Percussive bones made by Steve Brown, in various domestic and exotic woods - please let us choose one for you. Sold in pairs. Woods vary with each shipment and we are not able to guarantee availability - but if you have specific preferences, you can contact us to check stock before ordering, or add a note to the "Special Instructions" section of your order.
Domestic woods can include maple, walnut, ash, cherry and oak. Exotic woods can include mahogany, purpleheart, sapele, tigerwood, ipe, zebrawood and more.
Steve Brown has been making and playing bones since the early 1980s. He has been Executive Director of the Rhythm Bones Society for almost 20 years, and holds two All-Ireland titles. His bones are played by some of the best: Junior Davey, Mel Mercier, Tommy Hayes, James Yoshizawa, and Graham Hargrove.
Which wood should I get? Some thoughts from our manager Brennan Kuhns, maker of M.T. Pockets bones:
When considering the wood of rhythm bones, it’s important to remember the cut and playing style affects the tonal and rhythmic results just as much as the source species. With all other factors being even, the denser woods (rosewood, ebony, padauk, etc.) generally will bring a snappier, brighter strike tone, and less dense woods (maple, poplar, cherry, etc.) will have a slightly lower pitched tone.
In almost all cases, the perception of these differences is subjective, and a preferred tone for one player is not the same as another. The relative tone also loses significance when a single set is played in one hand, with no other rhythm bones for comparison or context, whereas two-handed players can either play matched sets or contrasting ones.
For beginners, it may be best to use a heavier wood, such as rosewood or oak. This allows your hand to feel the inertia while playing, reinforcing the motion of playing. In general, lighter woods, like pine and cedar, are more difficult to start playing on, although they can produce an intrinsically quieter and smoother tone.
Some makers, like Steve Brown, use a tapered profile, so that one end of the instrument is thinner than the other. The two thicker ends struck together yield a more robust tone, and the two thinner ends struck together a sharper click.
