how to build a tenor pan

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Build a Tenor Pan The massive amount of skill, hard work, and experience to produce a playable steel pan can be rewarding. Professional-quality steel pans are created by artisans that use their own hands with a few tools; a professional pan builder should take at least 50 hours to make one. This skill is rare one in which I'm blessed in knowing. Different pan builders use different technique; one may use a regular hammer, and the other an air hammer. It will be hard to explain without someone showing you exactly what to do; pan building is very visual. The steps are described simply here, but many of them require hard work, a sharp eye, a lot of time, and a reasonable amount of knowledge on physics. That is what makes this a rare commodity that started in Trinidad. Also, creating a pan requires the use of specific hammers of various sizes, shapes, and material; some other tools are needed but mainly hammers.
 Even though the first steel pan was made out of bamboo, not just any old 55-gallon steel barrel will do. Depending on the type of pan you want to make, you will select a certain barrel. Low pans such as guitar and bass will require a thinner metal. A tenor pan needs thick steel because you need to sink it eight inches unlike the four inches for a cello. It doesn't have to be new just suitable for the type of pan you would like to create. Only the bottom end will be used, but the skirt will be cut according to the pan you would like to build. Tenor pans have the shortest skirt and bass pans have the longest skirts. Once you have found your pan use paint thinner to get the paint off and sand off any blemishes in the steel. You need to make sure there is no dust or else you will ruin your pan by hammering tiny dents. The sand dents are extremely hard to fix and will ruin your pan before you put any actual effort into it. The first steel pans were

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