African Instruments

oceanclub

Does anyone know where in Ireland - or perhaps online - you can buy African instruments? I'm particularly interested in getting a sanza or thumb piano,

Cheers,

P.

Karl Hungus

oceanclub wrote:

Does anyone know where in Ireland - or perhaps online - you can buy African instruments? I'm particularly interested in getting a sanza or thumb piano,

Cheers,

P.

Thumb piano? You mean an Mbira?

Can't think of anywhere in Ireland offhand. If there's an African Crafts shop anywhere near you, it might be worth looking there.

Other than that, your best bet is Ebay.

Bratach Bán

There's an African crafts shop on Liffey Street in Dublin, and they have thumb pianos etc from time to time.

You should be very careful what you buy and where you buy it from, though. A lot of the stuff that you see, both here and on e-bay, is cheap tourist stuff. You know, it's made for hanging on walls in rich people's dining rooms as a "conversation piece" :rolleyes:

The best web source for genuine, ethnic instruments is Lark in the Morning. You'll have to pay shipping from the States, and they're not always the cheapest, but they're always good quality:

www.larkinam.com

John

A couple of weeks ago I was in a shop in London in Camden that specialised in Eastern instruments and had a fair few African instruments too (and they were decent unlike the tourist pap mentioned above). I'll find out the name of the shop and see if they do mail order.