Vintage Dholak Drum 2 Sides Indian Shesham Wood String Tuning 1980's Rajasthan
Thanks for looking
If you're reading this then you'll already know exactly what you're looking at.
Indian wedding season is almost upon us so it's a great time to learn or replace your existing Dholak drum.
This example was brought to the UK from India in the early 1980's. It's made from the traditional Shesham wood with goat drum skins on either side. The body has been hand carved from a single piece of the tree trunk - quite heavy and very, very solid!
Tuning is done via a series of adjustable ropes and loops - I'm not a Dholak expert so you'll have to play around with these until you get the precise tones you want. I did check on YouTube and there are loads of tutorials and guides on how to learn to play these - with some practice it's a really fun instrument to learn!
Nb - the Dholak in the photos is the one that you'll recieve. As you can see it's still in outstanding condition despite being over forty years old. The previous guardian obviously understood the value in looking after such a rare and precious instrument
As it's a Hindu (Brahman) instrument used for many religious ceremonies no animals we're killed for its construction. They recycle the skins once the animal has lead a happy life and dies naturally. The rope extends as a shoulder strap so you can walk whilst playing if you plan on using this for a wedding parade
Pricing This has been difficult. These are now mass produced in a factory by robots so you can pick up a new one for as little as £50. However, I've done some research on this and the older models are far, far more expensive - mainly because of the type of wood used. The modern ones are made from cultivated, genetically modified, fast growing trees (Apologies but it varies which tree types they use so I can't be specific) - so the factories can knock out more drums much more quickly and make higher profits.
Because of this fast growth the trees have much less dense wood. The Shesham tree is very, very slow growing - like mahogany. It can take a century before the tree is the right size and ready to be used for Dholak drums (personally, I'm glad they've started farming the trees rather than cutting down these old beauties - leave them alone!).
The depth and resonance of the tone is completely directed by the density of the wood. These old ones sound much, much better than the modern equivalents. Whilst I'm glad they no longer chop down these old, magnificent trees I definitely think its worth preserving and looking after the few older models left. There's a really good video on YouTube with compares new ones against oler models - definitely worth a watch. They're like two different instruments!
Feel free to ask any questions
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Peace & Good luck!