Each one of our chekeres comes with a clear varnished body of an original cuban gourd. The beads of various colors we obtain from the USA, the cords of the net (the "maya") are made of super-tearproof polypropylene. The nets move as a unit and do not wobble, besides they have little weight (in opposition to chekere nets made with beads of natural materials like plant seeds). Due to this you can play our chekeres easily and without getting your hands and arms tired of playing.

Your individual Custom-Chekere

By request we handcraft the maya corresponding to your personal color preferences. The surcharge for such a "Custom"- Chekere is 25 USD. Please note: according to our stock it may take 2-4 weeks until delivery of a custom-chekere.

Forms, Thickness, Sizes, Sound

We have gourds in different sizes and forms on stock. Playing a longish-formed chekere feels different in your hands as a roundish one. Here your own preferences and taste decide.

Also there are differences in the wall's thicknesses. Usually it is easier to get the bassy body tones (on which is set value in folklore music) from a thin walled güiro, while the thickwalled specimens are well suited for stage use and big bands. Thinwalled chekeres are naturally more fragile than thickwalled ones.

Big chekeres achieve more loudness than smaller ones, big ones are usually used in big bands. Nevertheless it is common to use a big chekere as "bass", e. g. also in a traditional Bembé ensemble ("Bembé" is the name of an afrocuban rythm) with three chekere-players using chekeres of different sizes.