Cambodian Boat-Shaped Guitar

[Etienne Rambert]

I just spent a week's vacation in one of my favorite spots in the world, Siem Reap Cambodia. It's just outside Angkor Wat.

 

I don't know what the name of this instrument is.

 

 

I searched on the net and found photos - but no name. I don't think it's in the "Tro" category of Khmer instruments, as those are bowed string-instruments. As you can see, this instrument is played with a sort of pick.

 

I can tell you this much. Each fret is in fact a guitar-style nut. The strings are threaded through each one. So the nuts serve as both frets and nuts.

 

 

 

I'll upload some soundclips soon. They'll be .mp4 videos I took with my cellphone. (3.0 megapixels).

[JasmineTea]

Wish I could see a top view. I thought it was an eastern version of a hurdy gurdy at first glimps. Does it have simpathetic strings?

[Etienne Rambert]

Here is a video/sound clip of an acoustic trio without this instrument.

 

Here is a video/soundclip of an ensemble playing with the boat-shaped guitar.

 

It sounds like a picked guitar to me.

 

Both are in .mp4 format.

[OldGuitarPlayer]

The instrument in the first clip seems like a hammered dulcimer.

 

OGP

[garthman]

Marc

 

A hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument, essentially a mechanical fiddle. The sound is generated by a crank-operated rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. There are usually 2 melody strings and 3 or more sympathetic strings. The notes on the melody strings are stopped using a keyboard.

 

I agree with OGP - I think the instrument is a form of dulcimer with the notes being stopped by keys.

 

Gareth

[garthman]

Further to the above:

 

It looks as if my poor old computer can't handle mp4 because I can't open the audio clip, alas. But having had a closer look at the photos of the instrument, I don't think they are keys - I think they are just raised frets (a bit like a sitar) - if so you could get some interesting sounds out of the thing.

 

Gareth

[Pascal]

It seems to be called a Takhe.

 

 

http://www.khmerculturalcenter.org/phlengkar/kcc_takhe.htm

 

 

 

" The Takhe is probably the most recent of the Khmer classical instruments. The origin of the Takhe comes from the

[Etienne Rambert]

Thanks Pascal. Thanks also to OGP & Garthman. I didn't know a hurdy-gurdy was a string instrument.

 

This Takhe is no dulcimer though. It's played with a pick like a guitar. I didn't see the 3 strings strummed. It was all picking single notes from what I could see.

 

The frets are held down like a guitar. I got a close enough look at the frets (or keys) to see that they are actually nuts into which each of the three strings are seated. That's what interested me the most - the idea of each of the frets also being a grooved nut. It sounds like a guitar. I'll bet it uses guitar strings too.

 

Every ensemble I saw in Cambodia had a hammer dulcimer. Not all of them had a Takhe.

 

The first clip is a hammered dulcimer. But it does not have the Takhe playing in the ensemble. The second clip has it playing. But you can't hear it very well. It sounds like a guitar to me.