Sewing on a head

[BobF]

Actually it's a metal ring. Drumskull heads their dunun with 1 metal ring and 1 rope ring sewn as you've described.

[Mauibeat]

Actually it's a metal ring. Drumskull heads their dunun with 1 metal ring and 1 rope ring sewn as you've described.

You maybe correct, but I was on the phone with Drumskull 3 times last week, as I purchased rope for a new dunun I'm building. I was told by 3 people at Drumskulls that they use 11/16 rope for their bottom ring, and 4mm rope which is sewn inside the hide.

Now the Drumskull people did not seem to want to give me too much detail on exactly how they head their drum, as they feel that the style of how they head their dunun is their trade secrete. Somehow they sold me some of the 11/16 rope to make my bottle rings, but I was later told by a long time Drumskull staffer that was a mistake sale, because the 11/16" rope was not for sale and
only used for their own use for heading their dununs. Anyways, I got as much info as I could get from them since they were selling me rope, but would not direct me to any instructions about how to rope sew dunun heads, except to sell a book which had 2 pages covering the traditional way to
head drums. I didn't order the book, but I was very lucky to find this site (forum), with photos of how to do a rope sewn head.

From what I can see, from looking at all the pictures in this forum and Drumskull pictures of all their dununs, is they only do one thing different. In the forum photos the rope that is sewn thru the hide has the rope relooped along the top edge. The Drumskull dununs don't seem to reloop the
black rope thru the top edge of their sewn rope. Otherwise the system is the same, with Drumskull using a much thicker black 11/16" rope for the bottom ring.

Bottom line, I don't know if Drumskull used to head dununs another way using a bottom ring before, but last week they told me on the phone that they use an 11/16" rope, with a torch welding of the ends, and sold me 9' of the 11/16" black rope (by mistake), for the bottom ring. If you look real close at the Drumskull dunun photos, you can see the welded area on the bottom rope.

I'll post some photos when my order arrives in the mail, and I'm heading my new dun. Aloha

[BobF]

Sounds like they changed techniques. I bought my sangban from them 4 or 5 years ago and there are two metal rings on it (lower ring of each head.

[bubudi]

rethreading around the loops just reinforces them and probably equalises the pressure on the holes in the skin where the rope goes through.

it should be easy enough to get the 24mm rope somewhere else (e.g. climbing or marine supplies) if anyone is thinking about trying that, and welding it together. if you do, i would recommend sewing a patch to reinforce the weld, as your mileage may vary with a weld (the rope can melt unpredictably and can bubble a lot). bops posted a picture of a patch he did earlier in the thread.

[Mauibeat]

Slight correction on my last post here. I stated that the lower black ring on the Drumskull dununs was a welded black 11/16" rope, per my phone conservations with Drumskull staffers.

Well my rope order arrived in the mail today, and I must have been having either a senior hearing or memory moment, during or after my phone calls, because the black rope is actually 7/16", or slightly smaller than a 1/2" rope. Still waiting for the cow hide to arrive, and will take some photos of my first rope sewn dunun. Aloha

[bubudi]

ok that's more like it. that's about 17mm.

[dleufer]

Here's the sangban I reskinned a few months ago, the pics aren't great quality but you'll get the idea

My Sangban 06 Before.jpg (236.28 KiB) Viewed 113 times

My Sangban 09 Before.jpg (213.06 KiB) Viewed 113 times

My Sangban 11 Before.jpg (205.48 KiB) Viewed 113 times

[dleufer]

Here's the finished drum. It sounds really really sweet. Very resonant.
The first time I tried sewing on a head it was a nightmare but once I got the hang of it I actually find it easier than reskinning dununs with rings and easier to get everything even.

My Sangban 15 After.jpg (269.11 KiB) Viewed 113 times

My Sangban 17 After.jpg (247.94 KiB) Viewed 113 times

[EvanP]

Nice. Did you do both heads at the same time, or let one side dry before doing the second?

[McLellan-djembetoula]

1. The rings have nothing to do with the ringing sound. It is the skin harmonizing with itself (on a djembe) or the other skin on a kinkini, sangbon and dundun. A flatter rim gives more harmonics- more ring. This is one reason why remos sing so much (the other is that it is a synthetic head that is of a perfectly consistent thickness). A slightly less than perfectly flat rim helps, as does a real skin (goat or cow) with the inherent inconsistencies, and also a SKIN can be tightened to the point that you either can't hear the ring any more (unless you are a dog) or that the duration of the ring is so short that it is less noticable.
2. A hole punch works best for a durable hole in skin that is less likely to rip (Michael's Art Supply has these). Lacing the top loops in such a way that the load is pulling on the rope and not the skin is very important. This will not become apparent until a few years down the road. In the picture, the rope is not correct. I will try to find a picture (I know I have one) that shows this.
3. A hole drilled in the body of dundun, sangbon or kinkini really helps with reducing the skins interfering with each other. Unless both skins are EXACTLY the same (and when does THAT ever happen?) letting them vibrate separately increases volume and tone. I have done before and after on this several times and can say from experience that a small hole (pencil sized) does make a difference. I have also been told (and seen the results unfortunatly) that a hole in the body will help keep the heads from having holes punched in them bv sticks when playing ballet style or upright. The theory here is that the hole lets the air pressure out so that the skin is better able to flex. This isn't a problem when playing traditionally (sideways) because the other skin can move.
TMI?

[dleufer]

I did both at the same time. I don't think it makes much difference when sewing on the heads.

[McLellan-djembetoula]

They look great.
The welded rope is fine, with this style, all it is doing is taking up space.
The only thing I wold suggest to do different is put a half twist in the green rope and then continue it around looping under itself and under each half twist where it goes through the skin so that the green rope's pull is transferred to the extra loop around the top (which forms a top ring) instead of pulling open the hole in the skin over time.
How far out from the drum did you make your holes and then how far past that for the outer holes?
I like where your 'rings' sit and it looks like you got everything really straight.
Thanks for a nice post.

[duke]

Just bought a dun dun build kit from the guys at drum skull. There's good stuff on this forum, but out of curiosity---any other good tutorials online to anyone's knowledge? Thanks people.