Ramkie: Home Made Oilcan Guitar.

By Alex in Music, Pictures on Jun 30, 2006 at 1:01 am

From the Atlas of Plucked Instrument, a wonderful website dedicated to string musical instruments, comes this weird contraption called a "ramkie" from Southern Africa:

The ramkie is the famous "blik kitaar" from Southern Africa; a home made guitar, using an empty oilcan for the body.

The wooden neck is sometimes stuck all the way through the can; sometimes it is fixed to a wooden "lid" on the top. The 4 to 6 strings (if not of nylon) are made of unraveled bicycle brake wire. The frets are made from U-shaped pieces of wire stuck in the front of the neck.

The kind of capodastre construction is usually just an upside-down bridge and can not be moved.

The ramkie is mainly found in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.

See much, much more at Atlas of Plucked Instrument


Email This Post
Tweet This Post 
Share This Post on Facebook


Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:


  1. dannie
    Mar 19th, 2007 at 4:26 am

    are their any pics of someone PLAYING the ramkie?


Keep track of the comments with Comment RSS

Don't Miss: New Stuff | Bestsellers | The Cute Store
                   Funny T-Shirts

Need a gift? Get unforgettable gifts for:
Geeks | Pranksters | Kids | Hipsters | Shutterbugs

Lijit Search

Old school? Bookmark us! RSS Feed Twitter Facebook Page