Dear All, I seek information about the so-called boat-lute played in Sarawak, known as a "sape". I have the opportunity of borrowing one. It has frets missing, a broken string, and generally needs tidying up. Someone has stuck drawing pins (thumb tacks in American) on the front of the instrument, presumably to guide the strings. It has metal strings, yet a website I found on the Internet says that the strings were traditionally made from a Sago tree, and nowadays are made of nylon. If this instrument can be mended, I would also like music to play on it, in particular the music for "Datun julud", one of the warrior dances associated with head-hunting.
Does anyone know of a sape expert, who lives in England, to whom I could turn for advice? Any help would be appreciated. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
