any information on where these are made?

echofuzz wrote:any information on where these are made?

We'll ask!

The holidays seem to be a great time for breaking out the musical instruments - what do you all think of that guitar?

The gathering drum looks like fun!




Five-star reviews on Amazon, and only $86.63

I have the Chimalong XR. As a musician, I chose it for my kids because it's got a really gorgeous tone, as opposed to most of the unpleasant or unpitched sounds marketed as "musical instruments" for the small crowd. Woodstock makes high-end wind chimes, and this is basically a bunch of wind chime tubes that you can play with mallets. The sound is resonant and pure. Their customer service is great too; I got picky about some kind of imperfection creating a slight "wow-wow" in the pitch of the lowest tube; I talked to a real person and they mailed me a new one.

Their own demo video has such bad audio that you can't get a good sense of the tone (http://youtu.be/pLmj9ZHqH3A), but this action shot is better: http://youtu.be/Lgp9IfDfHbg

miken927 wrote:The gathering drum looks like fun!

That's a huge drum! Gather all ye babies!

echofuzz wrote:any information on where these are made?

They are made in China.

Found some mixed reviews of the individual components:

Accordion

Ukelele

Mini Chimalong

We don't have the Remo Gathering Drum, but we have the Remo Djembe from the same series and my son, three years old, loves it. It's very well made and sounds surprisingly good. This big drum is tempting.

The occupational therapist (for children) at Kaiser has the gathering drum. It's a high quality drum and it really sounds fantastic. My daughter didn't really care to drum on it, but I sure did! Totally sounds like something headhunters would be playing as they're lighting the fire below the spit that you're tied to. I seriously want it. Don't think I'll be able to talk my wife into getting it, though, especially since she bought me a snare cajon drum for Christmas. Honestly, though, that gathering drum has been on my mind for the past couple of years. I actually just thought about it this past week, even. Maybe, I can convince my wife that it'll be good for our daughter.

I found this drum cheaper on eBay, by the way, AND with free shipping. And even cheaper than that at American Music Supply (also with free shipping): http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-REM-KD582201-LIST?src=Y0802G00SRCHCAPN&gclid=CJSH_87tqrQCFcN_Qgod2zAA6g

Also, the picture may be wrong for this drum. It looks like the 22" has a scalloped bottom side, as seen here on Amazon (for $86 and change, no less...): http://www.amazon.com/Remo-Kids-Gathering-Drum-KD-5822-01/dp/B00000IS02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356070965&sr=8-1&keywords=remo+gathering+drum

The picture here might be for the 16" version, or perhaps an older version? The ones on ebay for $94.99 show the scalloped bottom, but the one for $92.99 shows the bottom like Woots and it has the same part number as the scalloped ones.

My son played with almost all of these at his 2 y/o music classes at Gymboree. They all sounded quite nice (drums & chimes particularly). They also get major durability points for surviving countless toddlers jamming away. Good buy.

The "View this product video to see a demo" links all seem to point to a lightsaber flashlight battle.

The highlights for us would be the ukulele, acordion and the chimes. But over the years I have learned that even preschoolers can tell a cheap instrument from a good one - if you have the money consider going up one notch in quality. Maybe only buy one good instument than a box full of toys. Our preschooler has a blast with her large chime - it is one of the larger ones that this company makes.