Djemba head.

drummer girl09

Senior Member
So I got a djembe for my birthday last year, and I played it off and on. It is actually the top of the line djembe. It's the black mamba djembe. Maybe I have no reason to be buyin such a great djembe since it isn't my main instrument at all, but I do enjoy playing djembes a lot. I wasn't expecting on buying the best one though.

Anyway, I played it a good many times, and I told my friend that plays for my youth service at church about it, because he plays the djembe also, and is better then me at it. He told me to bring it to church so he could see it. I did, and he liked it a lot. Then later on, he asked if he could borrow it to play in the youth service since the one he was borrowing before was gone (it wasn't his anyway). I let him (which is very stupid of me). He asked a couple more times, then the last time, he pointed out a rip on the head. He wasn't sure if he did it or if some one else maybe playing with it did it. I was kinda pissed honestly, but it was just a small rip, and didn't think it was that big of a problem. I took it home. But the rip got bigger and bigger. Finally it ripped in half. I didn't even play it hardly at all. I told my parents and they were mad at the dude for him not doing anything about the rip. So it is unplayable right now. I know I can get a new head, but this one is the black head. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the sound.

My question is how exactly are you supposed to take the head off the djembe? I can buy a new head, but I want the same kind as the original. And would the torn head be hurting the drum? Any suggestions on where I can get one? Thanks

http://www.x8drums.com/v/vspfiles/photos/ABMD-2T.jpg
 
The small rip became a large rip because of the tension like any other drum head. I would google Djembe head replacement and see what turns up. Then send the dud a bill for the new one. Maybe let your Mom handle that part. It didn't get bigger because you played it a few times after the rip. It had to get larger.

http://www.x8drums.com/v/djembe/?gclid=CMjWj8rlgpgCFQhdswodiFOGDQ
 
I can do the bill part, I'm not that young. Later on when it kept ripping I thought it might have been the tension, wasn't really sure though. And I will probably take it to the music shop near by. They can probably help...hopefully. Thanks for the site though.
 
it depends what kind of head the djembe has, if it is goat skin like mine(which i doubt) you have to send it in to the people who made it otherwise go to the place you bought it and ussualy the people who work there are heplful about it and about taking it off that also depends on the drum style. if you have rope tied (which i also so doubt) you have to send it in because only proffesionals know how to do that for the most part if it american styl lug tuning it isnt any different than any drum set head
 
it depends what kind of head the djembe has, if it is goat skin like mine(which i doubt) you have to send it in to the people who made it otherwise go to the place you bought it and ussualy the people who work there are heplful about it and about taking it off that also depends on the drum style. if you have rope tied (which i also so doubt) you have to send it in because only proffesionals know how to do that for the most part if it american styl lug tuning it isnt any different than any drum set head

Don't doubt so much, because it is rope tied. That's the reason why I can't get it off or know how to. I don't wanna screw it up, so I will take it to the shop.
 
its really not that hard to preplace these, and peobably a good thing to learn if you are interested in learning about these instruments. I would start with new rope as well as a new skin as these mass produced drums tend to use low quality rope.

Here is a site that will walk you through the reheading process http://hawkdancing.com/Wooddrum/rehead.html.

www.drumskulldrums.com is the best place to get new skins and rope.
 
sorry for the doubts..... anyways when i got mine they told me if anything happened to it i could just send it in and i would oinly have to pay for shipping, i wouldnt rrally want to have to re-tie it myself since its a 22-hour process
 
Natural skin heads can rip when there is a change in the weather. Heat and humidity stretch the heads, this is why we de-tune congas, bongos etc after we play them. The head may have ripped on its own and your friend may not be responsible, unless he treated it poorly, played it with rings on, left sharp objects on it etc.

Most good drumshops can fit a new head for you at a cost. Or you can learn how to do it and buy a head yourself, which is a good idea so that you can de-tune it when not playing.
 
sorry for the doubts..... anyways when i got mine they told me if anything happened to it i could just send it in and i would oinly have to pay for shipping, i wouldnt rrally want to have to re-tie it myself since its a 22-hour process

It's cool. And I'm definitely not doing it myself.

Natural skin heads can rip when there is a change in the weather. Heat and humidity stretch the heads, this is why we de-tune congas, bongos etc after we play them. The head may have ripped on its own and your friend may not be responsible, unless he treated it poorly, played it with rings on, left sharp objects on it etc.

Most good drumshops can fit a new head for you at a cost. Or you can learn how to do it and buy a head yourself, which is a good idea so that you can de-tune it when not playing.

When I went to the music store to see if they even had any heads for the djembe, I told the dude that it ripped, and I remember him mentioning it about the weather. That might most likely be it. Either that or some one else was screwing around with it. The guy I had borrow it I'm pretty sure wouldn't do anything stupid with it.
 
I don't want to come across as rude, but why do you think that the Black Mamba djembe is the best one out there? It's actually a fairly cheap, mass produced drum. Don't get me wrong, it sounds really good, but there are custom made djembes that cost two or three times as much as the Black Mamba. Honestly, I would even have to say that I prefer the Remo Earthworks tunable djembes over the Black Mamba, because then you don't have to worry about the ropes, etc.

Again, don't get me wrong, it's a good drum, and I'd be pissed if someone messed mine up. But instead of thinking it's some rare djembe, realize that it's mass produced by Toca, and then try to get in touch with them about getting a new head.

Good luck!
 
I don't want to come across as rude, but why do you think that the Black Mamba djembe is the best one out there? It's actually a fairly cheap, mass produced drum. Don't get me wrong, it sounds really good, but there are custom made djembes that cost two or three times as much as the Black Mamba. Honestly, I would even have to say that I prefer the Remo Earthworks tunable djembes over the Black Mamba, because then you don't have to worry about the ropes, etc.

Again, don't get me wrong, it's a good drum, and I'd be pissed if someone messed mine up. But instead of thinking it's some rare djembe, realize that it's mass produced by Toca, and then try to get in touch with them about getting a new head.

Good luck!

No offense at all. I can't tell what are the awesome djembes compared to the awesome ones, unless it's totally obvious. I just thought that the particular black head might have something to do with the unique sound to it. I didn't know about the other good heads and stuff. Thanks for the advice.

But I think I bought a way to expensive djembe before knowing what I was really buying I guess. You learn from your mistakes though. It's a really good djembe in my opinion, even if I don't know what the great ones are. Haha
 
many towns seem to have some kind of 'hand-drum' guru who either can do it him or herself, or knows somebody who can re-skin a djembe. ask your local music store person.


it's not the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it's tedious, a bit time consuming, hard on the hands if you don't have the right tools, and... smelly (soaking wet goat-skin, anyone?) oh, and cause it's not so pleasing work, it's expensive ;-)

i'll bet there's more than a few here who can. i can, but seeing as you're not from Canada.
 
And as always, I must pass along links to these sites which provide real, professional djembes...

www.drumskulldrums.com

www.wuladrum.com

www.rhythmtraders.com

www.motherlandmusic.com

www.holygoat.com

These are all great, high-quality drums.

Drummergirl09, you should also know that many professionals also play congas, bongos and djembes by Remo, Meinl, Latin Percussion and other manufacturers.

These mass-produced drums are made to very high standards and have the advantage of bolt tuning, which makes it much easier to change and tension heads. Remos have plastic heads, which are desirable for the same reasons on a djembe as they are on a Western trap drum. Bolt tuning is a very common method for tuning many kinds of hand percussion so don't let anyone tell you that you must get a rope-tuned conga, bongo, ashiko or djembe to get a high-quality drum. I would steer you to rope-tuned models but you must ultimately choose what's right for you. Once I had a rope-tuned djembe head split when I left it in the sun and it tipped over. Now that I have a bolt-tuned djembe I can instantly reduce the head tension in hot weather.

As for the destruction of your head, it's not a good idea to loan out drums like that. Maybe the kid did nothing wrong and you were the one who broke the head, but because you loaned it out, there's no real way to tell. Kids are notoriously sketchy when it comes to responsibly taking care of things they borrow. Responsibility is one of the things kids have to learn but you don't want your precious instrument to serve as the lesson in this case.
 
These are all great, high-quality drums.

Drummergirl09, you should also know that many professionals also play congas, bongos and djembes by Remo, Meinl, Latin Percussion and other manufacturers.

These mass-produced drums are made to very high standards and have the advantage of bolt tuning, which makes it much easier to change and tension heads. Remos have plastic heads, which are desirable for the same reasons on a djembe as they are on a Western trap drum. Bolt tuning is a very common method for tuning many kinds of hand percussion so don't let anyone tell you that you must get a rope-tuned conga, bongo, ashiko or djembe to get a high-quality drum. I would steer you to rope-tuned models but you must ultimately choose what's right for you. Once I had a rope-tuned djembe head split when I left it in the sun and it tipped over. Now that I have a bolt-tuned djembe I can instantly reduce the head tension in hot weather.

As for the destruction of your head, it's not a good idea to loan out drums like that. Maybe the kid did nothing wrong and you were the one who broke the head, but because you loaned it out, there's no real way to tell. Kids are notoriously sketchy when it comes to responsibly taking care of things they borrow. Responsibility is one of the things kids have to learn but you don't want your precious instrument to serve as the lesson in this case.

I knew Bonzo played the congos and all that stuff, but other than that I can think of right now, that's basically the only drummer that I know of who plays the bongos/congos/djembe etc. I'm sure I've seen way more, I just can't think of the names though.

Today, I went to the store. They don't repair them. Atleast not the rope tied one. I have to go some where else to fix it. I am meeting up with a guy at 5:30 tomorrow. I spent atleast an hour there trying to figure out about the head size and stuff. The guy that was helping me, and I were talking about it and he helped me out, and gave me the number of a guy, who knew this guy. Tomorrow I will get new skin I guess, and we will discuss the djembe and what needs to be done and stuff. I thought the needing new head would be simple, but apparently not.

I didn't even think about the rope tied situation or what would happen if the head ripped. I actually didn't like the lug ringed ones. The djembe I played with the lugs on, they hurt my hand for some reason. Maybe I wasn't playing right, but it wasn't comfortable. Then when I played two other rope tied djembes, it didn't hurt my hands at all. I guess that was the reason I bought it rope tied.
 
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