do you know something about this?

[quintino]

hallo all,

a few weeks ago I bought this pair of tablas :



they were dirty, and I had plenty of time work with them. Does anybody here ( may be some oldschoolers ) knows something about this kind ?

[tablafreak]

Im not sure what your asking. Personally ive never seen a tabla set like this. It looks like the straps and shells have been painted (not sure why they would paint the straps, as I would assume the paint would weaken them). What did the seller tell you about them?

[quintino]

Your right, to some extent,I will explain
the straps were made from colored leather, and they are softer than the normal indian style ones. The pudis were full of patina. The Dayan Pudi was open. I reheaded the pudi. At this the original string disrupted, it was to brittle. For the overall picture I decided to take new common indian strings and patinated them after the first tune. The Bayan was let, because the pudi was ok.
This was the condition after first cleaning of Bayan

The bayan pudi has only basic patina on the photo and is in good condition. The leather of the strings was very dry , also a bit brittle, I gave it a special mixture and after 1 month leather was saturated. Now it was possible to place the little blocks and get into tune.
The shell colour on this Photo is more the real colour. In reality they are not as pink as you see on first photo.

[tablafreak]

Im still not sure what you are asking.

[quintino]

maybe
someone has seen something comparable, in which country, how old are they, however, its an open question. I am interested in history, I suppose these are pretty old ones.

[deep]

Where did you buy these?

Someone has gotten very creative with his/her tabla set but I don't think anyone makes traditional tabla sets this way.

Well, as long as they play like tabla & not sound like "Djembe"!

[tablafreak]

If you are thinking these are antiques and are actually worth something then no they are not. By your description of the straps, I can deduce that this was probably soem tourist junk. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[david]

Dear Brothers and Sisters.

This tabla is very typical of tablas which are (or at least were) made in the Punjab region; but I cannot say whether these were made in India or Pakistan. Since today there is more of a tendency for Indian Punjabi tabla makers to adopt a more "standard" approach to the crafting of instruments, I would say that there is a SLIGHT probability that they were made somewhere in Pakistan. However even if they were made in Pakistan I am not saying that it has to be the Pakistan Punjab. I am only saying that the style is Punjabi.

Are their any markings on the shells?

David Courtney

[quintino]

Dear David,
first of all, thank you for the possibility to get a step out of confusion by aid of your vids and your book "Learning the tabla", which I bought here in Hamburg in a local music store.

I am impressed about your proficient and elaborated answer according my question. This is very helpful for all.
Now what I can say furthermore about this unusual pair is this :
There are no written marks on the shells. The bayan shell is not metal or clay it is made of wood.
The dayan is made from red gleaming wood and lightweighted,because it is nearly entire skimed . The mark of the collet chuck identifies an old english turning lace (this was told to me from a wood turner. Unfortunally the reheading was finished, so he was not able to tell me something about the woodkind). The outer shape is more cylindric, and 2 inch higher than my other 5 inch dayan. The upper brim is carefully rounded to the outside, much more than I have seen at other shells.
The pudi is now a standard 5 1/2 bombay style, noname, with a little blue premium quality chop inside, my teacher choose carefully in the fourth shop after we visited 3 shops in 5 hours, out of a plastic bag filled with a lot of pudis in different sizes.
The sound of the set is interesting (no, deep, not like a djembeh ).
Dayan is on "d" like my neem - wood dayan. It resonates more in the mids, than the neem wood one. The tet sounds warm, and has another sustain. Fast play ( as fast as I can as a beginner) causes a little melting of the bols, not disturbing, but different. All in all I would say "The sound is not so dry, as the common ones".
The Bayan produce a Ga sound like "BOUUu ". My brass shell Dayan does it like "BOOMMm.

I bought this pair from an Afghan. He told me, they are from a friends dead father. I forgot to ask wether he know when they came to Germany.
Today I met an Afghan Harmonium Player, he told me that he remembered this kind of tablas from his childhood in Kabul.

According to David´s appraisement , I would assume that they came from Punjab to Afghanistan, from where they were brought to "I don´t know" and at least to Germany.

[zennman]

From the description of your dayan, I'd venture it is indeed a Pakistani tabla. I have a similar tall, fully bored, light weight dayan, whose lip is a bit curved towards the outside. My dayan is not painted, and is not even varnished. I was told it was made in Karachi. I have never seen a wodden bayan before, but I understand what you mean by the bouu sound versus the boomm sound.

Best.
Z

[quintino]

Hallo zennman,
thats nice, do you have a photo of your dayan, maybe you can post it.
I have found this on Wikipedia:

The bāyāñ may be made of any of a number of materials. Brass is the most common, copper is more expensive, but generally held to be the best, while aluminum and steel are often found in inexpensive models. One sometimes finds that wood is used, especially in old bāyāñs from the Punjab. Clay is also used, although not favored for durability; these are generally found in the North-East region of Bengal.