WOOD CLAVES - WHAT IS THE BEST WOOD?????

[Thebreeze]

Hello everyone. Just wanted to throw this out there. I have a friend that is making me some sets of Claves out of Cocobolo Wood. I heard this is the best wood. I have a set of Claves that are a dark burgundy color wood and they have a very high pitch. A friend at my drum circle has some that look like a dark mustard green and they are supposedly from Cuba. They have a nice pitch, not nearly as high as my set. Can anyone help with some info on What Cocobolo sounds like and other woods that you know of?
Thanks very much.

[OLSONGO]

Brazilian rosewood if you can get it.

Paz Olsongo

[Whopbamboom]

I have claves made of different woods-- rosewood, white wood... I even have a set that produces a different sound when you give one clave a quarter-turn. Must have something to do with the way the grain/density grew in that one stick. I use it when I want something that slightly mimics agogo bells in a clave stick sound.
My opinion is that it doesn't hurt to have different sounding claves in your arsenal. Don't think of it as "THE best" wood for claves, think of it as having a variety of sounds available on your palette to choose from in order to get a better choice of clave sound for the particular piece that you are going to play. Or, the BEST sound for that particular song or for the particular sound that the ensemble (band) is producing. This is the way an arranger might think.

This is the philosophy that I personally use when choosing any of my instruments. But I admit, it can get expensive and space-consuming to have lots of different drums on hand. However, that shouldn't be a problem with claves. I think you can just pick up some different ones and keep the ones that sound distinctly different-- ones you can use at different times depending on what the music calls for.

[Thebreeze]

Thanks to both of you for your input. I realize that I should have re-phrased that. Thanks for the correction. It is not the best sounding Claves as Whopbamboom stated. Therefore, I will go ahead and continue researching, buying different types and maybe later in the near future I can share my findings with everyone. example....cocobolo produces a certain pitch, rosewood produces a certain pitch, etc......
Since I recently felt the need to learn as much about the Clave Beat as possible to help improve my understanding, I might as well also learn all I can about the different pitches produced by different woods.

[bongosnotbombs]

Some options were discussed in this thread..

http://www.congaplace.com/cgi-bin....;t=3383

Design of the claves is important too, there are the solid ones, then there are the hollow cuban style ones.

[Thebreeze]

Thanks Bongosnotbombs. I looked at it just now.

[bongo]

If you are into claves, definately find a pair of old brazilian rosewood ones. You can still see them here or there, some of the older drum companies like Ludwig imported them under their name, I saw an old dusty pair not long ago in a music store. The brazilian rosewood is 'endangered' now and getting hard to find.

Cocobolo is also a tropical hard rosewood from Mexico or Central America. The sound of either of these woods is similar, a very high pitch classic clave. The cocobolo is beautiful red and can have dark streaks. The brazilian rosewood is dark almost black with red streaks.



Edited By bongo on 1191244796

[Paqui]

Both solid and hollow claves were born in Cuba, being the solid claves the first ones.

The hollow claves have a low-pitch whereas the solid ones have a high-pitch.

I have a pair of solid claves made in Cuba from granadilla wood and for me, these are the loudest and toughest pieces of wood I have ever had.

Good luck!

[bongosnotbombs]

Hey thebreeze,
I just noticed you are in SF, the place to get claves here is from Simon Reinhardt of Mambiza Percussion in the Mission, he's out of country till January 1 though.

Anyways he imports clave and other instruments from Brazil, Cuba, Africa, he has a couple shelves of claves, hollow, solid, different woods, $5-$15. I know your friends is making some for you, but some other time.

My cuban set is from him, want to get more but have to wait.

[Thebreeze]

I want to thank you all for your imput. It is extremely helpful. Thanks again for it.
p.s....I went onto the LP website and you can hear their instruments online. They have about 5 different claves. I would really stay away from their fiberglass ones. They sound horrible.
p.s...to bongosnotbombs..........I'll see you at the drum circle.