Featuring Tuned to Scale Tongue Drums Handcrafted by Steve Roberts

How We Make Tongue Drums

The construction of the tongue drums is a complex and precise process. Steve Roberts directs and performs the construction of our products. Steve has over 20 years of experience as a cabinet maker, and is also an avid musician.  Combining the attention to detail learned in cabinetry and his sensitivity and musical training, Steve makes some of the finest tongue drums available. 

Steve painstakingly pores through stacks of domestic and exotic hardwoods to find the best combination of materials that will yield the best qualities and tonality for the perfect tongue drum.

Planing is a process we use to ensure the exact dimensions of the material.

The next step is precisely measuring and cutting the wood into component shapes.

From there the tongue drums begin to take shape. The parts are laid out and tested for proper fit.

The gluing process involves the application of modern resins combined with uniformly tensioned clamps. This process guarantees an acoustically perfect instrument as well as one which will last.

After the resins set, the drum receives an initial sanding.

Not until all this is done are the keys finally cut and the tuning process can begin. This may be the most important step in determining the quality of sound in the instrument. This is where Steve utilizes his musical experience and skills. The musical scales are selected and each note is tuned by ear to piano and refined using a frequency counter and other electronic means.

The drum is given a final sanding and then finished with multiple coats of gloss polyurethane.