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Hello folks, so you think you want a tongue drum? Well here are just a couple of pointers for you.

Playability: Most manufacturers make their drums with flush tongues and the sound hole on the bottom. This is the most obvious configuration for a couple of reasons. The main one being comfort. If you are going to be 'playing', and I mean really playing you will probably find a 'flush top' tongue drum far more comfortable. If you are content to just sort of lightly tap out your beats, or pluck the tongues, then this may not be important to you. With out a doubt, a flush tongued top will give you the ability to play from soft to hard , from slow to fast with techniques you just can't quite accomplish when the tongues are raised. It is a bit like playing a bongo or Djembe with a pronounced rim around the drum head. On the bright side, when comparing the sound quality of raised tongues to flush tongues, the raised tongue drum does not appear to have its sound effected in a negative way. In fact I you would be hard pressed to distinguish each drum from the other even in a side by side comparison.

Sound 1: Most people will agree that it is hard to reproduce the sound correctly with an on board video camera microphone. I would say that all the drums you hear recorded with a simple set up such as a simple video camera sound better in person. Watch many  many videos of the drum you are considering. You will soon see that the quality of the recording ranges from a polished studio produced 'enhanced' video with backing tracks of other instruments, to a poor cam video with the sound so obviously 'tweaked' that you can not even hear the hand or fingers hitting the tongues. Be carefull of these drums! Search Youtube for videos from the owners of the drums. Then you will be more likely to hear an untouched simple recording. It will help you compare apples to apples as they say. You will soon see that similar sized and shaped drums sound surprisingly similar to each other, regardless of the manufacturer. Also, compare many videos from the same manufacture if you can. If the drums are made properly, each drum should sound pretty much the same as the next. The surprise may be when you here one video, or a series of videos, for one reason or an other, sound substantially different than some others. Any claims of subtle differences between one drum or the next are exaggerations. Lets face it, these steel tongue drums are not Hang drums! With your eyes closed, anyone would have a tough time to tell which of two given drums were being played.

Sound 2: Steel:  Watch out for 'creative' claims! Stress in the steel of tongues does not change the sound for good or bad. Whether a steel shell has residual stresses from forming, or has been stress relieved has little effect on the sound. I do not think best trained ear could discern the difference in sound, let alone a difference in sound quality. I have made drums from both stressed and stress relieved shells. I can definitively tell you that claims of any differences in sound quality, good or bad, are very 'creative'. Now tensile strength or hardness will affect the sound greatly. But you will not see that with the propan tank varients or their cousons, the stamped 'tank head' tanks. Grain direction may or may not have an effect on the sound. Perhaps with an oscilloscope you could measure something. The thing is, grain orientaion in steel is uni-directional, so making a round drum with tongues oriented at all angles to the grain should show signs of suppirior sound on some of the tongues. I have not seen this on any of my drums. The only sound difference you will hear from tongue to tongue is the amplitude (volume) differences. This is caused by the tendancy for tongues that are vibrating close to the natural resonance of the drum shell to get amplified. Also, the scale of the drum effects this as well. This is one of those dynamic effects that can change as you change the scale of your drum on adjustable tuned drums.

Price: What makes something worth what it is? As we all know, usually it's supply and demand. Unfortunately there is an old, less than ethical technique used by many for years  to help increase sales and profits. It is called Inflated MSRP.  (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price) What happens is a manufacture or seller of some service or product, grossly over exaggerates the MSRP in order to make their service or product appear to be available at a bargain. The uneducated buyer is more likely to feel that they are are getting a bargain and make a purchase at that 'incredibly low price'. They pay more than what the item is really worth, feeling that as long as it is under the MSRP, they are getting a bargain. Remember who makes the MSRP....the manufacturer.

So what is as steel tongue drum worth? In my opinion, if you were to make these types of drums at a 'reasonable' rate, with the current supply and demand trends, somewhere around $250 to $350. This is if the workmanship is top notch, well tuned with, good sound with a professional looking paint job etc. You do see drums selling for much higher, mine included, and this higher price is worth it to many people because they know that this particular color may not be available again for a few weeks, and they do not mind paying a bit of a premium to get the drum they want sooner.

Bottom line, like anything, it's worth what you are willing to pay, no more.

Check out my website for more info on the TurtlePan and Percussive Devices. Just search for Percussive Devices.

I hope this helps you choose the tongue drum that is right for you.

Sincerely
Dave
Percussive Devices