Skip to main content

Tambourine Upgrade

I have kept an old $14 tambourine around so that my students can see and hear the difference between this and a quality Grover or Black Swamp brand. Last month the head split which gave me the opportunity to experiment with some ideas that I've had for sometime.
  1. Modify the tambourine to install 'captive' jingle pins.
  2. Install a used head.
When installing a replacement head you use a skin that is at least 2" larger than the diameter of the shell (12" skin for a 10" tambourine). Since I had an 11 1/8" skin that was removed from another 10" tambourine this gave me the chance to experiment.
I removed the pins and stamped steel jingles. inverted the tambourine in a warm water bath to loosen the old glue and removed the split head. I then removed all of the residual glue from the shell with a stiff nylon brush and began soaking the replacement head. 

Since the top of the shell was now softened from the soaking, it was an easy job of drilling the pin hole from the bottom through the top. Most tambourines use a 16 gauge pin so I used 16 ga. finish nails for the replacement pins. These nails have a 'T' shaped top so I could counter sink them into the top of the shell. I had some copper and German silver jingles that I made (see 'Making Tambourine Jingles') to replace the stamped steel jingles.
After allowing the shell to completely dry, I put a coat of glue (Tite Bond) on the top and sides. The replacement head was removed from the water and rolled in a bath towel to remove the excess water. I centered the head as evenly as possible and used a 12" hose clamp to let  dry over night.

The head was trimmed before removing the clamp and 1/2" tape was used to finish the project.











The heading worked but I think it's safer to use the 'adding 2" formula' for optimum results. However the captive pins worked beautifully. The only way to lose pins or jingles would be if the shell were to break or the head removed.
It worked out so well that I'm going to have to buy a new $14 tambourine.













































Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tambourine Shell Repair

A broken tambourine shell usually means that a new tambourine purchase is necessary. This can be exciting: I like getting new instruments, or sad: Any instrument that is damaged is a terrible thing. All tambourine shells can break, from my famous $14 variety to top of the line brands like Grover and Black Swamp. It's easy to replace a tambourine head but broken shells/missing pins and jingles usually means an early grave for the instrument. My early attempts at these repairs were stopgap measures until a new one was found. Wood or 'super' glue used on the shell turned out to be poor choices. It wasn't until last year that I really focused on shell repair. It happened during a Canyon Winds rehearsal when one of our tambourines exploded, pins and jingles were flying everywhere. Yep, it was the Resident Gorilla playing it. The shell had cracked between three sets of jingles near the head of the tambourine. We eventually replaced this with a Black Swamp tambourine but I s...
2 comments
Read more

The Practice Pad

The practice pad has long been a staple for the drummer. After a pair of sticks it usually was the next thing purchased. Or in the case for my brother and I, a DIY project by our father. It could be as simple as a square of linoleum nailed on a board to the double sided models that produce various amounts of rebound.  There are many reasons for using a practice pad. I'll start with the obvious: Practical: Compared to a real drum, they are cheap. They are fairly quiet, you can play them without annoying a sleeping parent or a neighbor in an adjoining apartment. They are portable, they can be taken on a family vacation where space is at a premium. Musical: Usually they provide more rebound than a drum head, which helps in developing single strokes but especially rolls. Articulation: The sound of each stroke is cleaner giving the player important feedback on the precision of their playing. Developing positional accuracy: Drawing a circle the size of a quarter on the pad provides a ...
2 comments
Read more

Muffet is gone

Sadly she just curled and died. One day she was on her web and the next she was on the window sill. She got rid of a massive amount of flying nasties in her life time, but she also provided a lot of education for us. Filling the coffee pot, washing dishes, or just sitting in the kitchen we would always look for her in the different areas of her web.  I think I'll put an ad on our 'Neighborhood' app. Position open: Fly exterminator provide your own web must not bite.
3 comments
Read more