Rope Tuning System for Hoop Drums

I had almost stopped producing hoop drums, always cutting lacing, and, over time lacing dries and becomes brittle. I love the sound of a light weight skin on a ceramic hoop though! It booms and whispers. While doing a repair on an antique East Indian battle drum, I learned this technique of lacing to the edge of a thin skin. It is similar to lacing a dun dun head on with out the use of metal rings.

Folded under the flap of skin on the edge is a length of rope. The pulling ropes puncture through both layers at each rope lope, catching the circumference rope between the skin. A light weight skin lacing sews the circumference rope in place using the same holes (plus one hole in between each pair of pulling ropes). What this means is the ability to grab a thin skin and pull it tightly without tearing! The use of rope allows you to retension the head should it stretch. It may seam simple but it makes a hand laced goat skin hoop practical and tunable. With the popularizing of tars and bodhrans as hand drums, this system knocks cheap mechanical tuning systems out of the water! Try the sound of our Stoneware Ceramic Hoop drums for hand playing and you'll never go back to wood!

This makes my hoop drums a bit more time consuming to build, but the results are worth it!