Thread: Dun duns

Thanks.

Once I settled on a design I made a template out of mdf.

Now I can place it anywhere on the shell.

After that you can make whatever changes you like.

Good progress today.

Here are three of the sets.

But the template only creates a guide to then render it by hand?

From your pictures, the result is great.

Fantastic for the dun duns ... but I only ever recall seeing a similar process tried on an electric guitar once ... a picture of The Duke (John Wayne) from memory.

But I digress ... great stuff Scally.

A few mates have been helping me the last four days.

Now at ten on Sunday night we have three sets of dunduns finished and four very tired guys.

The pics shows two of the sets.

This is the forth and final set of dunduns.

The stave shells have a couple of grooves routed around each end and geckos burnt into the body.

Coconut oil was slopped onto the inside and out. Coconut or palm oil are traditional finishes. It dries out fine after a day or two but doesn't give the hard finish of the estapol/danish oil finish.

Originally Posted by Scally

Coconut oil was slopped onto the inside and out. Coconut or palm oil are traditional finishes. It dries out fine after a day or two but doesn't give the hard finish of the estapol/danish oil finish.

And gives you the aroma of the tropics ...

Well done.



.

Yes, it does smell like summer.

Though nowhere near as strong some coconut drinks or suntan lotion.
Certainly smells better than estapols.

The gloss fades quickly as the oil continues to soak into the timber. The Africans say the oils give the drums a better sound than the hard finishes.

We will find out soon enough. The tension can be increased in about a week and we can start playing them.

Cheers

looking really impressive scally!

A couple of the boys came around this afternoon.

Fortunately one of the hippies bought a few Grolsh. Lovely beer.

The thinner skins came up to voice quickly. Not there yet but pretty close.

The 'buffalo" skin - really thick- will take a while to get there. The surfie drummers have good upper body strength and he put a lot of pressure on the thick skin. The ropes really sing!!
Anyway it sounds very flat.
It will eventually sound great.

Do you tension those strings by hand?

And I imagine there'd be a fair bit of retensioning as they settle in with playing?

Lookin' good Scally.

You are right Dadovfor, it will take several tightenings to get the duns up to tune.

Hand tightening is fine for the first time , just to take the slack out of the ropes.

Then you need more power.

Some use a stick and wrap one vertical around it. Twist and pull. Then move to the next.

A lever makes the job quicker and easier.


We usually trim the hair and make a bald patch in the middle to improve the sound.

We made a few new stands for the duns.

Three stick make good light weight stands.
The tops fit under the ropes and the top ring. Rope bind the three legs under the drum.

A friend added a bit more decoration.


Work stopped for a couple of hours so we could play at a local market.

Then kept playing.

I made a few videos of the making of the dunduns.

Maybe someone will find the useful/interesting.

Putting the cow skins on the biggest dundun, Dununba
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDBaXthyf7w]YouTube - Dundun Skinning[/ame]

Sangban skinning
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvZke7Y9Zg&feature=channel]YouTube - Dundun Sangban drum Skinning[/ame]

Kenkeni skinning with drumming from a workshop with Lamine Sonko
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYNGGcjAAXI&feature=channel]YouTube - Kenkeni Skinning[/ame]

Now things get worse
This is how I flatten the drum rim with an oversized sanding disk in a big electric drill
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0QHvSog81I&feature=channel]YouTube - Djembe Rim flattening with a Jumbo Sanding Disk[/ame]

Smoothing the drum rim with the Festool fine sander
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU3NYxGtdkw&feature=channel]YouTube - Djembe Rim Shaping[/ame]

Enjoy

The slideshow shows from sawn boards right through to the completed drums

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoSnJam7Hs"]YouTube- Dundun Building[/ame]