The Hang Drum

[pavloconga]

That is not a bad price. I purchase my "Double Seconds" Steel Pans back in 1992, Chromed and built in the US by Cliff Alexis for $850. It all depends on what sound you want to achieve. Steel Pans by Panyard can go for $4,000 to $8,000 a set but they have a root note with 4-5 harmonics.
No problem mon.

Jerry

Hi Jerry,
thanks for the info. At that time I had no idea of the relative value of the instrument and the fact they are a little difficult to come by. Perhaps if I saw one now I may be tempted to buy, I loved the sound and the fact I could use my hands and use hand drum technique on the instrument.
Pavlo

[Jerry Bembe]

One other consideration here is that the instrument will probably be only in one key. Most other melodic instruments are chromatic so they can play anything. I will meet my tuner for my steel pans in the next month and I will inquire with him about these. Cliff Alexis was one of the top Steel Pan tuners from the 70's through early 2000's. He is an older gentleman now and he only tunes and has others do the building for him.

I regard him very higly because it is truely an art to tuning these instruments. I bet he could give me some guidance about how to build and or tune these instruments because he is near to retirement. These craftsmen heave been very secretive about their craft. This craft has changed dramatically recently.

When buying a "Hang Drum", I highly recommend using a digital tuner and listen for harmonic dissonance. Price is not the only factor. This is mearly dented metal and or shaped metal and there are potential tuning issues. The convex dented "Hang Drums" are extreemly delicate instruments and can be easily knocked out of tune because of the fragile dented metal tuning.

I previously only would deal with a tuner/builder that was acessible. Previously Steel Pan builders would only tune their own pans so if you bought a set from the islands and it was dropped or knocked out of tune you were out of luck unless you could tune it on your own. So be very cautious with this type of instrument and when you own one everyone will want to touch it. You will need to be assertive to protect the tuning of the instrument. I was personally challenged with this issue when I gigged with my Steel Pans.

Because of all of these issues, I would not reccomend owning a convex dented "Hang Drum" unless you were able to tune ot have a tuner available. Once these are out of tune they rapidly lose their value.

I mean these comments only respectively and sincerely.

Keep it fun.

Jerry