Frame Drums

The frame drum is one of the oldest percussion archetypes in human music: a circular wooden shell wider than it is deep, a single tensioned head, and a player who shapes pitch and tone with finger pressure, palm strikes, and finger rolls. From the Anatolian bendir to the Sufi daf, the Brazilian pandeiro, and the Arabic riq, frame drums anchor ritual, folk, and classical traditions across the Mediterranean, Middle East, and beyond. Tapadum’s Frame Drum collection brings together five tuning families — built around the Anatolian bendir tradition and extended with modern tuning systems developed in our İzmir percussion workshop.

Two acoustic decisions shape every frame drum we build: shell material and head. Shells are turned from walnut for warm low end with strong sustain, or from lighter hardwoods chosen for projection. Heads come in colored goat skin — humidity-responsive, expressive across dynamics, and the traditional Anatolian voice — or synthetic membrane, stable across climates for outdoor and touring use. Frame diameters in our current range span 45–46 cm, sized for the deep doum at the centre and the articulate finger rolls along the edge.

Our Frame Drum family covers five tuning formats, each designed for a specific playing context:

• Internal Tuning Frame Drums — the heart of our current range. A special hoop set between the walnut frame and the goat skin tunes with a hex key, giving fine-grained, repeatable, stage-ready pitch control.
• Air Tuning Drums — a bicycle-inner-tube chamber between frame and skin, adjustable by hand pump for quick tuning shifts on stage or in changing humidity.
• External Tuning Drums — tuning hardware mounted outside the frame, wrench-driven, giving touring percussionists fast access without unmounting the head.
• Shaman Drums — single-head ritual drums grounded in shamanic and ceremonial traditions, often used alongside Sound Healing Instruments for therapeutic and meditative practice.
• 3-Mode Frame Drums — a Tapadum-designed innovation that combines Air Tuning, Cymbal Regulation, and Snare functions in one shell, letting a single drum cover three rhythmic voices.

Every Tapadum frame drum is hand-shaped, hand-tensioned, and sound-tested in our İzmir, Turkey workshop. Several of our Internal Tuning bendirs are handcrafted by Sertan Sarioglu (Mitre) — the Istanbul-based luthier who leads our String Instruments department and brings the same precision he applies to lavta and guitar work into his frame drum craft. Our percussion specialist Gurkan Ozkan curates this collection alongside the workshop team. If you are exploring the wider frame drum family, browse our Persian Daf — the Sufi ritual frame drum with metal jingles — or our Riq, the Arabic tambourine, alongside our Darbuka goblet drums and the full Percussions collection.

Every Tapadum frame drum is inspected at our Brisighella, Italy showroom before shipping. Free Shipping & 15-day return apply across the EU. Reach out — our percussion team will help you match shell, head, and tuning system to your style and traditions.