14 Inches 15 Notes HOPWELL Steel Tongue Drum

Oh my goodness, this thing is "absolutely beautiful". First of all I purchased the 14 inch, 15 note in D major steel tongue drum. The pictures don't do it justice but I tried to get as many shots so you could see everything. It was packaged good and secure inside of the black case that it came with. Also be aware if you purchase this for a gift, make sure you have them send it in another box because the heavy cardboard box it comes packaged securely in also has the name of the company and what the item is on the outside of the box. If it was a gift for anybody it would ruin the surprise lol. First of all the case is made wonderful. Excellent padding and zipper is secure. There is a little zipper pocket on the outside of the package to tuck your mallets inside of also. This case will keep the drum very safe and protected. It really is made excellent. It comes with a pair of rubber mallets that are just your basic mallet. They work fine now they do the job that they were meant to do. They measure 8 inches from the end of the mallet to the top part of the rubber Ball. The rubber ball is about 3/4 in diameter. I did buy me a nicer set where the rubber mallet is 1 inch in diameter, and they have longer handles. I'm going to use the mallets that came with the tongue drum and wrap them in felt to give a bit of a different sound to the drum. Anyway, it comes with two sets of gold number stickers to replace any of the stickers that may fall off. The stickers are okay on the drum, it would be so much nicer if they could just figure out a way to engrave the numbers onto the metal but naturally that would make the price go up more, these will work for now. It comes with 6 little finger mallets and a nice little music/instruction booklet to get you started. The drum itself is GORGEOUS! It feels nice and heavy duty. I weighed mine and according to my scale it weighed 8.5 lbs. When I weighed it it wasn't inside of its case either. I measured my drum across where it bows out slightly and my measurement was 14.5 inches. The rattan weave around the drum is really nice and not just cheap string looking stuff. It is about 2 1/4 in wide and it is secured around the drum. It's not something you can loosen or make tighter. It really adds A touch of elegance to the drum. The drum itself that I purchased is a deep dark metallic forest green. It's not just flat paint either, there is a metallic sheen to it and you can see it when the light hits at a certain way. It's hard to capture it in the photos but I tried. The stickers on top of the drum are okay but since I'm an arts and craft type of gal, I will either make cool looking ones with my cricut machine or else I will just paint them on with some acrylic paint. The sound of the drum is absolutely stunning. I downloaded the app "pano tuner" from play store (that is not a misspell that's how the app is spelled it's not piano LOL), and I tested all the tongues with that app and my drum is tuned perfectly! There is not a dead sounding tongue anywhere on the drum I received. Each tongue rings beautifully and in tune. About a week ago I randomly stumbled upon these tongue drums but the one I stumbled upon was called a panda drum. Beautiful with lots of colors to choose from but they have a very high price to them. The size I was looking at was a 15 inch and they had them on sale for $259. They said they were $150 off and on sale. That's a little high for my pocketbook so I started researching Amazon and after many hours of researching Amazon this Hopwell had the highest reviews and the best reviews. I decided to take a chance and purchase this one. If all else fails I could have sent it back if it didn't meet my expectations. Well, I'm not sending it back I'm keeping it. It went well beyond my expectations and this green color is deep and rich and it's just a beautiful piece of art as well as an instrument. I very highly recommend this. I would definitely purchase it again and recommend it to anyone. This is the brand to get. I have always loved drums. When I stumbled upon these things called steel tongue drums last week, I knew I had to have one lol. You're never too old, I'm 64 and I thought to myself, I need one of these in my life, lol. So glad I made this purchase. This is going to be so fun not to mention give me some calmness and balance in my life LOL. Go for it, you know you want to, lol. You won't be disappointed!

Bought this as a gift for friend. Good gift value. She loves it. It is blue and beautiful. The tone is good. She is learning. It is durable and heavy enough to carry and not fall apart ever. I'd recommend. It also comes with everything you need. You should order the book however. We don't see a way to tune it.

This is such a beautiful instrument, both to look at and the way it sounds. It is the first drum of this type I have had and when I first received it I was struggling a bit with some of the smaller tongues and could not get a decent sound out of them. Rather than just think that it was the fault of the drum, I decided to just ask the manufacturer about it. As I suspected, but had not been able to confirm otherwise, it is perfectly normal for the smallest tongues to not have the same resonance as the larger tongues. The manufacturer actually gave me some tips on getting better sound out of them that worked perfectly. So if you haven't had one of these drums before either, don't immediately blame the drum for any dull notes you may get on the smaller tongues - it is perfectly normal (and actually makes sense from a physics perspective) for them to not have the same resonance. You need to strike them closer to the root/base of the tongue and with a little more controlled and directed force to get the best tone. This drum is simply soothing, and I have to actually set myself a time limit for playing on it because it is so comforting that I could sit and noodle on this thing all day lol.

My first steele drum. VERY happy with it. Don't use the finger things. Those never seemed to work right. Just felt weird. But the sticks work great. Sound is beautiful. I down graded one star because two of the small tongues usually do not sound out well. Even with hitting them at different angles or varying force... they rarely ring out well. And I've been using it for over a month and they consistently sound off. But... all said and done... its fun and beautiful. I just dont use those to notes often. I love to use this for 10 minutes or so before bed. AND it is absolutely beautiful displayed as decor in your home. And if you leave it where guests can see and use it, its a lovely conversation starter and entertainment for guests to play with too.

The Hopewell Steel Tongue Drum in the color blue is very nice! It almost looks black in my living room, minus the camera flash! Easy to play for beginners and the sound is pleasant. The included carrying case for the tongue drum is of incredible quality. Great Christmas or birthday gift and a good price!

Very melodious and soothing, would recommend to instrument lovers. It has a music book to help you learn some tunes and has a heavy duty carrying case. It's a little heavy, but that doesn't really matter, since usually drums are heavy. The sticks were nice and have rubber tips on the ends of them. Definitely buy if you are wanting a soothing, addicting instrument. I was amazed the moment I started playing it. It would be a great gift for someone, but just to warn you, it has the name of the company and what it is on the box it comes in. Thank you Hopwell!!

Beautiful sounds - looks great - 15 notes - resonablely priced… - comes with instructions - not as easy as you think to play songs - like anything - you need to practice and stay with it…that is my shortcomings - i want it to be instant and it does not work that way…helps me relax and work on my discipline…I have hopes to play this with my granddaughter whom I sent one to so we can learn together….seems like q good relaxing hobby and reasonably priced and looks like professional quality…and so much I do not know about music…

Fast delivery and was well packaged. All items were as described. Excitedly checked out all the 15 notes and was pleased to find them correctly tuned, clear and sounds great. Highly recommended !

just such a delight playing on it !

It's very attractive and the sound is on point, everyone who sees it enjoys playing it.

Such good value for money. Beautiful tone and carry for each note played. Very soothing.

The drum is a delight. I love it. The song book has a nice selection of songs, but other than stating the musical note for each number, there's no key to explain what the various notations with the numbers mean. If anyone has worked that out, please let me know!