TocaSFDMX-12BM Freestyle Black Mamba Mechanically Tuned 12-Inch Djembe

When you're out at a local park practicing your drumming, you want an instrument that is durable and light while still decent sounding. Yes, there are artisan djembes crafted in Africa by generational and traditional makers. Those instruments are more for concerts or professional gigs. The Toca djembe is your go anywhere care free drum. That said, the drum plays very nicely and produces clean sharp tones with a deep bass. The 10" size is perfect for players of any size. I'm 6'1 and this drum is comfortable for me. Bigger drums do have deeper richer tones, but this drum meets my amateur percussionist needs. My children also comfortably play this drum. You can also play it sideways and tone bend like a darabuka for some extra fun. The synthetic shell and skin make this drum louder than you might think. Definitely, this is a drum that needs to be played outside or in a large room. If you are looking for a low-cost or travel djembe, this one is a great choice.

I'm no expert of djembe, but this one's fun to play. This one is quite bassy and the "snare" hits around the rim pop pretty well. Someone that's better at djembe could really kick some a$$ on this. I have fun with it. Did I mention that it's bassy?

I've been playing djembe for over 20 years. Long story short I have bad sciatica and I don't want to rehead any more rope tuned djembes. So I got this thing both to have something to play and for an example to copy to upgrade my rope tuned drums to mechanical.Anyway, I'm stoked on this thing, it cranks. I can't believe how good it sounds. Worth it. Hope this helps someone decide. I'll come back and add a video. 🤙

The price on this drum has been fluctuating wildly in the weeks prior to when I purchased it. Saw it as high as $119, grabbed one when they were $58, have seen them at various prices between those 2 figures. Have had it for 3 days and I can't stop playing the thing. Already have numerous hand drums (congas, bongos, cajon bongo, udu, cajon, mini bongos and a darbuka which is similar to a djembe) and I have to say that this is a damn good drum, maybe not as sonically impressive as the 12" or 14" models in this drum series but still a nice drum. Alot heavier than I expected, considering it has a synthetic body. The build seems solid, like it might actually survive several years of hard playing. The kente "cloth" is in reality more like tactile wallpaper wrapped around the shell but it looks good and between it and the weight it'd be hard to tell that it's mostly plastic if you didn't know better. Sits level. Hardware seems adequate even though the lugs look like they might've come off of a chain link fence. I found it easy to tune but Toca includes no instructions on how to tune this particular drum; loosen then hand-tighten all nuts then tighten each nut one quarter turn of the wrench at a time (go around the drum clockwise) till you get the open tone you like; I cranked mine up fairly high, nine quarter turns of the supplied wrench right after pulling it out of the box, and I've cranked it up to twelve quarter turns since then and it handles the tension just fine, and this allows for a wide variety of pitch (to me it sounds best cranked up 6 or 7 quarter turns). Much of the little instruction booklet concerns itself with how to tune the rope version of this drum; glad I didn't get that, the mechanical tuning is hard to find on a relatively inexpensive drum and a real strong point. The sound is quite good; I was expecting bigger and lower sound than my darbuka and the Toca delivered the goods here (the darbuka is smaller but is made of aluminum, also an impressive drum for the money, Schalloch, 8 inch head, $39). Excellent bass with few overtones, ok open tones (a little tricky because of the small size but managable) and nice slaps (which are easy). A bit of a ring to it but controllable and you can fine tune alot of the ring out. Should be loud enough for drum circles, if that's your kind of thing, not deafening but good volume. All in all a pretty decent goatskin head. Easy to play between the knees or across your lap, well balanced, easy to control even during hard play. Wanted a good djembe for my arsenal and I got one worth way more than what I paid, 5 stars if you get it cheap like I did, 3 stars if it's closer to $100 (c'mon, Toca let's see a nice deal again, I have some friends watchin' who are ready to buy).

Nice sound, great price.

Bought it for my wife. She loves it. Great base, tones, and slaps and stays in tune. Perfect for solo or drum circles.

It is mostly orange, where I was expecting more blue/purple. They will accept returns, but you have to pay shipping. Really disappointed. Poor images. Not even Close to purple. Poor Description. fine drum, but the color is Wrong! They should call it yellow/orange with some blue purple. Not at all accurate. Really bummed with this one. Purchased one last year that I loved. This one I Never would have purchased based on what I have now seen. Large seam also very visible.

I've been surprised at how many tones and sounds I can get out of this particular djembe. For the price, it's got a very nice range. I use this to accompany acoustic guitarists and with that range, I can play most anything and it sounds like a natural complement to what they're doing on guitar.