Re-heading a Djembe

A little while ago, the head on my djembe split and I decided that I’d try to fit a new skin myself to save money and learn a new skill.  Here’s a quick guide – with photos – to the process of re-heading (or re-skinning) a djembe.  I am indebted to Percussivity for this guide which I loosely followed.  The photos are available as a set on Flickr.

Firstly, the new skin needs to be soaked for 24 hours to make sure it’s supple.  This explains the towel that you see in most of the photos.  First photo is the headless djembe with the two metal rings and cord that will be used to attach the head.  Around the bottom you can see the lower ring with loops through which the cord will be threaded

The wet skin is placed on top of the drum – as you can see, it should be a fair amount larger than the top of the drum’s body.

The plain metal ring is placed over the skin and (this is not photographed) the skin is folded back up over the ring.

Next, the other ring – the one with the fabric loops – is placed over the folded skin.  At this point, you might want to secure the two rings by tying string between the top and bottom loops.

Begin threading the cord through the loops at the top and bottom of the drum’s body, here you can see how the cord should be threaded:

And here you can see where I made a mistake for a couple of loops:

Eventually, you’ll have threaded the cord right around the djembe, begin tightening the cord until it’s as tight as you can get it

Then weave the remaining cord around the djembe

and you finally have a completely re-headed (or re-skinned) djembe.

Over the following couple of days, the skin will dry and settle, keep tightening it as it does.  Percussivity’s guide then shows you how you can use the remaining cord to further tighten the skin.