The RAV Drum VAST - The Steel Tongue Drum Strikes Back

It’s been a little while since we’ve done a post on a Steel Tongue Drum.  While beautiful instruments within their own right, within Handpan-circles, Steel Tongue Drum have always been somewhat regarded as “stepping-stone” instruments, being similar in many ways to a Handpan, and being much easier (particularly historically speaking) to acquire, than a genuine pan.  A sort of “make do”, until you could get your hands on the real thing.  And now that Handpan have become considerably easier to get your hands on, with the recent influx of new makers, the Steel Tongue Drum has in recent times taken a back-seat within our interests.  

However, with the emergence of a couple of newly published videos featuring the multi-instrumentalist Handpan aficionado, Nadishana, the Steel Tongue Drum is now very much back on our radar…



We’ve been following the development of the RAV drum (built by Andrey Remyannikov) for a while now over at Handpan.org, where it has received considerable interest, and praise, with many seeming to consider it (due to the RAV’s patented technology that allows for the tuning of up to six harmonics per tongue) to be among the STD (such an unfortunate acronym) with a sound closest to the Handpan.  But it wasn’t until we heard the newer “Vast” model of RAV drum, under the hands of players like Nadishana (and Kabecao) that we really sat up, and paid attention…



Like what you hear?  Find them for sale over at the RAV ETSY store: HERE.
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