Tinka Tong - Tonque Drums, Log Drums

Made by hand with precision: Tinka Tongs from feeltone

Our tinka tongs are made exclusively from air-dried padouk wood - by far the best sounding wood. It is otherwise only used for orchestral marimbas and xylophones. The careful drying process ensures a long service life and playing pleasure. In this way, we as instrument makers also make our contribution to sustainability.

Our Tinka Tongs are the result of many hours of manual work and great attention to detail - from selecting the right wood to the perfect tuning of the instrument. We decide which piece of wood is suitable for the slit drums based on the grain and wood growth. Once the right material has been selected, the basic tunings are worked in. We then glue the lid onto the wooden body made of cherry with its sophisticated inner workings. Each reed is then pre-tuned and fine-tuned up to seven times. This is the only way the Tinka Tong can maintain its perfect tuning for as long as possible.

Tinka Tongs - the new small finger drums

The small Tinka Tongs were born out of the enthusiasm for finger drumming. When the fingers and hands dance on the sound tongues, the virtuosity and speed surpasses many listening and playing habits. Hand drummers love the interplay of the Tinka Tongs with all rather quiet instruments, such as frame drums, handpans, sansulas, monochords or tank drums. The small, precisely tuned tongues each represent a pentatonic scale. They are especially designed for the joy of playing of all intuitive drummers and musicians, as there are no "wrong" tones.

Tinka Tong Art - Harmony in design and sound

At feeltone you can get the "Tinka Tong Art" with 6 or 10 tongues in minor pentatonic. The curved and interwoven tongues create an artistic picture. The scales are not recognizable at first glance and therefore allow a completely intuitive approach to the tones. Choose between the small Tinka Tong with 6 notes in D minor and the large one with 10 notes in A minor. We supply the matching natural rubber mallets with every slit drum of this type.

Tinka Tong Elements - in harmony with nature

The "Tinka Tong Elements" with 6 tones is brand new - now also with a straight tongue cut and the easy-to-follow scale: playing alternately left and right. You can get them from feeltone in four tunings:

• Water - Aqua: A, D, F, G, A, D
• Earth - Terra: G, C, E, F, G, C
• Air - Aria: A, C, E, A, B, C
• Fire - Ignis: G, B, D, G, A, B

Like our Koshis, the Tinka Tongs are also assigned to the four elements: Water, Earth, Air and Fire. These tunings are currently available in a cheerful major pentatonic in 432 Hz. The range will be expanded in 2024 so that alternatives in 440 Hz will also be available. The Tinka Tongs can be played excellently together with the Koshis, the Zenco Elements and the Sansula Elements. With all four Elements tunings you can excellently influence the atmosphere and create completely new melodies alone or in a group.

Play Tinka Tongs intuitively - rediscover sound again and again

There are a variety of playing techniques that you can try out at will:

• with different mallets in various sizes - mainly made of natural rubber: this also makes fast rolls and tremolos possible.
• with your hands or fingers - professionals also play with their fingernails as in Persia
• held by the finger hole on the underside: played with one hand in dance or movement with mallets or fingers

Put together your very own ensemble of small, medium, large and giant slit drums and experience a gamelan-like drum sound that encompasses all sound levels and enables completely new sound experiences. True to feeltone's motto: Feel the sound!

Are you enthusiastic about our Tinka Tongs and would like to find out more about our specially developed instruments and sound furniture? Then browse the feeltone online store or visit our YouTube channel. We are also happy to provide you with personal advice.