Soniccouture Array Mbira v1.1

ARRAY MBIRA - THE GRAND THUMB PIANO

The Mbira is a folk instrument originally from Africa.

Sometimes called a Thumb Piano, Sanza, or Kalimba, they are generally home-made and consist of metal tines attached to a piece of wood, which are plucked with the thumbs. They are mostly small, with a handful of notes.

Array Instruments, started by Bill Wesley and Patrick Hadley, have taken the concept of this ancient African idiophone to a whole new level, not only in terms of instrument design but also in purity of sound, and range of pitch.

The Array Mbira is no toy, it’s a highly advanced musical instrument built to exacting specifications.

Very Low Bass

The Mbira's large sound box (this model is about 77 cm across ) allows for much deeper pitches to be heard acoustically: the lowest fundamental on our mbira is in the region of 33 Hz.

All Array Mbiras come equipped with a 2-channel piezo pickup system, allowing for easy amplification and line-out recording. The low end from the pickups alone is surprisingly smooth and deep; combine it with mics and it's booming.