Hokema Kalimba B17 C Major - The Original Handmade in Germany - Thumb Piano - Easy to Learn

This kalimba is wonderful. It stays in tune and sounds amazing. I am so glad I chose this one. I also got Luna that I do not care for and a 34 key Hluru. Hokema outshines them all. The case for it is a tight squeeze though. This 17 key kalimba is well worth the price. Read more

Mine came perfectly tuned, and the material is great. It's sturdy, and every tine resonates so well. The sound this kalimba produces is very sweet and clear, making it very different from any other kalimba I've tried. Definitely my favorite kalimba. However, it doesn't come with accessories such as a carrying case or tuning hammer, and due to its size and weight, it might turn down some beginners. But I'm sure everyone can grow into it given some time. Read more

I own a Hokema Sansula from many years ago. It's amazing, but limited in note choice. I had a project and needed all scale degrees and beyond ideally. Went with this, as I know Hokema is high quality. Does not disappoint. Great sound. I think maybe even the same tines as on the Sansula. They sustain for a long time and are very pure sounding. It is quite wide and I have big hands, but other people complained about that and I suppose I could see that. Very cool! Read more

I waited a year to buy this, and it was worth every penny. This is the kalimba I wish I started with. The sound is impeccable, the quality is above standard, and it comes perfectly tuned. I have larger hands and other kalimbas felt cramped. This one is perfect for me. If you have smaller hands it won't be be easy to hold as it's on the bigger side. They make a smaller version I believe. Read more

Have had this for quite some time now and every time I play it I am still in awe of the beautiful music it produces. I also have several other brands and this is by far the highest quality. Mine was not damaged in shipping at all thankfully. It was packaged very well. Highly recommend. Read more

I want to like this instrument, and there *are* a lot of good things about it. I will keep playing with it, and revise my review if my opinion changes. The pros: - This instrument is visually very nice. The wood is very nice. It's definitely more of a wax coating compared to a varnish coating like on the lingtings, and it's more visibly real wood compared to something like the hluru. - I do like the concept of the embossed lines on the keys. I'm at the stage of moving away from having key markings, so I think this will be very useful for me to still have a little bit of guidance, but not have full stickers on each key. - It does sound very nice. It has a more music box tone than my other kalimbas, which gives it a unique place in my collection. It has good sustain, and from an overall quality of tone, it's among the best I've tried. I think in terms of sustain, my chill angels is superior, and in terms of tone itself, my hluru is superior, and in terms of uniqueness of tone, my lingting is superior. But, this one finds somewhat of a happy medium where it is overall pleasant and appealing and well rounded. I like it. The cons: - First and foremost, the reason this is getting a 3-star from me. The keys on this instrument are far, far too low and close to the wood. Every stroke, your thumbs will hit the wood - and worse, this makes it impossible to cross a thumb under and pluck a chord on the opposing side. This makes this kalimba nigh-unusable for a majority of the songs I've got, short of coming to an awkward stop while I fumble or adjusting the chord to remove cross-overs, which is far from possible on every one. I've attached side-by-side pictures with the hluru and lingting layouts - you can see how much higher over the wood the keys are. I do not feel the images on the listing accurately conveyed how close to the wood these keys come, while I respect that's difficult for the seller to capture. It's true that this could be a problem with how I play; however, I've seen enough videos of other people playing this way to where I know I'm not unique/this is a very common way of playing, and I've never had this issue on a single other kalimba I've purchased, even low-cost ones. I consider this a fairly unacceptable oversight from an instrument billed as being quality. - My second most pressing complaint is that I can tell even from playing this instrument for a relatively short period of time that this is going to destroy my thumbnails, akin to how my Hluru does. This isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but for an instrument of this price, I'd have appreciated rounding and shaping the keys a little more so that there isn't just a perfectly flat blade of steel etching away my thumbnails. Playing this sort of key leaves me with divots in my thumbnails after a little while that makes playing more difficult and requires me to cut my nails shorter and regrow. - This is a more minor complaint from me, but the instrument *is* quite large and feels unnecessarily wide. Moving the keys closer together would both make it easier to hold and improve accessibility of some chords/make it easier to hit side by side notes. I would also like to comment, but I'm not going to factor this into the rating - for a $150 kalimba, which is more or less twice what I've paid for any of my other kalimbas, it really should have come with a case, at a minimum. Every single other kalimba I've purchased came with a case, and most came with tuning hammers and stickers for the keys. I did know what came with it prior to purchase, which is why I'm discounting this from the rating, however, I'd have expected the level of quality of the instrument to make up the difference, and I'm not convinced that it does. I know that it included some small magnets for the keys, however, these are far less intuitive and user friendly than a simple set of 17 stickers, and the lack of providing even those comes off as cheap. I recognize that this instrument is german. However, if something is going to be branded toward the more serious market, I do expect it to be designed with the functional use of that instrument in mind. Read more

I can't believe what I received, I suspect it was damaged by a magnet. I am very disappointed. Read more

This is one of my favorite kalimbas, the sound is great, it is very well made, my go to kalimba, love it Read more