Gabus Maker

The gabus maker in Johor is still enjoying a brisk business.

Gabus is like a guitar, a stringed instrument used in the Malays traditional music the zapin and the ghazal.

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Gabus has its origin from Arab, probably brought by the early Arab traders from Yemen. Over time the local Malays had adopted the instrument and made it as a part of the Malay musical instrument. Even theHe said the instrument was brought to Johor by Yemenis from the Hadhramaut region in Yemen, as most Arab immigrants in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia came from there.

Over time, the Johor Malays have adopted the gambus Arab as one of their musical instrument in ghazal and zapin, and have proudly named it gambus Johor.

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The gabus maker is making of the instrument using his creativity and craftmanship. Gabus are made up by assemblying the four parts, the body which is the biggest part, the face where strings will be striked, the neck and the ears. Currently, the workshop is producing 2 types of gabus, the Arab Gabus with 11 strings and the Malay gabus with 7 strings.

Variations: A display of some of the gambus made by Halidin