The güiro is the salsa percussion instrument made from a notched gourd scraped with a stick.
A traditional güiro is an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel grooves carved into one side. Players drag a stick, scraper, or sometimes a comb across those ridges to create a raspy, ratchet-like rhythm. The speed and direction of the strokes can vary the texture and rhythmic emphasis.
The instrument has Indigenous Caribbean and Latin American roots and is widely used in Cuban, Puerto Rican, and other regional music. In salsa, it usually helps articulate the groove rather than supplying the deep pulse associated with drums. Modern versions may be made from wood, fiberglass, plastic, or metal, but the classic form is the hollow gourd.
The güiro is easy to confuse with the güira. A güira is generally a metal scraper strongly associated with Dominican merengue, whereas the güiro traditionally refers to the gourd instrument. Timbales, bongos, and maracas are also common Latin percussion instruments, but none is played by scraping notches.