Marimbula Bass

[Bell Banjos]

I asked a friend to bring her 'Marimbula' to the Michigan Banjo Gathering last week. She plays many instruments and at the last minute, I remembered that besides bones, her marimbula would fit in. It's Carribean, so are gourd banjos so I thought maybe once upon a time some folks put their gourd banjo and a version of this 'giant thumb piano' together. Who knows?

[Andy Chase]

I saw that in the video and wondered what it was - some interesting home-built ones can be seen on YouTube!

[Al Smitley]

I'm familiar with Kalimbas but had never seen one of these.  I thought it was interesting and did a good job of providing bass.  At one point, she was trying (with some success) to play it with her feet while freeing up her hands to play another instrument.