wet strip of skin is braided around the stick. After drying this tuning ring (called Konso) holds the string, it fits so tightly to the stick that it can be moved upwards and downwards but does not slip by the tension of the tuned string. Two other, thinner sticks are inserted vertically in the hide at the edge of the calabash and serve as handgrips, a crossbar is inserted horizontally.

The bridge stands upright on a wooden cushion covered with cloth, lying on the hide and transmitting the vibrations of the strings.

The strings are made of different strength of nylon fishing line (in former times twisted strips of hide). The thicker bass strings are sometimes made by twisting thinner ones until they have 2/3/4 times the strength.

The 21 strings run in two parallel planes laterally in notches over the narrow sides of the bridge and are knotted behind with the string holders. 10 strings are plucked on the right side and 11 are plucked on the left side with the thumbs for the bass strings and the forefingers for the higher pitches while the other fingers hold the handgrips. There are also (especially in the Casamance / South Senegal) 22 and 23 string Kora variants with additional bass strings.

One end of the string is strung in 6-8 loops round the tuning ring and the other end is knotted in the string holder. The string holders are made of double nylon lines and they are anchored at the iron ring that is attached at the lower end of the stick.

On of my few paid double-bass gigs was playing with Afro Moses and Ajak Kwai at the Ourimbah community centre a couple of years ago. My brother put the band together for the night.

[edit] I just spoke to Martin; he said has has already overhauled that Kora some time ago, the problem with it was the neck was too thin in the first place.

Isn't it a small world.
I had heard Afro Moses on the radio several years ago. I think he had played at the Basement and the Byron Blues Festival. But I could't find a CD anywhere. I move to Newcastle and find him living down the road.

In most of the pictures I have seen the necks look thicker than Afro's Kora. This one has probably done a lot of travelling. There is a lot of damage on the neck.

Jeff, I am at Rankin Park, only 20minutes from Caves Beach.
The neck was 43mm diameter.
I expected that you are right about the Australian hardwoods.
I tested the ironbark by trying to bend it. It gave a scarey crack. There was no damage but it scared the life out of me.

40mm is a thick piece of wood but once you remove all the wood for the machine heads you must lose a lot of strength.
Some reinforcement might be useful.

If Mr Moses is up for the cost of it, you could inlay a carbon fibre rod into the neck. They cost about $40 (for a 24" rod) from Luthiers Mercantile, deleieverd within a week, and are easy to install. Keeps the neck stiff, stiff, stiff.

Or you could use a carbon arrow shaft, which can be had for about $5.00

Cheers,

P

A carbon fibre rod could be a good idea.

The neck is 750mm from the bridge to the top string then there is 250mm to the ring bolt at the bottom of the calabash.

I think the rod would need to be close to the 750mm. Maybe 600mm would be enough because the neck isn't routed below the first string.
Do they make rods that long?
What about the arrows?

How would I fit it to the neck?
Rout a recess then veneer over the top?
What are the diameters of the rods?
The ridge supporting the machine heads is about 15mm across.

I thought of a metal strip under the machine heads. It might not have too much strength left once all the holes are drilled through it.

I don't know this mob at all, but it's the first link I found
http://www.hoddywell.com.au/ARROW-SHAFTS-CARBON.html
Blank shafts appear to be 30" and range from $6.00 up.

There's sure to be an archery shop in Newcastle where you can get some info.

cheers,

P

I haven't used arrow shafts so I don't know whether they will be stiff enough. You could buy two 24" x 3/8 x 1/4 carbon rods from LMI. Route a 1/4 channel, a little deeper than 3/8, perhaps in the back of the neck, and use epoxy to glue them in.

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdpro...Reinforcements

oh and - its a rustic instrument; I wouldn't bother with a veneer covering the rod.

I noticed how rustic the instruments are.
I am trying to make something look good and all he wants is something that sounds good.

The carbon fibre will have to wait a while.

He turned up with another gourd and a stick from Africa. And I thought I was nearly finished.
The timber is very fine grained, solid but not as heavy as the ironbark.
It is a bit thinner than the original - under 40mm.
Plus it is round.

I pinned a square section to the round stick, centred it as best I could.
Then made a parallel fence for the router table.

I used a flat strainght bit to rout out the recesses for the machine heads.
Then I used a small shoulder plane to sneak up on the depth so that the machine heads just fitted
There is not much wood left between the machine heads and the outside.

The timber worked well. Nice and neat.
Interesting smell to the timber too.

The top hole had to be bigger for a larger machine because the top bass string is plaited fishing line.
I marked out the distance from the bridge to the machine heads.
It was a pain holding the round neck. I put a spacer under the flat of the ridge. This also helped to drill clean holes.

Then mark and drill holes for the strings. This time balancing the round side of the neck on the drill table.

I used a small countersink bit to ease the top of the holes and make it a bit gentler on the strings.

The bottom Ring looks like a bit of reinforcing steel.
I marked where I thought it should go and drilled a hole to fit.

Then I put it in the kora.
It wont sit straight........
The sticks used to hold the Kora while playing, are in the road.
The skin must have pulled them sideways when it dried.

Moses suggested a longer stem on the ring. This would work.
I found a ring bolt after visiting several hardware stores.
A bigger diameter so I had to redrill the hole.

Now fitting the machine heads. 22 of them.