Stave Dunun's

[fattyboombatty]

I am not sure if there is already a thread covering this subject or not. But I was wondering if anyone has had any experience building sets of dunun's using stave's?
I have built a kenkeni for a friend using Red Oak. It is being skinned, can't wait to see the finished product.

Is there a better type of wood? Maple, Mohogany?

[Rhythm House Drums]

I have a little bit of experience

Red Oak is good for kenkeni... but I would not use it for sangban or doundounba. Though there are plenty of hard / dense woods used for dunun I mostly see the good dununfola play on softer woods. The softer woods absorb more of the higher frequencies and accent the low tones. You want your dunun to be mellow (I do anyways) with a nice pure low end.

Walnut has been a wood of choice for me in building my dunun. It is a medium dense wood with a nice natural tone. It has great projection while still keeping the overtones at bay.

Without giving away too much of my 'magic' , I've done a lot of experimenting on wall thickness as well. A thicker stave or slat will resonate at a higher pitch than a thinner slat... Also the longer the stave the lower pitch. To get a great sounding set really starts with the shells.. if you tap the edge of your shells and they sing in unison, you'll have a much better sounding set once headed up.

I built a set from poplar that sound excellent and was very light weight as well. I'd look for softer woods.. well.. softer hardwoods. I still would not use a pine or cedar for drums.