Taopan Handpans
When choosing a handpan, the most important thing is to gain clarity about what suits your soul, your heart and your personal needs. Then the instrument will give you happiness and joy for a long time.
Contact us and let’s find out how we can work together to create something wonderful that best meets your personal expectations.
Which material do you prefer for a handpan?
Stainless steel
The stainless steel material is characterized by a wide, long reverberating sustain.
Handpans made from this material are ideal for meditative and contemplative play. Of course, you can also play a stainless steel handpan very fast and rhythmically – but the sound might then seem a bit “overloaded”.
All scales sound wonderful on this material, especially the low scales are very resonant.
Stainless steel is our personal preference.
Nitrided steel
Nitrided steel has good sustain and can be played both rhythmically and meditatively.
It is suitable for almost all scales and is very versatile in its playability.
You need to invest a little care in a nitrided handpan.
If you choose a scale lower than G2, it will usually sound better on stainless steel.
Different sizes of Taopan Handpans?
Our standard size measures 53cm in diameter. It has always proven its worth and is the most versatile size we know. It offers a great balance between versatility and portability.
We also offer 50cm diameter size. These handpans are a little smaller and have other options. For example, we can tune the note Bb4 on this size without impedance problems, which occur more frequently on 53cm handpans.
Another size is our Taopan Handpan Mini with a diameter of 46 cm. This is the perfect travel size. So if you’re a travel enthusiast who doesn’t want to leave your instrument at the check-in counter, this is just the right size for you. You can easily take the Handpan on the plane as hand luggage. Mini handpans are only a little more limited in the variety of possible scales.
Our handpans are all made in Germany.
Scales
You came to this site because you are interested in these beautiful sounds. Now you’re probably wondering how you should proceed to find the right instrument for you?
Ok, that’s not easy to answer. But it’s very easy to start figuring it out. 😉
Each person resonates with a different sound. The best way to find out what you really want is to listen to as many of our different Taopan videos as possible.
So just click on our channel and start your personal search:
We hope you enjoy listening to the different scales, materials from stainless steel to nitrided steel and more.
In search of a special and unique scale…
What is a Handpan Mutant?
From time to time, every dedicated handpan maker wants to leave the familiar structures of musical layouts and try out new things, discover new scales and possibilities.
Sometimes these experiments lead to instruments with a special layout that is completely different from what is widely considered “normal” in the handpan world.
These instruments are often called “mutants”. As a rule, they are more difficult to build and can push the manufacturer to the limits of what is possible.
Here you can find some examples of our Taopan Handpan mutants:
The story behind the materials we use…
I am more than grateful to him for that.
Zach and I had a vision. We longed to create our own manufacturing process (thermoforming) instead of just buying blanks from the usual suppliers.
Up to this point, we had already worked with several metal companies, so we knew what a large and expensive project our idea would be. Both in terms of money and time.
The aim was to develop our own unique sound. It was never about being “better than the others”, let alone inventing something new and original.
There was this time when we just wanted to break off and leave everything behind. It was so hard and frustrating, although sometimes joyful, but soon just another test of patience.
But we kept going and after many months of hard work, everything finally started to flow properly.
We were even able to deep-draw stainless steel blanks. We also found a way to produce another favorite material ourselves and to give it different sound characteristics.
Many resources went into this research work and in the end we find ourselves with a variety of sound models that meet the most diverse dreams of people.
Being able to offer this flexibility makes me very happy and I have learned a lot over the years, for which I am deeply grateful.
I would like to pay my greatest respect to all the other manufacturers in the world who have embarked on this journey of research, experimentation, trial and error. When you read these lines here, you may discover a smile of understanding on your face because you know what I’m talking about. It wasn’t about never buying blanks from other manufacturers again, I’m always open to new things. But after everything I’ve been through, I now know much better what I want and what I don’t want – and I never want to miss out on that again.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the pioneers in this art. Without them, this text would not be written here.
Thank you for reading,
Jan Tao
