Re: Doumbeks

[Donald Wagner <falcone@bellsouth.net>]

Poster: Donald Wagner <falcone@bellsouth.net>

Salaam!

Corun MacAnndra wrote:
> 
> Poster: Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>
> 
> Falcone wrote:
> >
> >
> > outside of egypt until after period.  Frame drums were mostly used in
> > Western Europe.  I used to have a source to site for that...alas.
> 
> If you can find that source I'd be interested in seeing it. Sounds cool.
> 
Hell, I'd be interested in seeing it again, too.  It had an objective
tilt on the drum, and showed a picture of a drum that resembled what we
know as a doumbek today.  It had some regional info, too, that concerned
some of what was played where.  It was like the World History of
Percussion, or something like that.  Gotta hit a library when I get a
free month.

> 
> Caveat on the goat skin heads. Yes, it's the most readily available natural
> head you can get, but be sure you get one with very few if any tick bites.
> You can tell these because they have scarred the skin and it weakens it at
> this point. You risk having the head tear if you play the drum a lot or you
> tighten it too much when attaching it. You can tell the tick bites by the
> little black dots on the skin. Sometimes these are large (about a sixteenth
> of an inch).

I knew to watcdh out for them, but I didn't know they were tick bites. 
BTW, I get my heads from MidEast pretty much exclusively.  They let me
specify thin or thick and I have never gotten a head with the funky
black dots/holes from them.  In fact, I usually get the drum at an event
and intruct the owner to contact MidEast and have them drop-ship the
head to me.  I use a much larger head to stretch than is required.  It
doesn't cost much, and I can leave the extra on the head so it isn't cut
so perfectly.  This makes it look a little more period, IMO.  Take a
look at mine nextt time you see it.

> 
> Also, natural skin heads (don't know if this is true with fish or not, but
> I suspect so) will take on moisture and get very loose and unplayable. One
> usually holds the head near a fire to heat it and thereby re-tighten the
> head (I know Caitlin knows this, but many others out there may not and my
> have found this discussion interesting).

Yeah, some nights I don't play or I borrow someone's Tyvek headed drum. 
I rip the heads off of factory stretched drums when I get them.  Little
attention is paid to sound quality and a lot to looks.  The result is, I
care for my head a little more than some.  Also, if you are using a
natural head that has been glued on with water-soluble glue, letting the
head get to moist can loosen the adhesion and cause the head to slip off
the drum, leaving a wrinkle in the look and a rattle in the
sound(YUCK!).

If you case your drum, you can put a load of rice, or a bunch of silica
packets in the case with it and the head and adhesive will stay rather
dry in the case, reagrdless of the humidity out.

> 
> Falcone, one of these days I'll have to show you the ceramic drum a friend
> brought me from Israel. Bought it in the Bedouin market if I'm not mistaken.
> I don't take it out much because it's a very porous and therefore delicate
> ceramic.

I'd love to see it.  I have a couple around for reheading that are
market drums.  They are probably the most authentic left of the period
drums.  They are usually more of a terra-cotta material and although the
head is glued, sometimes it is laced also for show.  The best sounding
head I ever stretched was on HL Theyln's market drum bought here in the
states for about $40 bucks at some Middle Eastern grocery.  It came out
great!!

Falcone
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