Hand Percussion · Models

Model

Cooperman Frame Drum

Hand percussion

Cooperman's frame drums are built with a tuning system that lets a natural head be brought back into pitch as the weather changes, which is the practical objection to skin frame drums answered.

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Contemporânea Surdo

Hand percussion · Brazil

The surdo carries the pulse of a samba school, and Contemporânea builds them in aluminium and wood across the three tuned sizes a bateria uses — first, second, and third surdo.

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Rhythm Tech's crescent tambourine removes the part of a round frame the hand covers anyway, which makes the instrument lighter, easier to hold, and easier to play fast. It is the most copied tambourine design of the last forty years.

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Sela CaSela Pro

Hand percussion

The CaSela Pro's snare system can be adjusted or removed without tools, letting one box cover both the snare and the traditional sound.

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Gope Pandeiro

Hand percussion · Brazil

Gope's pandeiros are the ones most often seen outside Brazil, in both nylon and natural-skin heads, and in the aluminium frames that survive travel.

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Gon Bops Mariano Series Congas

Hand percussion

The Mariano series revives Mariano Bobadilla's original California shell profile, which is squatter and wider than the Cuban pattern most makers copy.

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DG De Gregorio Chanela

Hand percussion · Spain

The Chanela is De Gregorio's best-known cajon, built for flamenco accompaniment where the slap has to be sharp enough to sit against palmas and heels.

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Tycoon Supremo Cajon

Hand percussion

The Supremo cajon is Tycoon's volume seller: a Siam oak box with fixed snare wires, made in the company's own factory, at a price that puts it in most rehearsal rooms.

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Panyard Jumbie Jam

Hand percussion

The Jumbie Jam is a small, light, chromatically tuned steel pan on a stand, priced so a school can buy a class set. It did more than anything else to get steel pan taught outside Trinidad.

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Meinl Woodcraft Congas

Hand percussion

Woodcraft congas use American white oak staves and Meinl's tuning hardware, and sit at the professional end of a catalogue that runs a very long way down in price.

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Schlagwerk 2inOne

Hand percussion

The 2inOne cajon puts the snare wires where they respond to the top corners but not the centre, so a player gets a snare crack and a clean bass note from the same box without adjusting anything.

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LP Classic Conga

Hand percussion

The Classic is the conga most people picture: Siam oak staves, LP's Comfort Curve rim, and hardware that survives being tuned hard and often. It is the drum against which other production congas are described.

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Bina Tabla Set

Hand percussion · India

A tabla is two drums played as one instrument: the wooden dayan tuned to a pitch with a hammer and the wooden blocks under its straps, and the metal bayan bent with the heel of the hand. Both carry the syahi, the black tuning paste that gives tabla its bell-like tone and takes a specialist to apply.

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Asano Nagado-Daiko

Hand percussion · Japan

A nagado-daiko is hollowed from a single trunk of keyaki — sometimes a century of drying before the wood is cut — and headed with cowhide tacked down rather than tensioned, so its pitch is decided at build time and never changes.

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Gawharet El Fan Tabla

Hand percussion · Egypt

Called tabla in Egypt and darbuka further north, this is the drum of Arabic classical and shaabi music. Gawharet El Fan's are aluminium shells inlaid with mother-of-pearl and shell, as much decorated object as instrument.

Model

Hugh Tracey Treble Kalimba

Hand percussion · South Africa

Tracey's kalimba takes the mbira of southern Africa and gives it a Western diatonic tuning and a solid resonating board, which made it playable by people outside the tradition and turned it into the instrument most of the world calls a kalimba.

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Ayasa Handpan

Hand percussion · Germany

Handpans after the Hang are specified by their scale — D Kurd, C# Amara, F Low Pygmy — because the tuning is the instrument. Ayasa's are nitrided steel, hand-hammered, and made to a chosen note layout.

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Miyamoto Shime-Daiko

Hand percussion · Japan

The shime-daiko is small, tuned very high by rope or bolt tension, and holds the pulse an ensemble plays against. It is the one taiko whose pitch a player sets rather than inherits.

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PANArt Hang

Hand percussion · Switzerland

Two nitrided steel shells glued at the rim, hammered into a tuned central note and a ring of tone fields, played with the hands rather than sticks. PANArt built the Hang from 2000 to 2013, never in quantity and never to order, and every handpan since descends from it.

Model

Emin Darbuka

Hand percussion · Turkey

The darbuka is played with both hands across the head and the rim, and the Turkish style — a thin head, a sharp rim, and finger technique that runs at speed — is what these cast aluminium shells are voiced for.

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Nazareth Berimbau

Hand percussion · Brazil

The berimbau is a wooden bow, a steel string, and a gourd pressed against the player's stomach to open and close the resonance. It leads capoeira: the roda's tempo, and which game is played, are called by the berimbau.

Model

Toca Freestyle Congas

Hand percussion

Freestyle congas use moulded synthetic shells and synthetic heads, which means they do not crack in a van, do not detune in a damp hall, and cost a fraction of a wooden drum.

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Tycoon Master Handcrafted Congas

Hand percussion

Master Handcrafted congas are Tycoon's professional drums, with thicker Siam oak staves and hand-selected heads, at prices well below the American brands.

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Toca Player's Series Cajon

Hand percussion

The Player's Series cajon covers the standard format — birch body, hardwood front plate, internal snare wires — at the price point where most people buy their first one.

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Gon Bops Fiesta Series Congas

Hand percussion

Fiesta congas are Gon Bops' student and semi-professional drums, with the brand's rim contour at a price a beginner can reach.

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Schlagwerk La Peru

Hand percussion

La Peru is Schlagwerk's traditional cajon: no snare wires, just the box, in the Peruvian form the instrument had before European players added the buzz.

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LP Aspire Conga

Hand percussion

Aspire puts a real tunable conga with LP hardware into a first instrument, and is the drum most school and community programmes end up owning.

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Remo Mondo Djembe

Hand percussion

The Mondo djembe replaces a carved wooden shell with Remo's Acousticon and rope tuning with tuning lugs, which makes it consistent, weatherproof, and playable by anyone who can turn a key.

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LP Cyclops Tambourine

Hand percussion

The Cyclops is built to be hit with a stick and mounted on a stand rather than shaken, with a moulded frame and steel or brass jingles depending on the model.

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Meinl Marathon Classic Congas

Hand percussion

The Marathon Classic line is Meinl's workhorse conga: Siam oak, heavy hardware, and a rim contour designed to be played hard for a long night.

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Meinl Snarecraft Cajon

Hand percussion

Snarecraft cajons carry fixed internal snare wires under the whole playing surface rather than only the top corners, which gives a consistent snare buzz wherever the box is struck.

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Remo Frame Drum

Hand percussion

Remo's frame drums cover the tar, bendir, and general hand-drum formats in synthetic heads and Acousticon shells, which is what put frame drums into schools and workshops at scale.

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LP Galaxy Giovanni Series Conga

Hand percussion

Developed with Giovanni Hidalgo, these congas use a wider, flatter rim contour and a shell profile tuned for the fast, melodic hand technique he is known for.

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Tycoon Supremo Bongos

Hand percussion

Supremo bongos cover the standard pair with Siam oak shells and steel hardware, and are among the most common bongos in schools outside the LP catalogue.

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LP Vibra-Slap

Hand percussion

The Vibra-Slap reproduces the rattling quijada — a donkey jawbone with loose teeth — using a wooden resonator and a metal pin box, which is both more hygienic and more repeatable.

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Meinl Headliner Congas

Hand percussion

Headliner congas are Meinl's student and semi-professional drums, built in rubberwood with the same tuning hardware pattern as the lines above them.

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Meinl Sonic Energy Steel Tongue Drum

Hand percussion

Steel tongue drums are cut and tuned so each tongue sounds a note of a chosen scale, and Meinl's Sonic Energy range brought them into general music retail from the sound-therapy market.

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Remo Buffalo Drum

Hand percussion

The Buffalo Drum is a wide, shallow frame drum played with a soft beater, widely used in drum circles, therapy settings, and film scoring for its low, breathy tone.

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Remo Roto Tom

Hand percussion

Roto Toms have no shell: the head sits on a threaded frame, and rotating the drum raises or lowers the pitch continuously. That makes them the only drum a player can glissando in performance, which is why they turn up in orchestral scores.

Model

Meinl Backbeat Tambourine

Hand percussion

The Backbeat mounts on the hi-hat pull rod so the tambourine sounds when the hats close, which is how most recorded tambourine parts are actually played on a kit.

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Schlagwerk Fineline

Hand percussion

Fineline cajons use selected playing-surface timbers and adjustable corner tension, and are aimed at players for whom the cajon is the main instrument rather than a travel substitute.

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Meinl Professional Djembe

Hand percussion

Meinl's professional djembes are carved from solid mahogany with goatskin heads and traditional rope tuning, alongside a mechanically tuned line for players who do not want to pull rope.

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Contemporânea Pandeiro

Hand percussion · Brazil

The pandeiro's jingles are cupped and dry rather than bright, and the head is tunable, which lets one player produce bass, slap, and jingle parts simultaneously.

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LP Ridge Rider Cowbell

Hand percussion

The Ridge Rider is the standard kit cowbell: a reinforced ridge along the top to survive stick impact, and a mount that keeps it where it was put.

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Toca Elite Pro Congas

Hand percussion

Elite Pro is the top of Toca's range: stave-built wooden shells, heavy hardware, and hand-selected hide heads.

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Rhythm Tech Hat Trick

Hand percussion

The Hat Trick clamps a set of jingles to a hi-hat so the tambourine part plays itself from the foot, freeing both hands.

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Contemporânea Repinique

Hand percussion · Brazil

The repinique is the drum the leader plays to call a samba school in and out of sections, high-pitched and played with one hand and one stick.

Model

Meinl Turbo Slaptop Cajon

Hand percussion

The Slaptop turns the cajon on its side so it can be played seated at a table or on a lap, with the playing surface facing the player and the port facing out. It is the format most used by singer-guitarists accompanying themselves.

Model

Contemporânea Tamborim

Hand percussion · Brazil

The tamborim is six inches across, held in one hand, and struck with a flexible multi-rod stick; the virada figures it plays are the most recognisable sound in the bateria.

Model

Cooperman Rope Tension Field Drum

Hand percussion

Cooperman builds rope-tension field drums to period specification for reenactment, early music, and fife and drum corps — the drum as it was before metal tension rods.