Djembe Repair - Roping & Tuning (Visual Tutorial)

The last in my series of Djembe repair posts involves the roping and tuning of the drum after having placed a new head. Again, my post really acts as a supplement to the instructions for roping and tuning found at Hawk Dancing. I am happy with the results.

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ROPING (not the Gyptian type)
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I used a section of Dacron rope wrapped around three times and secured with a slipknot for my base "hoop". If you chose to do this, make sure you can fit two fingers comfortably between the ropes and the drum body. This will ensure there is enough room for stringing the verticals.

Next I strung the verticals using another long section of Dacron rope. You are dealing with a lot of rope during this process, make sure it doesn't knot into itself. I worked from the top hoop down and back up again all of the way around the drum. I found it very helpful to sting "anchor ropes" between the bottom and top hoops to keep the head even while I worked my way around with the verticals. These anchors were made using sections of the old rope then removed and tossed aside as I was ready to string new rope in each section.

While stringing the verticals, the head begins to pull down a little and you may get some gathers around the skin hoop. I simply pulled the skin to smooth these out as I saw them.

After stringing the veticles by hand the top of the drum looked like this.

Using a thick wooden dowel, I tightened each vertical section with as much force as I could muster. There are other rope pulling tools for drums available if you want to make this easier on yourself. Since this was a fairly small drum, hand pulling worked decently enough.

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TUNING
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I will try to explain the easiest way I have found to create tuning diamonds on a Djembe.

Start by drawing the end of your rope under two vertical ropes. Will we call them A and B. They look something like this.

Next, using one hand, pull A over B and draw the end of the rope up between them.

You can now pull the rope through to create one section of tuning. It looks like this once the rope is pulled taunt. If it doesn't look like this, try again. You will get into a rhythm of making these as you work around the drum.

When you reach the end, you will be confronted by the last vertical which consisted of a one rope A and a two rope B. Treat this just as you have when making tuning diamonds before. Draw the end of the rope under A and B. Pull A over B and then guide the end of the rope through.

Finish the rope down to the base hoop in the way that makes most sense to you, yet is still pliable enough to re-tune later if you need to.

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FINISHING
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I wanted to create a more substantial handle that my drum had before. In order to do this I used a size 15 crotchet needle and just worked a very simple single chain stitch.

It's basically done by making a loop under the head of the needle as a starting point then repeating this: wrap a new loop under the head, lift the old loop over the head.

After a while, it looks like this. It makes a sturdy strap for carrying the drum.

When all of the roping and tuning if finished, pull the goat skin down over the head and wrap with a bandage overnight. Leave it somewhere where it won't be disturbed.

The next morning, remove the bandage. Your drum head will look something like this.

Simply trim off the excess skin from the head and you are left with a rather handsome drum. From what I understand, once you have completely re-headed your drum you will need to play it for about a week and add a tuning diamond or two if needed.

Djembe Repair - Goat Skin Head Replacement (Visual Tutorial)

Huzzah! Yesterday both my new drum rope and goatskin head arrived. The head was purchased through Sinclair City Market and the rope was purchased through Radioware . Both places shipped quickly and had very friendly customer service. It may seem odd that I purchased my rope from Radioware, but they offered the best price on a small order of 1/8 inch Double Braid Dacron Rope. I ended up spending about $5 plus shipping on 50 feet of rope as opposed to ordering 100 feet (minimum order) from a drum shop for about $25 plus shipping.

I started by making 14 hoop knots using the instructions at Hawk Dancing. Their method works very well. "Over the ring, through the loop, under the ring, through the loop." Please see their site for some other helpful pictures. A lot of my djembe tutorial photos are a supplement to that guide.

The 15th hoop knot looks very confusing, but is simple once you get it. For this step, the new knot is basically cradled in between the strings of the old. Hawk Dancing has a few photos describing this. Those photos perplexed me a bit, but I found it helpful just to think "Over the ring, through the LOOPS, under the ring, through the LOOPS."

Be patient, it will take a few tries to make the final locking knots.

The fully knotted top hoop looks like this.

I then soaked the goatskin in room temperature water for an hour.

I would suggest leaving for a while and coming back to work on this instead of watching over it or continuously checking the skin to see if it is ready yet.

Lay the wet skin out on some cardboard.
It looks like a very moist tortilla right now.
Don't make a wrap though, that would be foul.

Hawk Dancing suggests piercing the skin while it is laying flat on the cardboard in order to create holes to run a cord through.

I found it MUCH easier to just pinch the skin inbetween my fingers and snip it carefully to make about 1/4 inch long slits.

The approximate placement of those slits are indicated by the numbers on the picture above. You may make more if you feel the need to.

Once all the slits have been made and the skin is laying hair side up, center the metal hoop on the skin.

You can now begin to thread a cord through the slits. Follow an "out, in, out, in" pattern.

I used the old cord from my drum for this step since I didn't want to waste a section of the sturdy new Dacrop rope.

When you have threaded the cord all the way around, carefully pull the cord tight to gather the skin around the metal hoop.

Make sure the metal hoop stays centered while you do this in order to prevent later frustration with the skin.

Now place the skin onto the top of your drum body.

Carefully place the top hoop over the skin. When you do this, make sure your knots are on the outside edge of the hoop.

Flatten any areas where the skin has folded or puckered under the top hoop.


Note: In my next post I will cover the process for roping and tuning the djembe.