Posted by Keith Kropf on November 28, 19100 at 21:31:28:
In Reply to: used pans needed for teen program posted by robert weinberger on November 28, 19100 at 19:42:56:
I understand your need for inexpensive pans, but I would not recomend trying to build and tune your own. Pan building is harder than it looks, and tuning is a million times harder than it looks.
Cliff Alexis told me, when I first started building pans, "Everyone that plays a pan thinks they can build one. No one that plays a violin thinks they can build one!!!" This is a pretty accurate statement.
There are a lot of used pans around, especially in NY. You should be able to find a school that has some pans - but they will probably need to be tuned. Also, quality varies a lot. You need to hear the pans before you buy them - and you should try to find a band with decent instruments to compare them to.
If you can find someone with instruments built by Ellie Mannette, or by the University Tuning Project, you should listen to them before you buy anything. Don't expect to find anything that sounds close to them for very cheap though.
Hope that you find some, call if I can help you.
Keith Kropf
K2 Steel Pans
phone 561-429-2272