Any steel Pans for sale?

Subject: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: GUEST,Sam Pirt
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 03:52 PM

Hi All

I need to purchase a set of steel pans any ideas who and where to get them?

I am in the UK so any ideas which makers I should go for and how much I should be paying?

Do you know of any second hand sets for sale?

Cheers, Sam

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 04:02 PM

Try this
Giok

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: Kaleea
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:26 PM

Nifty! I was fortunate enough to attend two universities, both of which had a steel drum band as part of the percussion dept. I just love those steel drums. One of the few good things to come out of WWII--steel drums.

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:39 PM

Good Point Kaleea, not much good came out of WWII, the frogs would be a little more humble if they were speaking German today.

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Dec 05 - 07:57 PM

My son-in-law grew up playing them at school in Antigua. Actually played the THE Queen one time. (
Correction: that would be FOR the Queen, etc.)
There was a family from Florida which performed in WY one year. It was fabulous; they played every kind of music one could think of on those drums.

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 03:42 AM

Sam try here

http://www.knockonwood.co.uk/instruments_results.asp?CategoryID=129

Frank

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 09:15 AM

Prestige do a wonderful range of steel pans from milk pans, casseroles, saucepans etc etc

Oh isn't this what you want ;-)

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 11:11 AM

Some general information for anybody interested in playing the steel drum - two years ago I went to a party where a woman was playing the steel drum. This woman was a music teacher by trade, and she was competent on many instruments. She said that the steel drum was the hardest to play, because there is no connection between the location of a note on the drum head note and its pitch. She seemed to find it quite a strain, actually.

So before anybody spends a lot of money on a steel drum, they should try it out for a few days to see if they can master that challenge.

It might be an advantage if you had never played an instrument before.

BTW, is that what they are always called across the pond, "steel pan"? When I saw the thread title, I thought it would be about cooking.

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 02:43 PM

I'd love to get one for my grandson's, but even the tabletop smaller ones are a bit expensive. I love the sounds of them.

Sam, you could play anything well. I hope you'll share a sound file or two when you do get some and start to play.

Subject: RE: Any steel Pans for sale?
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 03:37 PM

leeneia,

I believe that Trinidadians and other West Indians call these instruments "pan". But in the USA most people call them "steel drums".

For those who don't know what the heck we're talking about here's an excerpt from Steel Drums

"The Steel Drum, or Pan, is a unique instrument, and one of the most recently invented. It is a skillfully hammered 55-gallon oil drum which has been carefully tuned to produce tones. The Steel Drum carries the full chromatic range of notes, and can produce just about any type of music you can think of!

Brief History of the Origins of Pan
During British Colonial rule of Trinidad in the 1800's, hand drums were used as a call for neighbourhood gangs to collect and 'mash up' with the other gangs. Hoping to curb the violence, the government outlawed hand drums in 1886.

Deprived of the drums, the Trinidadians turned to the 'Bamboo Tamboo', where each member of the group would carry a length of bamboo and pound it on the ground as the group walked through the streets, producing distinctive rhythmic 'signatures' which identified each gang. (The word "Tamboo" is from the French "tambeau", or "drum".) When two gangs met on a march, they would pull out the machetes they had hidden inside the long bamboo poles, which solved none of the violence problems.

Soon, the government outlawed the bamboo bands as well. Deprived of all traditional rhythmic instruments, the Trinis took any objects they could find, including garbage can lids, old car parts, and empty oil barrels (from the Navy bases on the island). They used these instruments to form the Iron Bands, which marched down the streets playing the same distinctive rhythms. These impromptu parades were called Iron Band.

Somebody discovered that a dented section of barrel head produced a tone. Winston "Spree" Simon is generally credited with being the first person to put a note on a steel drum. Originally the pans were convex, like a dome rather than a dish. Ellie Manette, a pan-maker still active in the US today, was the first to dish out a pan and give the steel drum its mature form. Many tuners began experimenting with and producing tuned 'pans', eventually forming large groups of the neighborhood panmen into orchestrated bands..."

-snip-

Click that link for more info.