Hey all,

I'm a new to the world of Djembes and I'm really wanting to get one. My girlfriend wants to get if for me for a Christmas present! I have a few questions and hoping that some of you might have some insight.

-What kind of Wood is good? Right now i'm lookin at Maple and Ash... are these good wood styles for djembes?

-Bolt Tension or Rope Tension. I've read some of the posts reguarding this, but I want to see what more people have to say. Pros and cons...

-How often do you have to change heads on djembes? Is it hard? Harder for one style or the other (bolt or rope)?

The best sounding ones are real African ones.   Shoot for a nominal 12"- 14" inch head size.  A height of around  2 feet is nice, because you can play seated with the drum on the ground.  The head should be larger than your hand, at a minimum.  The better ones will be made of hardwood, typically reddish with a yellow highlight or two or dark brown.  A quality drum will be heavy.  The tuning ropes should be good quality nylon or rayon,  about 3/16" or  1/4".   The drum is carved from a single piece of wood.  Look for fairly smooth, even carving, and look inside the drum.  It should be well hollowed out.   Check for cracks in the drum.  There should be no cracks.  A very shallow surface crack may be ok.  This happens sometimes during the drying process, and probably won't spread if it's not deep.  Reject any drum with a deep crack or a through crack.

  Cheaper ones will be of lightweight, softer wood and may be tightened with a bunch of thinner strings.  They will be very crudely hollowed out, with a small hole in the bottom.  Sometimes you can get a good sounding one, but they tend to have fall-apart-itis.

Artistic carvings on the drum have no effect on the sound, and should be ignored.  Some really crappy djembes have nice looking artwork.

Djembes should be tuned very tightly.  A decent, well tuned djembe will have dry, crisp, cutting slaps while still having a reasonable bass note.  Once in tune, it's important to keep them away from very hot enviroments, or you may get a split head.  So avoid leaving your drum in a hot car or someplace like that.   Generally speaking, don't hit them with a drumstick, although there are techniques that use a very small, thin stick in one hand.

 If you know someone who is a serious player, ask them to help pick out the drum.  Being handmade, each djembe is different, and hand picking is a very good idea.  Specialty shops are a much better idea than Guitar Center or someplace like that to buy.

As for Remos, LP's, etc.  they're more convenient.  The Remo's have Fiberskyn heads, and can be treated like a  snare drum or tom from a drumset.  They sound sort of like a cross between a conga and a djembe.  The LP's are stave drums with key tuned natural heads.  With these, you may still have to watch out for the hot car scenario.  Remos and LPs both have one problem.  They don't really sound like a djembe, and they never will.

So, if you're not serious, or you're not sure, you can do the no brainer thing and buy a Remo or LP, etc.  They're ok for schlep around drums,  comparatively hassle free.  Once again, go for a 12" or 14" head size.

 If you get serious, you'll be compelled to get a real African djembe.  It's the only way you can get the sound and playability you need.

Thanx. This is all good info.

Though, I'm hoping that someone could answer more specifically my original questions from the first post in this thread. My main concern at this point is the type of wood to look for. My wood of choice for snare and toms is Maple. I'm curious if this great tone quality that I get from maple toms caries over to djembe?

I beleive the wood is called "denba". I'm not sure of the spelling, it is an african wood.  Really hard wood is good, but it doesent necessarilly have to be really heavy.  Some of the african "master drummers" in Boulder have some really thin walled djembes that sound phenomenal.  I'd say take someone with you who already knows what they are looking for, you will probably end up with a better product than I did for my first djembe
!

Rope tuning.

If you get a really good drum, it will sound good without doing anything to it for a long time.

When the drum needs to be tightened (you'll need to do this eventually on even the best natural headed rope tuned drum) you will be "pulling diamonds".   This involves crossing the ropes to increase the tightness of the head.  It's hard to describe in words, but it is a fairly easy and basic process once someone shows you how to do it.  

There are rope tuned Mylar headed drums made by Remo.  They are harder to tighten, but will stay in tune longer.   Bear in mind a Mylar headed djembe will not have the sound and volume of a real djembe.

A djembe is supposed to have dry, cutting slaps and tones.  It should also have a strong bass note.  It should NOT sound like a conga.  A conga should sound like a conga.

Anything you strike that makes noise will have a "sound".   My comments are coming from my experience playing the djembe, both "real" and "synthetic".   You may, of course, reach any conclusion you want.  I moved from a Remo djembe to a real djembe, to a better real djembe.  You can also go through something like this process.  I just wanted to let you in on my experiences, so maybe you could save yourself some trouble and expense.  Take it or leave it as you wish.

MUSIKxDRUMR,

You mentioned you're new to the world of djembes.  That means you're probably new to the sound of djembes as well.  With that being the case, you are in a perfect position to take an unbiased approach, using sound as the ONLY criteria, to finding a djembe.  The easiest, most efficient thing you can do right now, is to go down to the music store (Guitar Center has a large selection) and start playing/trying out as many djembes as you can.  Don't look at brand, price, etc.--heck, I wouldn't even pay attention to the size at this point.  Just LISTEN.  You will most likely hear one that you REALLY like the sound of.  THEN, you will move on to consider price, brand, etc.  At this time, maybe you would start thinking about the kind of musical applications you may be playing the instrument in.  But none of the other criteria/factors need to be considered until you find THAT sound or get some good ideas about sound.  In a place like GC, you'll most likely have a selection that covers both synthetic and rope tuned.  You DON'T have to purchase one there, as you're using it more as an opportunity to do some research.  

Your questions are good ones and I don't want to sound like I'm discounting them because I'm not.  Rather, come back to them after simply doing some SOUND research first.  THAT is the most important criteria of all.  

These guys are right the only way to really pick a drum is by playing a bunch first and then making a selection. Don't make your selection based on brand, looks or who else is playing it. The drum you pick will be one that calls to your soul.

This brings up an interesting topic. Buying drums from E-bay, you may get a really good deal, but it's more of a crap shoot than anything else. You have no idea how the drum will sound or how good the construction really is.

I'm not saying that buying from an auction house is a bad thing, in fact I've done it myself and gotten not only some good deals but also some really good sounding instuments. Just beware who your dealing with, see if you can hear sound clips from that actual drum and most importantly make sure you get it insured.

Thanx for all the good stuff guys. I do have experience playing djembes, I've just never owned one. Nor do I know anything about the drum and whats good ect. All your replies have been much help so far...

The reason I've been so persistant about wood types is because I'm heavily thinking about having a guy I know custom make me a drum. He lives near my grandma and she told me about him. I've been talking to him and he makes these really great Maple and Ashe djembes. Though I've never heard one,   , i've talked to him enough to know he definetly knows what he's talking about. Since he's a friend of my grandma I can get a great deal on this djembe. Thus me asking about wood type and 'bolt or rope' because I'm basically deciding what I will have him make me.

I have many doubts about buying a drum that I've not heard, thus me asking if anyone has played a Maple or Ashe djembe. I've never even really heard of many djembes using either of these wood types, so I'm a bit unsure about it. But I do have some time until Christmas, so my research will continue!

Hmmmm......Sounds like your friend is making stave drums?  I haven't had any experience with a stave djembe.  They're typically kind of on the expensive side, because making the staves in that shape is difficult.  People who make home drums usually make ashikos, which are tapered with straight sides.  This design is a lot more stave freindly.   Compared to a real djembe, they're in the close-but-no-cigar territory.

As far as woods,  I would think maple would be the better sounding one.   If I remember right, ash is softer and lighter, so it wouldn't sound as good, but would be easier to carry around.

Homemade drums can be a real bargain or a big ripoff, depending on who is making the drum and how good of a friend they are.  What would you pay for this drum?

A real djembe is carved from a single log.  It's tuned with rope.  It has a certain sound,  because of the way it's constructed.   Critieria you would use for a drumset would not apply.

A quality djembe should have righteous, dry sounding tones and slaps (read-slaps and higher pitched slaps),  with a decent bass note.  It should not sound like a tom, or a conga.  You're not shooting for resonance so much.  You're shooting for a sharp,  cut through type sound.

The guy you quoted is selling something, and giving you his sales pitch.  In it's way, he may be selling a good drum, but it won't sound like the real thing.

About that price?