I was a complete shamanic drum snob until I heard the Buffalo Remo drum many years ago and with my work as a shamanic and sound healer practitioner and as someone who works outside at festivals using my drum in most of my treatments, my hide drums are only great as long as the sun is out and it is warm otherwise forget it! So I was really pleased to finally get me this Buffalo drum. it is fab, has a lovely deep voice, is lightweight enough to drum for a long time, well made, and has nice gold string for the handle. Delivery was good, I buy a lot from Thomaan because normally everything goes really well and they are reasonable with their prices.