I have a pretty basic maintenance question for a slightly unusual member of the harp family. I own a kora (West African harp), in an Americanized all-wood version made by a luthier in Minnesota. Really neat instrument, both the originals and this variant, but since it was somewhat of a prototype there are various small fixes that it needs.
Here’s a kora overall:
[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/2dmnaf.png[/IMG]
Mine is like this but a wooden vice skin face, and it has a more harp-like protruding arm, but with lots of guitar-style tuners. Works quite well, except that the strings come up from the tuners through small holes, and apparently there’s some issue of pressure or angle, since some of the strings are cutting into the surrounding wood:
Further out:
[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/2njc5tk.jpg[/IMG]
Close up:
[IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/2rh5x86.jpg[/IMG]
Would applying eyelets be the easiest way to deal with this? Any recommended brand/source? Does the size of the string matter much, or should I just make sure the size I get will accommodate my largest string? For installation, so I just drill straight down into the hole for a few mm with a slightly larger bit, and then press the eyelet in?
Thanks for any help, looking forward to getting this kora up and running!
For anyone who hasn’t seen a Westerner play kora, check out Josie Lloyd and her clips: http://www.youtube.com/user/JosieLloydMusic?blend=21&ob=5#p/u/17/0l68clCJEpk