Restoring a Djembe

 Having acquired a Djembe with a split head, I went about learning how to replace it.

Get a good look at the way the ropes are organised - take a photo then unstring two-thirds of it.

I discovered that Female Goat Vellum is better as it does not smell as much! You need a lot of extra size for the overlaps at the edges. You align the spine across the middle of the drum as it is thickest with the shoulders nearest you as a player (use the knot on the ropes to identify the playing position). The Vellum has the smooth side out and the veiny side inside.

Smooth with fine sandpaper lightly and prepare the wood - especially with attention to the playing edges.

Shea Butter is rubbed into the wood to condition and seal it against the damp head.

The head is soaked for an hour in warm water then draped over the drum.

The metal hoop - which I covered and glued (fabric glue at start and end) with spare cotton strips, is placed over the head and the head flipped up to make a 'pie crust'.

The top hoop is fitted over then and evenly pushed down

Using a damp towel to hold it in place, I then started to loosely restring the ropes to hold it in place.

Some pressure is needed to keep it even. With the towel, it can be placed flat on the floor. 

The final ropes going in and squeezing the head down

Tightening and getting the slack out

A soft rubber mallet ensures the ring is seated and moving properly - a light tap on the rope knots all the way around.

Further slack is taken out with a twisted drum stick

The head is ready to leave to dry

The edge is trimmed and bound with fabric strips to help it to dry neatly 

After drying overnight, locking pliers help to get the slack out and being tuning, using the drum stick to add tension to the ropes.

The end of the rope is knotted off and the excess used to go around and under each pair of ropes to lock and tighten them horizontally. At this point, low patches can be brought into tune with extra horizontal passes of the rope.

The rope is wound around the bottom of the drum and lightly tied off to allow future tuning.

Evaluating this drum, the head is nice and pingy but I used a very light vellum that sounds more like a Darabuka. Next time, I will use a thinker skin with the fur on. I will shave and lightly sand it as the last step. This should give a more traditional West African sound.

This video gives us an idea about the work that goes into a traditional Djembe.

This is one of the useful videos that helped me. I like the use of the adjustable wrench and gloves.

You get a really good view of how to 'lock' the ropes when running around with the first tuning pass in this video.