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A wooden marimbula box with seven metal tongues, each labeled with its note.

Guantánamo Marimbula

A traditional marimbula from Guantánamo, the Cuban thumb piano that played the bass before the bass.

  • Kontakt
  • Decent Sampler

$5+Pay what you want

Checkout and download on Ko-fi or Gumroad.

This marimbula is from Guantánamo, Cuba, and was given to me in 1999. The marimbula was the precursor to the bass in Cuba and is still important in traditional styles such as changüí, nengón and kiribá. It is believed to have originated in eastern Cuba.

It belongs to the sansa family from the Bantu cultures of sub-Saharan Africa: plucked metal tines over a large wooden body that resonates like a bass.

A marimbula can be tuned, but generally isn’t, and this one is no exception. Like most instruments in Cuba, think of it as a percussion instrument.

Royalty free in any production, including client projects. A credit is appreciated but not required. You may not sell or redistribute the samples, or claim them as your own.

Details

Samples
2 per key and for the sides, plus 4 hits on the top
Tuning
Untuned, as played traditionally
Kontakt
Needs the full version of Kontakt. It likely won’t work in the free Kontakt Player, so I recommend the Decent Sampler version; it uses the same samples.

Demos