Caring for your African drum is crucial for preserving the instrument's quality and ensuring its longevity.
Proper care not only extends the life of these components but also preserves the rich sound of your drum.
Understanding how to protect and maintain your drum will allow you to enjoy playing it for many years to come.
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Drum Skin Maintenance
Using a protective bag or head cover and avoiding exposure to harsh environments can maximize the drum skin's life.
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Handling and Storage
The drum should be played with hands only, and care should be taken when transporting to prevent damage.
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Lifespan of Drum Skins
Drum skins are natural and can last 1-5 years depending on care, usage, and environmental factors.
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Opportunity for Renewal
Replacing a worn-out drum skin allows for refreshing and potentially improving the drum, resulting in a nearly brand-new instrument.
Drum Care
The most important aspect of your drum is the wood shell. All of our shells have gone through a strict selection process before we assemble them with the highest quality skins and other materials that are available. We have oiled and sanded all the drum shells whilst making them but you must take care to keep them out of extreme conditions. If you look after your drum shell, it can last a lifetime.
Drum skins must be looked after in order to maximise the life of your drum. We always recommend a djembe protection bag and/ or protection head cover for every drum. Your drum should be stored in its bag when possible and it should be kept away from extreme conditions such as very hot temperatures and rainy or wet conditions. The djembes should only be played with hands and not sticks or with rings. Care must be taken when transporting your drum.
Drum skins are a natural product and they do eventually break or 'pop'. The lifespan of a drum skin is unpredictable and has to do with how well they are looked after and  the conditions they are kept in. Also occasionally there are unseen weaknesses in the skins. The average lifespan of a drum skin is 1 - 5 years depending on how it is looked after, how often it is played, how much it is tuned and some luck as well.
When your drum skin eventually does need replacing, it is an opportunity to re-build the drum and improvements can be made. We offer re-skinning for djembes and we can oil and sand the wood, re-shape the bearing edge, alter the rings, replace the ropes and fit a beautiful new skin (depending on what is needed). Leaving you with a virtually brand new drum again.
We also offer re-skinning and repairs.