Drums made by Shahab

The Shell

He reclaims timber from offcut bins of woodworking factories (stuff that normally gets burnt) , and using many woodworking techniques joins these together to create the rough shape required. He then hand shapes these into the actual contour required, creating the drum-shells. The exterior surface is then sanded smooth and wax polished to protect the wood against elements and at the same time allowing the wood to breathe.

Obviously making the drum shells this way is time consuming and labour intensive. But his decision to make the shells this way arises from noticing the shortage of trees suitable for drum making (as there is no coherent re-planting scheme) and the wood waste (out of a block of wood under 1/5 is used for the shell, the rest, over 4/5 turns into wood chipping) while he was in Senegal & Gambia learning about drum-making .

By using this method for creating the shell considerably less quantity of wood is used as there is no core to dig out, and no additional trees need to be cut down as the materials used are reclaimed.

The shells are made from different hardwoods, mainly Alder, Oak, Maple, Beech and Mahogany or a combination of timber can be used to create stunning effects. There is also a variety of weights depending on the wood used. Djembe made of Alder are the lightest (roughly about half the weight of standard drum) and are very easy to carry around making it the ideal drum for people suffering from back problems. In general drums made by Shahab would always weigh less than comparable standard Djembe.

The Skin

Shahab uses goat skin for Djembe and cow skin for the Djundjun all of which are specially selected and sent to him by friends and contacts in Senegal & Gambia. For the Djembe the skins are classified by thickness as follows:

1mm - 1.5mm: Light.
1.5mm - 2mm: Medium
2mm - 2.5mm: Heavy

Thinner skins create sharper open & slap notes , as the thickness increases the sharpness is reduced but the bass notes become more grounded and profound .
Bear in mind that other factors are also involved in generating the drum's sound. These are, shape of the shell, height of the drum, size of the head, volume of the bowl(belly), size of the air outlet, and of course the resonance of the wood used.
Sometimes according to clients wishes artificial skin has been used, but the sound does have a synthetic feel to it and it is pretty hard on the hands (not the same elasticity as real skin).

The Rope

The skin on the drum is held in place by two metal rings slightly bigger than the head of the drum one of which has string loops attatched to it. The skin is placed on drum head and the ring without loops is placed over it . The skin edges are then folded over the ring( inward) and the second ring with loops is placed on top and skin edges are folded through and over this (outward).
This creates a clamping effect whereby the skin is clamped between the first and second ring. At the base of the shells belly there is a smaller metal ring with string loops corresponding in number to the loops on top ring.
The skin assembly is attached to the shell by means of passing the rope through the loops on top and bottom rings . The tension on the skin is generated by pulling the rope tight in the first place (pulling) and by passing the rope end over and under the uprights and flicking the uprights over one another (tuning).

All ropes used on these drums have a breaking point of 140lb+ which means the chances of ropes breaking is pretty remote, the ropes are also prestretched which means there is nominal give in them, hence the drums need minimal tuning.

Shahabs drums come with woven carrying handle and ample extra rope to accommodate future tuning. Shipping and delivery charges are additional to above prices. For more information or sale enquiries please contact shahab.