Pandeiro - Purchase advice

Tips and information to keep in mind when buying a pandeiro: head, jingles, tuning... All you should know before buy your instrument.

It is not easy to find the perfect pandeiro for your needs! You have the choice between pandeiros with simple plastic heads and frames, pandeiros with wooden frames and goatskin heads or plastic heads, and last but not least - handmade high end pandeiros. Many experienced pandeiristas have a large collection of good pandeiros and are still looking for the perfect one. 

Goatskin or synthetic head?

Sound, musical focussing, weight and visual appearance are the criteria to decide between a natural goatskin head or a synthetic head. This decision more or less results into perfectly different instruments with a different sound and playing technique.

Natural skin

- Pandeiros with natural skins are light weighted and therefore perfect for beginners.

- A thick skin can be tuned extremely low. This tuning is needed for funk grooves in the Marcos Suzano style or for all other grooves that require bassdrum similiar basses.

- A pandeiro with a goatskin head is also required in Choro, Capoeira and many other musical styles that require a soft and warm sound.

Synthetic head

- Pandeiros with synthetic heads are usually heavier. The heads are tuned higher, which requires a stronger and therefore heavier frame and more tuning hooks.

- Synthetic heads are usually made out of several layers. Often the transparent surface is underlayed with a holographic foil for visual purpases. The sound of synthetic heads is very dry. The slaps sound sharp, the opens like a short "blob". This type of pandeiros is played in Samba and Pagode.

- Some pandeiros are also played with single-layered heads which supply together with really "dirty" sounding jingles the typical sound for Coco and Embolada.

Which jingles?

The sound of the jingles is influenced by many factors: the material they are made of, do they have a damping lamella or not, are they machine cut or made by hand, - but also the size of the jingle cut-out in the frame influences the sound. The sound characteristics are so diverse as are the demands of the musicians. In order to find "your" sound, you need to try them out or listen to our sound files.

Which tuning rim?

Pandeiros have either rounded tuning rings or flat rings. The most common are the round rims since they are more comfortable for your hands than the sharp edged flat rims, which on the other hand make the pandeiro lighter.

Source: Kalango