[batadunbata]

So my little djembe popped during an especially rainy winter. No it didn't go outside or get wet, but humidity was much higher than usual inside the house.

I was surprised, since skins generally pop when it's extremely hot and dry because they get tighter, and when it's humid they get looser.

Here's what I know:
-The skin had been tuned up a few months prior, so it was very tight. Not "too tight", but at the outer limit.
-The shell is Iroko, so it's "thick" for the diameter of the head, and the head is narrow (10"), so it's a lot of wood for the amount of skin.
-The skin is the soft supple kind (it's a Kambala djembe from Ivory Coast), it's not quite suede soft, but it's not stiff like skin from Mali.

Here's my theory, but I'm open to any ideas, I really don't know what happened.
I'm guessing the wood swelled up due to the humidity, which enlarged the diameter of the head, stretching the skin. The skin possibly stretched a bit with the humidity, but not as much as the wood expanded?

Here's the busted head:

DSC06544_r.JPG (192.17KiB)Viewed 2586 times

[the kid]

How were you storing the drum. I had drums go with sitting up over the years. some here didn't think the fact the drum standing was relevant but i was thinking it is due to different pressures inside the bowl compared to outside.