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Models

75 models

  • Bina Tabla Set

    The tabla pair: sheesham dayan, copper bayan

    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.

  • Asano Nagado-Daiko

    The long-bodied taiko, carved from one trunk

    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.

  • Gawharet El Fan Tabla

    The Egyptian goblet drum, inlaid

    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.

  • Nazareth Berimbau

    A musical bow with a gourd resonator

    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.

  • Hugh Tracey Treble Kalimba

    Seventeen tuned tines on a kiaat board

    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.

  • Ayasa Handpan

    Bought by scale, not by model

    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.

  • Miyamoto Shime-Daiko

    The rope-tensioned taiko that keeps time

    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.

  • PANArt Hang

    An instrument invented in 2000, and no longer made

    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.

  • Emin Darbuka

    Cast aluminium goblet drum, Turkish tuning

    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.

  • Cooperman Frame Drum

    Tunable frame drums from Vermont

    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.

  • Contemporânea Surdo

    The bass drum of the samba bateria

    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.

  • Rhythm Tech Tambourine

    The crescent shape that fixed the dead spot

    Hand percussion

    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.

  • Sela CaSela Pro

    Adjustable snare cajon

    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.

  • Gope Pandeiro

    Brazil's most widely exported 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.

  • Gon Bops Mariano Series Congas

    Named for the founder

    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.

  • DG De Gregorio Chanela

    Flamenco cajon from Spain

    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.

  • Tycoon Supremo Cajon

    Siam oak cajon from Thailand

    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.

  • Toca Freestyle Congas

    Synthetic shells that survive being moved

    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.

  • Panyard Jumbie Jam

    The student steel pan

    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.

  • Meinl Woodcraft Congas

    American white oak shells

    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.

  • Schlagwerk 2inOne

    Snare and non-snare in one box

    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.

  • LP Classic Conga

    The Siam oak conga that set the standard

    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.

  • Meinl Cajon Bass Pedal

    A pedal for a drum that has no hardware

    Hand percussion · Germany

    A cable-driven beater that lets a seated cajon player add a bass drum with one foot, which is how the instrument ended up in duo and singer-songwriter setups where a kit will not fit.

  • Gawharet El Fan Riq

    The tambourine of Arabic classical music

    Hand percussion · Egypt

    The riq is a small frame drum with heavy paired jingles, and in Arabic classical music it is a lead instrument rather than an accompaniment — a riq player carries the rhythm and its ornament at once.

  • PANArt Pang Instruments

    What the workshop made after the Hang

    Hand percussion · Switzerland

    PANArt stopped making the Hang and moved to the Pang family — gubal, pangs, and hardened-steel forms that ask to be played differently. The workshop has always treated the instruments as its own line of enquiry rather than a product line.

  • Miyamoto Okedo-Daiko

    Stave-built and light enough to carry

    Hand percussion · Japan

    An okedo-daiko is built from staves like a barrel rather than carved from a trunk, which makes it far lighter and rope-tunable — the taiko that gets carried through a festival rather than stood on a frame.

  • Bina Dholak

    The two-headed folk drum of North India

    Hand percussion · India

    A barrel drum played on both heads with the hands, rope- or bolt-tuned, and carried through folk music, film songs, and devotional singing across North India and Pakistan.

  • Remo Talking Drum

    An hourglass drum whose pitch bends under the arm

    Hand percussion · United States

    Squeezing the cords between the two heads raises the pitch mid-stroke, letting the drum follow the tones of speech — which is what gives the family its name across Yoruba, Hausa, and Wolof traditions.

  • Asano Ō-daiko

    The great drum

    Hand percussion · Japan

    The ō-daiko is the largest taiko in an ensemble, often several feet across, carved from a single trunk and played standing with both arms. It is the drum a taiko performance is built around, and one instrument can take years to make.

  • Emin Bendir

    Frame drum with a snare string

    Hand percussion · Turkey

    The bendir is a large frame drum with a gut snare stretched under the head, giving a buzz behind every stroke. It carries Sufi and Anatolian music, played upright with the fingers of both hands.

  • Nazareth Atabaque

    The tall hand drum of candomblé and capoeira

    Hand percussion · Brazil

    Rope-tuned with wedges driven down the sides, the atabaque comes in three tuned sizes — rum, rumpi, and lê — played together in Afro-Brazilian religious music.

  • Hugh Tracey Alto Kalimba

    The lower, fuller-toned kalimba

    Hand percussion · South Africa

    The alto sits an octave below the treble with fifteen tines, and is the one most often used for accompaniment rather than melody.

  • Meinl Dunun Set

    The three bass drums under a djembe ensemble

    Hand percussion · Germany

    A djembe ensemble sits on three rope-tuned bass drums — dundunba, sangban, and kenkeni — played with a stick in one hand and a bell in the other. They carry the melody of West African drumming; the djembe solos over them.

  • Remo Ocean Drum

    A frame drum filled with steel beads

    Hand percussion · United States

    Tilting the drum rolls hundreds of small steel beads across the head, producing a sound close enough to surf that it is used for exactly that in film and theatre — and, with a clear head, watched as well as heard.

  • Tycoon Master Handcrafted Congas

    The top of the Thai catalogue

    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.

  • Toca Player's Series Cajon

    Snare cajon at a working price

    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.

  • Gon Bops Fiesta Series Congas

    The accessible line

    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.

  • Schlagwerk La Peru

    A cajon without snares, as the instrument began

    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.

  • LP Aspire Conga

    The student 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.

  • Panyard Tenor Pan

    Full-range lead pan

    Hand percussion

    Panyard's tenor (lead) pans are chromatically tuned across the full melodic range and built for school and community steel bands in the United States.

  • Remo Mondo Djembe

    Synthetic shell and head, key-tuned

    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.

  • LP Cyclops Tambourine

    Mountable tambourine with a dry, hard jingle

    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.

  • Meinl Marathon Classic Congas

    Siam oak congas for heavy use

    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.

  • Meinl Snarecraft Cajon

    Fixed internal snare wires

    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.

  • Remo Frame Drum

    Synthetic-headed frame drums in many diameters

    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.

  • LP Galaxy Giovanni Series Conga

    Giovanni Hidalgo's signature drums

    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.

  • Tycoon Supremo Bongos

    Student and working 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.

  • LP Vibra-Slap

    A mechanical replacement for the jawbone

    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.

  • Meinl Headliner Congas

    The entry line

    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.

  • Meinl Sonic Energy Steel Tongue Drum

    A tuned steel drum played with hands or mallets

    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.