Sekorawa

**Scally** · 28th April 2010, 08:28 AM

This is a variation on the Seprewa from Ghana.

Afro has been asking me for awhile to make one with a three quarter gourd body instead of the wooden box.

I extended the leg of a seprewa neck so it would go through the gourd.

Everything else is pretty much the same.
The neck has guitar machine heads to help tuning. Traditional ones use rawhide wrapped around the neck to grip the strings.

I put brass eyelets in the string holes. It stops the strings cutting into the timber and protects the strings.

The bridge is tall enough to hold the strings clear of the gourd and wide enough to have them close to the thumb and fingers for playing.

The timber is an American oak because it is light and strong. I tried to cut with the grain to keep strength on the curved section.

The bass string is 250 pound fishing line and the highest strings are 60 pound. They put a fair bit of pressure on the neck.

It has a more mellow sound than the seprewa.

Afro called it a SEKORAWA.

**WayneW** · 28th April 2010, 05:03 PM

Gday Scally,

I would really like to have a listen to this, can you upload an Audio Sample?

WayneW
Linguist Guitars

**Scally** · 28th April 2010, 09:53 PM

No problem.
Just give me a couple of days.

In the meantime here is Afro Moses playing my Seprewa

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRwvD1E3z9c&feature=PlayList&p=03D724C59CFBE314&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=54]YouTube - This Girl"Abaayiwah" ( Afro Moses Solo ) on Sperewah[/ame]

**woodturner777** · 28th April 2010, 10:05 PM

So this is where Bob Marley is hiding, good one Scally.

Cheers,Bob

**KYEKYEKU** · 7th February 2013, 10:33 PM

Hello my name is kyekyeku and i am from ghana. A neo-folk singer-songwriter-guitarist. Afro moses is a good friend of mine since 2 years back and i have been following his exploits for a very long time. I met him personally 2 yrs back and we talked. Thing is i would like to have a sekorawa made for me as i want to elevate the big stage performance potential of this native ghanaian instrument. I have been playing folk music form ghana, palmwine we call it with ghana's premier folk musician-koo nimo for a long time now and we feature the seperewa a lot and its nice to see the innovations you have brought to the seperewa with afro. I have had a problem with the previous makes by the fact that they body is made from separate woodblocks and this i think does not aid in resonance and does not really agree with basic luthier principles. The very ancient ones were made from whole wood, therefore no joints. For me this is what the sekorawa satisfies due to the use of the calabash instead of woodblocks joined together..i find the blocks too thick also. Kudos again for your innovations. If its possible to build one for me, kindly let me know. I would appreciate very much. I would also imagine we could put an aura fishman preamp with an undersaddle pickup between the brigde and the top skin where they both make contack. This would allow good volume and to sit in with a big loud group. This year i am touring and playing a lot and would like to write music with this instrument and carry its name far as afro is doing. You can find my material on youtube even though its scanty.

kyekyeku : Palmwine Spider storytelling with William (sax), - YouTube

**Scally** · 4th March 2013, 05:57 PM

Hi kyekyeku, beautiful music.

Thank you for the kind comments.

Afro and I have been god friends for several years now. He got me started on playing African music and I fixed and made instruments for him.

Replacing the wood box with the small gourd was Afro's idea.
I think it looks much better and it has a better sound and resonance.

He recently asked me to make another two. One for him another for a musician in Melbourne.

I am not an expert in amps and pickups. Moses has someone who does it for him. I will check with him. He is always interested in trying new things.
He is home, in Newcastle (near me) at the moment but is going to perform at a Bali festival shortly. I will give him a call for you.

I would be pleased to make one for you.

Regards Robert

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