Long overdue a post on HandPans Magazine, ‘Idiopan’, at time of writing, seems to be the name on the lips of all interested in steel tongue drum. Growing around them a vocal fan-base or admirers as they have, that few other STD’s (such an unfortunate acronym :p ) have (as yet) managed to achieve.
Built by one ‘Bret Hutchinson’, Idiopan, are polished in look. And, word is (though I haven’t yet played one myself), that Bret’s Idiopan are (if you’re looking for such a quality) about as close to a (decent-sounding) HandPan as you’re likely to find, in terms of purity of tone. And offer ‘unlimited’ scale retuning options (if you’re willing to invest the time to manually have a fiddle). With the only known trade-off over other well-known steel tongue drum, being that the Idiopan is said to be somewhat gentler, in terms of volume.
Priced at around the $350-$500 mark. Idiopan, are available in a number of scales (custom, or otherwise). With the Idiopan website stating that ‘Any scale with notes between C3 and C5 can be recreated on the Idiopan’. And while the website appears to be (at time of writing) something of a work-in-progress (maybe due to the fact that word-of-mouth seems to have already earned the Idiopan a growing waiting list) you can still find contact information on the site, should you be interested in purchasing an Idiopan.
The Idiopan Website * The Idiopan YouTube Channel
Built by one ‘Bret Hutchinson’, Idiopan, are polished in look. And, word is (though I haven’t yet played one myself), that Bret’s Idiopan are (if you’re looking for such a quality) about as close to a (decent-sounding) HandPan as you’re likely to find, in terms of purity of tone. And offer ‘unlimited’ scale retuning options (if you’re willing to invest the time to manually have a fiddle). With the only known trade-off over other well-known steel tongue drum, being that the Idiopan is said to be somewhat gentler, in terms of volume.
Priced at around the $350-$500 mark. Idiopan, are available in a number of scales (custom, or otherwise). With the Idiopan website stating that ‘Any scale with notes between C3 and C5 can be recreated on the Idiopan’. And while the website appears to be (at time of writing) something of a work-in-progress (maybe due to the fact that word-of-mouth seems to have already earned the Idiopan a growing waiting list) you can still find contact information on the site, should you be interested in purchasing an Idiopan.
The Idiopan Website * The Idiopan YouTube Channel
