Looking into buying a Djembe...

[GLoubu]

I'm looking into getting a Djembe drum for Christmas... my band and I are planning on playing some acoustic shows and I think it would be cool to play one for some of the gigs instead of brings my set out...

my price range is up to $200... im not looking into getting crazy with this...

this is just one of many I was looking to getting:

Pearl Primero Fiberglass Djembe
http://www.music123.com/Pearl-Primero-Fiberglass-Djembe-i87839.music... and get the black finish...

but then I saw this Sonor one...
http://www.music123.com/Sonor-13-inch-Djembe-i126966.music... and im a Sonor player... ****!

what do you guys think???

~G

www.myspace.com/divineenemyrock

[Janeway]

The best bet is to get a traditional Djembe.
The tone is so much better than all of the synthetic ones, and the rope tuning isn't as difficult as it's made out to be.
If you want easy tuning with a somewhat traditional look and sound, get a mountain rythym.
http://www.music123.com/Mountain-Rythym-Circle-Series-Pine-Djembes-i100454.music

Traditional- http://www.wwdrums.com/deep-carved-djembes-c-21.html?osCsid=f45e704e460c8d8d1461adeee40cd0aa

Everyone here is going to suggest a Remo.
I suggest going to try a Remo first, because in my opinion they sound like hurl.
It's pingy and it's just got way too much over ring.

[jcreamer89]

traditional Djembe
i have a remo one, dont really like it

[llama1600]

i have a remo, and like it a lot. it is possible to remove 99% of the ping through tuning/muffling. traditional still sounds better, but for practical use and the things i use my djembe for, i'll stick with remo

[GLoubu]

i guess traditional is the way to go...

[Chrysostom]

My sis bought a djembe a while back. That little thing is so cool.

[Massik Kretal]

Ohh I wanna get one so bad, but no money for that at the moment.

[LittlePound]

my friend ordered his from africa, much cheaper over there but the shipping makes up for that. Anyways his sounds amazing so i guess if had to recomend one i'd get one custom made from there. I believe it only costed him about 200-300$. Somewhere in htere but i'm not entirely sure.

[Kaptor306]

i have a toca djembe and it is amazing

[Det_Nosnip]

Everyone here is going to suggest a Remo.


When I saw this thread, the first thing that I thought was "Don't EVER get a Remo Djembe!!!" :lol:

My recommendation is to stay away from the major drum companies like Pearl, Remo (well, heads but same point), etc. Hand percussion is not their specialty, and honestly...they're not very good at it. However, they still carry that famous name brand, which means that they're able to crank up their prices despite the fact that they sell significantly inferior products.

As far as large companies go, go for ones specialized in percussion. Toca and Latin Percussion both make decent drums, and their prices are going to tend more towards the reasonable (more so the case with Toca...LP is very well established and is starting to take take advantage of its name, but they do make high quality products). Now, I haven't tried any of the top-end Pearl or Remo stuff, but as far as the price range you are talking (all that you really need to pay, really), I would strongly recommend you stay away from those companies.

I agree with Pespi about traditional being the best; however, if you're willing to go for $200, I would probably recommend finding a tunable one. Untunable percussion is fun to mess with, but over time the lugs tend to fall out of tune and get uneven, so in almost all cases, I would recommend towards tunable drums. I haven't personally tried the ropes (?) system she is describing, so I can't really comment either way except to say that I would probably try it out and/or have somebody explain it to you in order to make sure that it is something you will realistically be able to do. An untuned tuneable djembe IS unfortunately going to sound worse than an untuneable one, if you know what I mean. ;)