Dayak Wealthy in West Borneo has an uniqe musical art . This tribe has a musical instrument called Sampek or Sape . Sape means strings . Sape has wide body shape,small stemmed,about one meter in lenght,has two strings or ropes from plastic materials . Sape of this type has four scales.
With the uniqueness of its voice, supposedly according to Dayak mythologi. Sape Kenyah created by a person lost in the essay(a small island in the middle of river) because the boat sank by the lunging of cascade and that person unknown until this day.
Ways to make Sape is hard. Timber also be use as selection. Sape usually uses Pelaik wood or other types of clay timber, can also be hardwoods like jackfruit, belian wood and other hardwood. To find a good sound, the level of thin edge thickness and the surface must be equal, so the sound can vibrate uniformly and resulting in a long and loud sound when picked.
How to play Sape is opposed to how to play melody of guitar, because the fingers are only on one string on the same shift up and down.
Sape instrument is usually played when the party of people or ritual Padai(ritual thanksgiving for the harvest of paddly). Type of sape music song is varied, usually according to type of dance. For example Datun Julut music, the dance and also Datun Julut, etc.
Source : http://pureindonesia.blogspot.com/2010/06/sampekmusic-instrument-from.html
