Djembe with ringing sound

[Socrates]

Hi y'all,

My djembe has a ringing sound when I play the tone or slap. Kind of metally sound. The djembe is of good quality. Well, I trust the store where I bought it and they have a deal with the percussion school I'm having classes at now, so they're supposed not to deliver low-quality stuff. But as I say the sound rings, so you hear tones at three frequencies: the low bass frequency, the mid-frequency present at tones and slaps and a high frequency ringing sound. Does anyone of you know why this could be? The sound is there before and after rope tightening. And for the rest I like my djembe!

Regards,
Socrates

[James]

Hey Socrates,

Ringing came up over here http://djembefola.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=93& and Dugafola suggested that the rings being loose could be the source of a ring.

Does that possibly lead to uneven tension around the skin and that causes the ring.

I don't know I suspect there's many reasons why djembe's ring. I've had a horrible ring on an older drum of mine and it's really annoying...

[bubudi]

hi socrates,
you didn't notice the ringing sound in the shop before you bought it?
never trust a shop to tell you what a good djembe is!
the reason your school has a deal with that shop could be because they provide them with the cheapest drums, and can have nothing to do with the quality of the drums. that said, even shops with good quality drums can sell duds from time to time. ask the shop manager if they are willing to replace it and next time, bring someone with you to help choose a good drum. try to pick someone who is an experienced player and has played at least several djembes. you are in amsterdam so you should have a lot of shops selling djembes. why not go to a few shops to compare their drums?

[Socrates]

The skin is not so thick and I tightened it myself. I don't have special tools so I just pulled the vertical ropes as tight as I could without getting too many blisters on my hands. To get the right tension I went round with the horizontal rope 2 1/3 times. I did the last 1/3 round contiguously, so no skipping. Maybe the combinations of (new) thin skin and uneven tension can cause the ringing sound?

About the quality overall, the djembe was bought by a percussion teacher, but not the one who's really into djembe. I'll ask my real djembe teacher what she thinks of it. And I do still trust the store but who knows, maybe they didn't test the djembe themselves too well.

[bubudi]

It sounds like you could have probably gone a fair bit harder on the vertical ropes. if you're worried about blisters get yourself a clam cleat. it's a clam-shaped device that grips rope well... costs next to nothing and is available in all boating stores. you can buy one in many stores that sell djembes. here's a picture of it:


A thin skin will definitely tend to carry a lot more ring. I would go to the shop personally and see what else they have. if you just bought a new drum it should have a good skin on it and not have such a bad ring on it, even if it's not properly tuned! if you don't have the option os swapping it i could make other suggestions, but like with anything else, you need good materials to start with.