Featuring Fine Hand Crafted West African Musical Instruments
Djembes I import djembes from Mali that are hand carved from traditional woods by skilled artists. I hand carve my domestic djembes from North American woods primarily western red cedar, Alaskan yellow cedar, and some local cherry. (Red and Yellow cedar is highly prized by instrument makers for it’s excellent resonant properties and light weight.) They are headed with the best available African goat and strung with 5mm |
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| Dacron yacht braid. Rings are 5/16” cold rolled steel rod custom formed to each shell to ensure uniform tension and long head life. All of my djembes have a deep strong bass, rich full tone, and a clean sharp slap. |
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DounounMandinka Magic's dounouns are stave constructed with pieces care fully selected for beauty, strength, and resonant properties and then bound with a brass strip. I always include 40-70% recycled material in each shell, as it is |
| the best source of high quality old growth wood. Shells are cedar, pine, Douglas fir, Honduras mahogany or hard maple. Heads are #5-#6 hand cleaned local cow or steer in natural translucent. 3/8” steel rings and the same low stretch Dacron yacht braid make for great tension control resulting in a powerful sound and lasting durability of 10 + years from these heads. Machine processed natural or bleached heads are also available. |