This is the 12" 13 note drum. Every note sounds good! Even the highest notes ring out clear if you learn their sweet spots. Many people would think that's the tip of the tongue (is that a pun?), but for the smaller tongues, it's often the lower part. You also need to practice your attack. Like the way you snap your wrist when throwing a Frisbee. You'll get the loudest sound when using the mallets, softer sound with the rubber finger tips, and even softer with bare hands.

This is the 5th drum I've owned, and the best sounding. I believe it's because it has been fine-tuned. Look closely at the pictures & you'll see that the ends of some of the slits that define the tongues are extended slightly by thinner cuts. This means the drums have been fine-tuned after the initial tongue cutting process. This equates to a drum that, being tuned precisely, sounds good! I've had other drums with awful sounding harmonics when 2 or more tongues are struck simultaneously.

I was pretty excited by the Harmonic Star 10", 11 note drum. Then I read the review here by Dism - May 4, 2022 and decided to buy this Rakumi. I bought them both, but will be returning the Harmonic Star. The Rakumi 12" sounds so much more alive!

I like the fact that magnets will stick to this drum so you can lower the pitch of tongues by sticking magnets to them. I only wish the hole in the bottom was larger to easier accommodate my hand.

I thought the stickers looked pretty tacky, but realized that the clear rectangular part can be peeled off, leaving the gold number! Just peel slowly, and parallel to the drum, not straight up.

I'm bothered by people who leave a 1 Star review because rubber feet or accessories are missing. Contact the seller. Contact Amazon. They will make it right.

I also see lots of complaints about dead notes. I wonder if people aren't taking the time to learn where the sweet spot of each tongue is.

Buy this drum! Enjoy it!

I purchased what looked like the best options of a few of these steel tongue drums, in these general sizes, from a few different brands so that I could compare and find the best one.

Here's what I found out:::

BeatRise, both the 13" and the 14" drums -have 'tinny' sound to them and both had dead notes
Berning&Lin 14" - sounded 'tinny', dead notes, and the weaving around the edges wasn't staying on.
SMAUTOP 14" -came the closest to keeping this one. Its sound was a bit better but still had dead notes. I was also impressed with all of the stuff that came with it. It's like they like their customers. ;)

Then I watched videos from people who know a bit more about this stuff and were making recommendations. I found out that bigger isn't necessarily better. You get more notes, but the shape and material differs from the smaller ones in a way that seems to make a real difference. I decided to sacrifice some notes and try a couple of 12" drums, from the list of recommendations.

I tried::
Harmonic Star Steel Tongue Drum 10" - it was really nice! the sound was sweet and if I hadn't tried the next one then I might've been happy with this one. It did have a little bit of a dead note, and was hard to get it to register well on the higher notes in general.

and then,
Rakumi,12" 'lotus' drum - This was the clear winner. And because it was the very last one I tried, I was sure glad I didn't give up or settle! The price wasn't too bad and totally worth it. It was the only one out of all of them that I tried that had ZERO dead notes. And it had the prettiest, fullest and most resonant tone. It also has a large cutout at the bottom so that you can get in there with magnets and tune it to another key. So basically, it's perfect. I'm honestly in love with it.

For anyone comparing the options and wondering, I hope this helps!

I actually bought this for myself, but my daughter loves instruments. She loves my gongs so I ended up sharing this too. Its way more peaceful to hear than her traditional drum, so there's that.

So far no issues, the case is helpful and practical for storing in the music closet.

I bought this for my Grandson who is Autistic. He is eight years old. It is so hard to find gift that he will end up using and liking. He was excited about it. It comes with a small lesson book with songs. I bought another book with songs that I knew he would recognize. He went right to it. We showed him one of the songs in the book. Then we noticed he was teaching himself the song by listening to the pitch. This purple one was for my Grand Daughters birthday. She was turning 5.My grandson could not bring his out without Sister all over him wanting to try it too. Great gift especially if your Autistic child is interested in music. But a good gift for anyone my Grand Daughter was enjoying it too

Nothing negative to say about the item but the delivery was a little odd. Got a big box with a smaller box inside. The inner box was addressed to someone else. Looks like someone returned the item. I can't complain, everything is clean and present and looks brand new. In a sense, it is good that items that are returned are not shunted in to some kind of junk bin. I've heard about that being a business in itself. Returned items that can't be put back on the shelf and sold at deep discounts to people buying them in lots. I don't know the best solution that doesn't entail a great deal of decision making and human resources.