Drums and Things at www.goatskins.com

Drum Camp in Little Switzerland was really cool! There were 5 African drum teachers who were teaching drum, dance and balaphone teachers. I learned a lot about balaphones from Abul Sila. It inspired me to build one soon. The drumming was great.

Bark Bash was as usual great! I got there later than usual because the container came into TN a week late. However, I was still among the first arrivals. Barky has remodeled his house and it looks really, really good. I worked on more drums than ever this time. I kept thinking “so many drums, so little time.” There were several people working on their own drums too. This was the first year that Sandy went with me and we drove. We were able to bring lots of drums with us. I even put her to work pulling diamonds and of course loading and unloading drums and things. It was so good to see my old freinds. Barky went out of his way to make us comfortable and served us all good food. As usual we performed at the Strawberry Festival. I ended the weeknd with my customary trip to Atlantic City and the Taj.

It’s a good idea to put a coat of wax on the rim of the drum before you apply a new head. The wax will protect the wood from the moisture left on the skin from soaking and will prevent the skins from sticking to the wood.

I get a lot of questions about the rim of the drum, or bearing edge. This is an important part of the drum shell. Done incorrectly it can cause a vibration that could drive you crazy trying to figure out what it is, at least it drove me crazy the first time it happened to me. The vibration noise is due to a flat spot on the rim of the shell. What is happening is that the skin left bearing edge but then retouches again and starts to make the noise or vibration. There really is only on way to fix it, take the head off and fix the flat spot. When I first started out I was told the rim should look like a side view of your thumb. The finger nail side would be the inside of the drum and the skin (or palm side) would be the outside. That analogy really does work.

One more tip on the rim is if you want the plane of the top of the drum to be flat I have found the best way to get it that way is to glue sandpaper to a flat surface and rub the drum over that surface. It takes a little elbow grease but it is worth it in the long run. I actually use a belt sander to shape the rim but the first thing I will do is get the rim a little pointed so when I do flatten the top of the drum It sands easier. The more I flatten it, and wider the flat spot becomes, the harder it is to sand. I will reshape the rim again and make the top where I have been sanding pointed again until I finally get it flat. I use a piece of glass to gauge the flatness. You actually can tell when it is flat by looking at where you have been sanding and if the sandpaper touches all surfaces, then it has to be flat. If you do not have access to a flat surface and sandpaper, there is the old concrete driveway. I have turned a drum upside and rubbed it back and forth on my driveway, it works but you need to make sure the concrete is flat by using a straight edge in the place where you will rubbing the drum.

When finally finished sanding the surface, you have to get that rounded side view of your thumb look again on the rim. If you had to take the head off to fix the rim there is no need to re-soak the head, you can put the head back on dry, tighten the verticals, put your diamonds in and start playing.

Just thought I would continue the blog by adding another tip. I get asked a lot how much rope does it take to string a djembe. A lot of factors are involved. How many loops (that determines the verticals). How long the verticals are. I have my own formular, others have similar, they all work. I count the number of loops, each loop repersents two verticals. I measure the length of the vertical and add two inches to that length. I multiply the total length (the length plus the two inches) times double the number of loops. This will give you a total number of inches. Divide that number by 12 and it will give you the number of feet. The two inches that were added will give you the extra rope needed for the making the diamonds. It will also allow you to pre-lace the drum before putting the head on.

To know the how long you need to cut the rope for the two loops rings you measure the circumfrence of the rings. I wrap the rope around the outside of the top ring. I use 4.25 times the cirumfrence of the top ring and 5.5 times the cirumfrence for the bottom ring. This will give you extra rope on the rings using a two finger spacing for the loops. It is better to have one foot or more extra then to be half an inch short. When i say two finger spacing, that is for the top ring only, the bottom loops will be closer then two fingers. I always do the top ring first. Count the number of loops. As I tie the loops on the bottom ring I pay attention to how many loops I have as I go around the ring counting the number as I reach each quarter of the ring. If the top ring has 24 loops I should have 6 loops after reaching the first quarter of the ring and 12 loops at the halfway point. You can adjust your spacing accordingly.

Not sure how this blog thing works, but right now i am on the way home from arlington va. i am currently on 321 north in nc on our way to 40west towards asheville. i have quite a lot of great customers and friends in ashville and wished i have the time to stop and see some. that will be another trip. as a reminder if anybody is in my neck of the woods feel free to call and stop by. i have am willing and ready to do a mini workshop and put a head on a drum. yall take care. i will try my best to keep up with this blog. hope i start getting some replies soon

Hello all, I am now entering the world of blogging. I guess I am suppose to say something smart and witty, well that is not happening today. I am currently on my way back from Arlington Va after burying my daughters husban in Arlington National Cemetary. I plan on keeping up with this blog. I feel like this will be a great place to ask questions, give out tips on heading drums, keep up with current drumming events and whatever else you are suppose to do in blogs.

I am going to be home Sunday afternoon. I have been having a tough time getting orders out for the last 3 weeks due to my son inlaws illness and death. I am expecting to get back to some sort of normacly starting Monday, Jan 7. On wed Jan 9 Sandy (my wife) is leaving for New Zealand for 3 weeks. Hopefully this will not slow me down to much, I expect to get back to my normal shipping of same day to next day for getting goods out.