Long awaited - finally arrived! The new ultra-light pandeiro by Georg, a German carpenter and pandeiro luthier, who lives in the mountainous state of Minas Gerais, where he builds ingenious sounding, top-quality and ultra-light pandeiros from fine woods. Selected hide heads, Brazilian Freijo wood with lively textures and handmade hardware - another top pandeiro in our artisan range.
Light, top quality, beautiful, fantastic sound - everything a pandeiro needs
Once again we are absolutely delighted! Every (rare) time we find an instrument maker like Georg, we are close to crying for joy. He combines everything that lifts a pandeiro player's heart. And the pandeiros are not at all unaffordable!
When we got our first batch of pandeiros from Georg in 2018, our eyes popped out of our heads. 2-coloured wooden frame, a tiny, smooth and ever so comfortable handle, handmade hardware - top notch! Then came the 9" Georg Pandeiro, a very attractive alternative for pandeiristas with smaller hands, as a travel pandeiro, for kids who already play well or musicians who want to add some variation to their 10" collection.
This time we feel we are already very spoiled by the great design of Georg's first pandeiro models and were accordingly extremely curious what Georg would send us - he did not disappoint us!
Freijo wood - an attractive wood choice for pandeiros
The pandeiro is made of Freijo wood, a wood native to Brazil, which is known for its exciting visual and colour characteristics. Freijo is relatively easy to work with, light to medium weight and is therefore a popular timber that is also nice to look at. The name is the icing on the cake - Freijo: free (Portuguese for brother) and jo like Jorge (Georg in Portuguese). Well, if that's no coincidence!
Musicians look at different things when buying a pandeiro
As a musician, you naturally have other things in mind than optics and puns, so here are a few impressions of the new Pandeiro Freijo:
The frame is light and softly rounded around the edges, the craftmanship is throughoutu extraordinary. Unlike the Imbuia wood model, the Freijo has no handle and no two-tone layers, so the design is simpler. But the Freijo is a tad lighter. The jingles are hand hammered from filigrane, gorgeous sounding brass sheet with insertation leaves and have a dry, elegant sound, which can be easily muffled by popping a thin sheet of paper or PET inbetween. Due to the high quality materials the sound is rich in nuances and therefore goes well with modern and traditional styles.
Georg has a good eye for great skins. Most of them are medium thick or thin on the edge to medium thick (so ideal!), but they all have something unique. These pandeiros are not generic industrially produced instruments! If you are interested in handmade pandeiros, you usually know that you're buying a unique instrument. None of them is a 100% like the other and each skin will develop its own individual sound characteristics during the break-in time.
Deep bass tones come out wonderfully on all Georg models, we recommend masking the skin from the inside with a paper or thin fabric tape to prevent the head from fluttering and to allow the skin to develop an even vibration level with high sound qualities even in the lower pitches.
Does a hand-made pandeiro have to be unaffordable?
Definitively no. There are quite a few brands around that offer high quality at absolutely competitive prices. We kept the best for last: Georg Pandeiros are absolutely high quality, but not unaffordable! Even if you are a beginner, a pandeiro in this size could be interesting for you - if you are serious about playing the pandeiro. Playing on light, good instruments is twice as much fun, a pandeiro like this you will have for a lifetime!