A quality djembe from Ghana?

[drtse]

Hi there,

I am a noob to the forum and djembe playing in general. I am looking to purchase one and met a fellow at a local drum circle who own a percussion store. He says many of the djembes that he has are from Ghana and are of a very good quality. He does carry some from the Ivory Coast and Guinea also. He doesn't think his Ghanian djembes are of inferior quality in build or sound to your traditional West African djembes. Some of the other drum circle members purchased their djembes through him. They seem to sound nice (but what do I know as a noob), and the carvings on the stem are very cool.

Most of what I've read on other websites seem to indicate that Ghana does not have a long djembe making history and that most of the djembes out of that region are more for aesthetic wall-hanging than for musical playing.

What do you all think?

Also does Ghana have the same type of woods as in Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast? So far it seems like just Twenboa from what I've read...

Thanks for you input!

[the kid]

i§m thinking that djembes from guinea, mali and ivory coast are better than Ghanaian ones. Check the carve yourself. i find drums from ghana to look good outside but less well carved inside. inside the bowl check the tickness of the wood. it should be uniform but i§ve found ghanaian ones to be too thick inside. also its melina wood /i think/ which is softer that usual wood from other countries. i find the ghanian sound to be shallow. it sounds good playing quietly but doesn§t have good depth of sound when you play with power. rather fustrating really.

[drtse]

ok, i will try and do a thorough inspection of the craftsmanship and sound when I go check the djembes out.

i guess nobody on this forum owns a Ghanian djembe!

any Canadians on this forum who can chime in on recommended stores in the Toronto area?

thx

[Dugafola]

i agree with keanie...

check the interior. i don't think i've seen one ghana djembe that was carved properly on the inside. most of the time, they looked like they were hacked with an axe or a chainsaw.

if you're in toronto, try to contact mohammed diaby for a djembe. if he doesn't have one to sell, he may be willing to help you pick one out. he is a very reputed djembefola from guinea.

[dleufer]

Hey,
I think that the Ghanian djembes are usually made from quite a soft wood and therefore have to be carved much thicker than djembes made from strong hardwoods in order ofr them to be strong enough. Maybe this thinkness dampens the sound and it seems to make sense that soft wood would resonate far less than hardwood, especially if it´s thicker.
My housemate has a ghanian djembe and it sounds really nice for just jamming or playing along with other instruments but doesn´t quite hold up at high volumes with our hardwood ones. It does have a really crazy, gorgeous bass sound though! Not very djembe-ish but it works well mixed with other drums, the bass really cuts through and resonates.
I guess it depends on what you´re looking for the djembe to do for you. Ghanian ones are light, cheap and good for non-traditional or non-west african playing but don´t quite seem to cut it for hardcore west africa stylee

[bubudi]

drtse, i have reskinned and reworked and played plenty of ghanaian djembes. i have never owned one, though, because i have not found any that come close to the sound i want. some have a really nice bass, but the tone and slap are quite important in this music and when you're a newbie you wouldn't have developed the technique or the ears to be able to properly appreciate the difference between different djembes.

you are right in saying that the type of wood found in ghana is generally very different to those used in guinea, and yes, the majority of ghanaian djembes i've seen were made from tweneboa wood, which is way softer than the main woods used to make drums in guinea and mali (if you press your fingernail into a tweneboa djembe, you will easily be able to make an indentation!). this also affects the sound quite a bit.

you can only inspect the inner bowl of a drum with the skin off the drum. if the store owner can let you see some drums that are unskinned, you will be able to inspect them, and if you end up choosing one, then he can skin it up for you. all the ghanaian djembes i've seen have been carved quite differently (and more roughly) in the inside than the others. also, the shape and proportions between stem and bowl are quite different. ghanaian djembes tend to have long stems. this is what gives their bass a bit of an edge, but to the detriment of the other tones.

note that ghanaian and north american goat skins produce completely different sounds than the ones from guinea, mali, ivory coast, etc.. djembe players tend to prefer skins coming from these countries and generally don't like the ghanaian skins (they tend to be very thin and weak) or the north american ones (once you are accustomed to the sound of a good malian or guinean skin, the north american ones will sound dead in comparison).

just because a djembe is made in guinea or mali doesn't necessarily make it a better djembe. there are plenty of 'hang on the wall' tourist type djembes coming from those countries too. be prepared to pay quite a bit more for a good guinea/mali djembe than you would one from ghana. whether it's worth the extra money will have something to do with your goals. you may find that your goals change over time. try a good guinean or malian djembe for comparison before you make a decision.

take dugafola's advice and get in touch with mohamed diaby. he's a very respected guinean percussionist who played with the famous group 'les merveilles de guinee'. his website is: http://fabeproductions.com

good luck!

[drtse]

thx for all of your input guys!

I just found out that Mohamed Diaby teaches regularly out of an African drum & arts store in downtown toronto, so I will probably go there to check things out.

I also emailed fabeproductions for recommendations.

now, I just gotta scrounge up some money to pay for this!!!

[aiduenu]

Well guys from my experience in djembe production and as a djembe player, I can tell you that for sure that djembe production depend on the maker. most importers of Ghana djembe do not import or buy from the right producers, and for that matter they might buy a djembe from from producers who are just making money from the djembe they produce at the place called art centre in Ghana( Art Center it a place build for sales of turism product or Souvenir's).

There are professional djembe producers who produces well built djembe that produces good sound with even better sound then Burkina, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and other origin of djembe.

I can also tell you that Ghana has wood equally good to the woods from Burkina, Guinea and so on. But I mast say clearly here, that the sound of the djembe do not depend on the hardness of the wood it depend on the skill of the maker or producer.
You can produce a djembe with a soft wood that will produce a very quality sound depending on the skill of the maker and you can also produce a djemebe with a very hard wood that will produce a very bad sound quality also depending on the skill of the maker. Mostly hard wood are used to pro-long the life of the djembe not because hardwood produces good sound of djembe.

All that I am trying to say is that, In Ghana there are very good professional djembe producers which you can not find at the art centre where most of the buyers of Ghanaian djembe import from. If you want a good Ghanaian djembe look and look well and you will find a djembe which you will love to play always.

I can proudly say we are djembe producers and we produce the top quality Djembe In Ghana but you can not find us at art centre in Accra but you can locat us in Tema and evryone who wishes to vsit us and test our Djembe can do so.

[aiduenu]

If you need more information about quality Ghana djembe Please dont hesitate the conact for more info.

Benjamin Kwesi Aiduenu
West African Djembe
www.westafricandjembe.com
info@westafricandjembe.com

[Nodrog]

Hi there,

I was browsing around actually checking out sites for purchasing a gyil, bala or African xylophone and I came across this website from Ghana. Just wondered if anyone had done any business with this guy. He has a pretty good website which shows the details of them producing djembes using hard wood from Burkina. The thing that stood out to me is the very competetive prices for both the drums and the gyil. Here is their web address and I would be interested to know what anyone else thinks of it. www.kingymensah.com/

Thanks, Gordon.

[michi]

He has a pretty good website which shows the details of them producing djembes using hard wood from Burkina.

However, the djembe section states that their djembes are made of tweneboa. That's quite a soft wood, not very dense, and it doesn't make for good djembes. Also, because of its softness, the drums end up with very thick walls to avoid having them collapse under the pressure.

So, if nothing else, I'd stay clear of djembes made of tweneboa.

Cheers,

Michi.

[aiduenu]

Hi Nodrog,

Well I can not tell you whether this guy is real or not but what i can tell you is that in Ghana there are 3 types of twineboah 1) Red twineboah ( Which is red and hard wood equelly hard to Iroko) 2) yellow twineboah ( which is als very hard wood but break easly when there is a mark or crack in it) 3) white twineboah is the most soft type of twineboah wood which is also mostly used to produce djembe by the tourisum centre in Ghana. the secret is that most of the professional djembes we see at the market are made from red hard twineboah which is equelly hard and good as Iroko to produce their djembes. These day I see most of the countries around Ghana are now buying wood from Ghana to produce their djembe because they have noticed that red twineboah looks the same as iroko after production.

Also most of the djembe builders in this countries were using red twineboah in the production but called it a diiferent name because the language differences.

Twineboah in Ghanaian language Akan means as follows: Twine means drum and Boa means play.
and it because this wood is mostly used to produce drums in the olding days that is why the tree is name with this name twineboah.

Benji
www.westafricandjembe.com

[michi]

I wasn't aware that there are different kinds of tweneboa. What I had in mind is the white tweneboa, which is a quite light and spongy low-density wood; it definitely doesn't make for very good djembes.

Cheers,

Michi.

[aiduenu]

Hey Michi,

Now you know, because most people do not know much about Ghanaian djembe because they often buy a tourist djembe and they do not know more about the type of wood most producers in Ghana used we have 3types of twineboah white, Yellow and red Twineboah. Most white twineboah woods are very soft as you know and the yellow is very hard equally to Iroko but can easily crack when there is a little make of crack, Red twineboah is also very hard equally to Iroko but a little lighter then Iroko, which makes it easlier to carry around when it used to produce djembe.
You see when you know more about how djembe is made and what materials people use in production, some might tell you the truth as am telling you and some might not tell you the through because they know that, they can use other type of twineboah to tell you they are Iroko and gone because they are equally hard to Iroko, because raw shea butter can change a colour of wood to become darker brown and if the red twineboah happened to be a little heavier then a producer might called it Iroko to you because you will not see the difference.

Benji

[Nodrog]

Hi there,

Thanks Benji for that information. I reckon if the tree is named after the drum then it sounds like this red twineboah must have been used probably for hundreds of years and must be fine for using in drum production.

To change the subject slightly. I am looking for a genuine gyil which would be a real instrument and not just an ornament. Have you any ideas where I could find a real one with the calabash and vibrating membranes attached. I have been listening to Aaron Bebe Sukura and think he sounds amazing.

Thanks for any suggestions. Gordon.