You must have heard the soothing sounds of the Caribbean-native steel drums, and you think that getting one will serve your interests better. Well, you’re right. Owning a steel drum brings home an exceptional percussion experience to musical gurus and newbies alike. Moreover, the steel drum is a perfect and cost-effective alternative to the hang drum — which has always rocked the music industry — but faces the major problem of being expensive.
However, enthusiasts find it hard to fight the uphill battle of choosing the best steel drum from the myriads of available models in the market. That’s where this review of the top 10 best steel drums in 2020 comes in. The review contains a list of ten tried-and-tested steel drums that have all you need for cutting-edge sound experience, leave alone durability and more. Without further ado, let’s delve into the list right below.
List of Best Steel Drums in 2020
Table of Contents
#10. MTC Steel Tongue Drum
You get only perfect pitches with the MTC steel tongues drum. The hand-tuned drum comes from a group of percussion experts, and they can never be wrong. Its ethereal sounds need not an experience to explore; just follow the heart and get your musical pleasure without a hitch. Use the drum for stage performance, yoga practices, self-entertainment, and other worthwhile reasons.
Note sticks are included on the drum to make it more intuitive for the beginners. Use the included mallets or your bare hands to play the drum, whichever suits you the best. The user manual that accompanies the drum helps budding drummers achieve faster learning.
- It comes with a carry bag for easy playing
- Size: 12 by 12 by 7 inches
- Four finger picks are included in the package
- Weight: 13 kilograms
- Number of notes: 13
#9. IPHUNGO Steel Tongue Drum
The sweet-sounding IPHUNGO steel tongue drum is also long-lasting and highly resistant to heat and corrosion. It’s made of a steel-titanium alloy that features a frosted surface to enhance its resistance to scratch. If you need to calm down your emotions, this is the go-to drum for a wide range of sweet sounds that also have the potential to offer you spiritual healing.
IPHUNGO features the standard C major tones with 11 notes. Its silicone base resists shock and sliding, giving you a stable performance. You have multiple options for playing this drum, including by hand, using mallets, or using finger sleeves. Use the included music book as a newbie to learn more about playing the drum perfectly.
- It comes with six finger picks, a pair of drum mallets, and a user guide
- Weight: 5.3 lbs
- Diameter: 10 inches
- Notes: 11
- A travel bag for easy storage and transportation is included
#8. The Bbrand Steel Drum
Here’s a perfect gift idea for music-loving kids and adults—professional and experienced artisans tool time to handcraft the drum for the best musical experience with ethereal sounds. The huge range of music scores from the 13 notes can help you achieve zen, perform before an audience, entertain yourself, sharpen your skills, and do more.
The pure sounds from this drum are sure to help you achieve inner peace while purifying your soul and mind. Its high-grade steel-titanium alloy material lasts long while maintaining its beauty. The drum’s surface features a silvery appearance that blends will your home decor. Use drum sticks or fingerpicks to play the drum.
- A pair of drum sticks and six finger picks are included
- Diameter: 11 inches
- It features 13 C-type notes
- The drum ships in a beautiful and comfortable carrying bag
- Material: top-grade steel-titanium alloy
#7. ASTEMAN Steel Hand Drum
If you plan to have a colourful event in which you need to show your drumming prowess, get this steel tongue drum and take it with you to the event. Its 9 D-minor notes will produce all the sweet sounds that you need for healing, yoga, music classes, and other constructive purposes.
Beginners aren’t left out. There’s a pair of mallets to help them play better sounds and learn faster. The drum is made by experienced music enthusiasts, who have combined efforts to ensure that the tones are perfect. The nitrogen stainless steel material used to make this drum shall never fail you when it comes to durability, resistance to scratch, and beauty.
- The drum ships alongside a pair of mallets and a carry bag
- Notes: 9 (D-minor)
- Material: nitrogen stainless steel
- Diameter: 21.9 inches
- Color: gold
#6. Panyard Steel Drum Kit
If you’re looking for an intuitive steel drum for your children and or newbies, it’s wiser to consider the Panyard Steel drum. Apart from on-drum marked notes, a songbook also ships with the percussion instrument to further enhance learning skills. The award-listed steel drum is made in the USA by the popular Panyard manufacturers.
Recommended for 3+ year-olds and above, the drum is an interactive type with multiple guides for the newbies and experts. The collapsible stand helps you set the drum to a desirable height. Leverage the beginners’ guide and interactive songbook for faster learning.
- It features 8 G notes
- The drum comes packed in a sturdy and durable carrying case
- Diameter: 18 inches
- It’s made of the chrome steel
- Weight: 6.58 pounds
#5. The AKLOT Steel Tongue Drum
Whether you need it for yoga meditation, children’s education, religious purposes, or other reasons, the AKLOT steel tongue drum is a fail-proof choice. The titanium alloy material makes the drum quite resistant to heat, scratches, corrosion, and other adverse effects. It’s the ideal drum for stable timbre, ethereal & melodic sounds, and durability.
A music book ships with this drum. It’s meant to help newbies learn how to play the drum in no time. To achieve stability, the drum features rubber feet that enhance a slip-free grip on the floor or tabletop. Its price is highly affordable so that your pocket isn’t strained much. Get more information about the drum below.
- It comes with six finger picks, a carrying bag, and a pair of drum mallets
- Weight: 5.43 pounds
- The drum has 11 C notes
- Diameter: 10 inches
- Material: titanium alloy
#4. Moukey Steel Tongue Drum
This steel tongue drum from the Moukey store has accurate tones that suit myriads of activities. It features eleven D major tones that have a wide range of applications. Use the drum for religious purposes, music education, event performances, and other crucial occasions. Beginners will find it easy to play the drum in tones that heal and entertain.
The drum’s silicone feet are shock and skid-proof. Therefore you’ll get a stable interaction with it. Its closed bottom makes the drum more melodious and louder in terms of the quality and quantity of sound produced. Moukey is made of high-grade steel material that’s hard to crack, scratch, or get old.
- It has a diameter of 10 inches
- Weight: 5.5 pounds
- Notes: 11
- It comes with a carrying bag and a pair of mallets
- The silicone feet make it stable
#3. Asmuse Steel Tongue Drum
Improve your physical and mental health while achieving calmness as you play the intuitive Asmuse steel drum. The elegant drum is a windfall percussion ensemble with godsend melodies. The beautiful drum has all you need from a top-notch drum for the best percussion experience.
Use the available tones to achieve an eventful sound for meditation, psychological therapy, education, performance, and other events. The Asmuse steel tongue drum is also a perfect gift idea for friends and relatives who love music. Its price is quite cost-effective for everyone.
- Diameter: 9.25 inches
- It weighs 4.88 lbs
- It features eight tongues made into the C major scale
- The sturdy nylon travel bag makes transportation and storage seamless
- It comes with a pair of drum mallets
#2. LOMUTY Steel Tongue Drum
This beautifully-coloured steel tongue drum from LOMUTY decorates your room with a sandalwood appearance. Its surface is corrosion-resistant, which assures you of beauty in the long run. Use the expert-endorsed tunes to achieve sweet tones for various events. The mallets, fingerpicks, and songbook (written in English) will help newbies get a better learning experience.
Experts have handcrafted the LOMUTY steel tongue drum with a lot of keenness and knowledge to achieve cutting-edge tones. The drum will sit stably on your table or floor surface during playing, given the silicone feet that grip the surface firmly. Its modest size gives an ample play surface for starters and experts alike.
- It weighs 7.7 lbs
- The drum has a diameter of 12 inches
- It comes with a set of finger picks, a pair of mallets, and a carry bag
- Notes: 11 C-type notes
- It’s made of a steel-titanium alloy material
#1. The Rakumi Steel Tongue Drum
Rakumi is a 13-nite lotus drum that’s handmade by expert and professional craftsmen. The 13 sounds are of the C-major type. Use its quality sounds for spiritual healing, meditation, entertainment, performance and other reasons it can serve better. Use your hands, fingerpicks, or drum mallets to play the steel drum. For newbies, the mallets work best since playing the drums using your fingers demands better knowledge and experience.
The Rakumi steel drum has silicone feet that make it stable on whichever the surface it rests. Its Loftus flower tongue design gives the drum a beautiful look that compliments your home decor. Learning how to play the drum is simple, especially with a guide from the included English music book. Enjoy an affordable price, and 30-day money-back guarantee when you purchase the original drum from Amazon.
- It comes with a travel bag, two pairs of finger sleeves, & two drumsticks
- Diameter: 12 inches
- Notes: 13
- It’s made of a top-notch stainless steel material
- Weight: 5 pounds
- Thickness: 7 inches
Steel Drums Buying Guide
Size: There is a huge variety of steel drum sizes to go by, and my list includes various sizes, too. Drum size affects the volume, pitch, and other variables. Your choice of one also depends on the space that you have available for storing it. Nevertheless, steel drums don’t seem to differ much in their sizes, and that’s evident on the sides that we’ve included on our list above. The choice is yours.
Notes: More notes imply better timbre and more melody; hence, a better experience. We’ve listed steel drums with notes ranging from 8 to 13 to give you a variety of sound qualities to go by, and you’re free to choose any of them. Experts have a better idea of how notes affect the sound of a drum, and they’ll use this to their advantage. Let’s take a look at other factors that influence your choice of the best steel drum below.
The Material Type: While you may expect them to be made of only steel, these drums are made of a variety of materials and alloys. While the main material remains to be the steel, the additional materials are there to improve the drum’s sound qualities, durability, beauty, and other attributes. Ensure that your choice includes the qualities listed — and more. Meanwhile, a few examples of the materials on our list above include nitrogen steel, stainless steel, steel-titanium alloy, and more.
The Adjuncts: Steel drums will need accompaniments to be complete. Mallets, carry bags, fingerpicks, stands, and other accessories are necessary to make the drums complete. Most steel drums will come with this additional stuff, while a few of them won’t include all the essential things. We made choices of the drums that are accompanied by the essential adjuncts, not only to save your wallet but also give you an easy time finding the right ones.
Customer Feedbacks: It helps to consider what users of the same steel drum that you are considering to purchase have to say after having an experience with it. Ideally, user feedbacks have a better insight into the real qualities of a commodity than the manufacturer’s description. So be sure to peek at the customer reviews posted on various online platforms before you settle on a specific drum. Luckily, we also had this in mind while making our list of the best steel drums above.
Conclusion
In summary, shopping for the best steel drum is unachievable until you meet such a review to guide you through the factors and options worth considering. So whether you need one for recreation, education, entertainment, or any other purpose, your ideal steel drum is on our list. Better still, you have a buying guide to take you through the tough options in the rare case that you miss your type on the list. It’s a win-win for you. Enjoy yourself!
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