Tuning, Heads & Care

How to tune a darbuka, change its head, fix buzzes and rattles, and keep it sounding its best for years.

134 questions answered · 2 guides

My guides

Synthetic, fish skin or goat skin: how each one sounds, what fits what, and which head belongs on your drum.

How to find and measure your head size, inches against centimetres, and what to do if you order the wrong one.

Changing a head on a bolt-tuned darbuka: the star pattern, seating it evenly, not tearing it, and breaking it in.

Glued and roped skins on clay drums: replacing them, and looking after natural skin in dry, humid or pest-prone homes.

How tight to tune, which key and which pattern, what note to aim for, and what to do with stuck or wandering bolts.

Tuning and re-heading Remo Festival and pretuned ceramic doumbeks — and what to do when the tuning key goes missing.

Dead, buzzing, rattling or ringing? How to find what’s wrong, and what to do about dents, holes and split skins.

What heat, cold and damp do to a darbuka, heat-tuning natural skin safely, and why a cold drum needs to warm up first.

Cleaning the head, aluminium, copper, clay and mother-of-pearl — and the upkeep that keeps a drum right for years.

Rusted and stripped bolts, loose rings, dents, cracked ceramic and aluminium, and inlay that has fallen off.

How to store a darbuka, whether to slacken the head, flying with it, shipping it, and playing outdoors.