Cranberry Red
Seafoam Green
Cobalt Blue
Temoku (Brown)
Sky Blue
Mottled Yellow
Peacock Green
Turquoise

Here's how I stretch the heads on

Each set of hardware costs about $30 if you want to do it yourself, and a head can cost as much as $15 if you buy it from the wrong source. "U"-bolts and turnbuckles are the order of the day, topped off with a rope tightened around which tends to draw the head into the negative space under the bowl rim. Getting the right tension on the still-wet head is simply a matter of experience. After that, getting a nice clean cut along the excess head can be a bit agonizing.

I can easily re-head your brokedown dumbek, as long as the original drum maker left the upper rim of the bowl unglazed. My fee for re-heading is $25, and you pay UPS shipping both ways, probably less than $15 for that. You should box up your drum, making darned sure it will travel well, and pay UPS for delivery here. I will charge your Visa/Mastercard/Discover for the re-head fee, as well as the UPS return trip cost. If you don't have a credit/debit card, email and we'll talk! Before you ship it though, submerge it in a bucket of water to take the old head off. If this technique does not get the old head and glue off, I won't be able to mount a fresh head on it!

My Thoughts on Other Ways to stretch your Head

The Hole in a Board method: This is a method recommended to me years ago, while I was still lacing heads on with rawhide lace. This method involves getting a large square of plywood and cutting a hole in it to allow the drum bowl to slip through. The soaked goatskin is stapled around this hole (underside), and the drum is stuck up through the hole, while the plank is either weighted down or drawn down with turnbuckles. The shortcoming with this procedure is that the excess head-material will be drawn outwards from the bowl instead of being allowed to lay flat against the outer perimeter of the bowl-rim, especially if the glue-area on the bowl rim extends under the negative space of the bowl. Still, you can get a "good lay" if there is enough excess head material above the board to allow a rope to twist around under the rim. This is a potential method if you are just doing one drum, but there are too many draw-backs for production work.

Lacing: No one cuts long rawhide lace these days, you have to do it yourself. When I saw "long", I mean more than the 36" circles you can buy from Tandy. If you use short laces, you will end up with many knots that are difficult to work over/under other laces as you tighten the whole thing up. If you have a knack for it, the lacing method can add to the aesthetic look of your drum. Used along with glue, the lace method will help to restrict any creeping that the drum head may experience. Creeping can be caused by the glue softening then re-hardening, such as if you leave your drum in a hot hot car, or allow the drum to get wet. Anything that affects the glue will affect the tension on the head.