LP Guiro with Scrapers: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This guiro was made by Latin Percussion Inc. in Garfield, New Jersey, in 1999. It is a Super Guiro model, made of brown plastic, with rubber-lined holes, and a plastic scraper.

As indicated in an LP brochure from the period, “The LP Super Guiro was designed to eliminate the durability issues inherent with the natural version of this instrument. It is precision-molded from high-strength plastic and is designed to have the shape, feel, and sound quality of the natural gourd version. Special attention has been paid to the location of the rubber-lined finger holes to provide maximum comfort and control. It comes with two scrapers, a plastic model for bright loud sound and a wood model for warm dry sound.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1999
• maker: Latin Percussion
• Object Name: guiro
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Physical Description: rubber (overall material)
• Measurements: guiro: 14 in x 5 1/8 in; 35.56 cm x 13.0175 cm
• Measurements: stick: 8 15/16 in x 3/8 in; 22.70125 cm x .9525 cm
• place made: United States: New Jersey, Garfield
• ID Number: 2000.3039.08
• nonaccession number: 2000.3039
• catalog number: 2000.3039.08
• Credit Line: Transfer from Smithsonian Institution Center for Latino Initiatives (through: Dr.Refugio l. Rochin,Director)
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.