After the hollowing out of the log and shaping the bearing edge, I drilled holes around the bottom to lace rope through. I wanted to go with natural wood, but becuase I didn't season the wood correctly there were large cracks and bug holes that i had to fill in with filler, and it just didn't look that great....so i decided to paint it. Most Haitian drums are painted bright colors anyway so i guess you could say its more authentic...but then again, what do i know... i'm just a suburban white boy who's into drums
- Blue & red are the colors of the Haitian flag
- Skinned it with goat and used Mali weave for tuning (not traditional...but close)
It sounds good. Tanbou's are a good cross between congas and ashiko's in my opinion. Big bass, and round opens. Here's a shot of 2 other tanbou's I got from Haiti. The one on the left is tuned traditionally with rope made from old feedbags. the one on the right I strung up just to have something to play. I'm currently reheading and re stringing it. Pran Plezi-w (enjoy!)