Late in 2017, I was invited to go see a friend of mine play in a string band. While she was there playing her violin a thought came to mind: “It sure would be fun to try to design a drum that sounds great and look awesome on stage…” Months later in March of 2018 I came up with the first prototype for shape. This was a protoype for shape only and trying to figure out the proportions of the stave. I won’t go into the details since this construction methodology does not apply to the Djembao.
The shape design had a couple restraints that had to be met:
- 14″ drum head
- 32″ tall (80cm)
- Hourglass shape
So after designing many curves this was the one that looked best on paper.
I chose to build the prototype by laminating staves to shape. This is the laminating jig
This is one of the staves being laminated
Once all the staves were lamainated the the width profile is cut into them. Wider on the top, skinnier on the bottom.
Then the staves are glued together.
And a drum is born. This was months later in August of 2018. This was a very heavy drum so I decided to skin it like a djembe to see what it would sound like. Not bad…
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