How to change your jingles (platinelas)

Watch our montage-videos and read the additional information to successfully change your jingles.

In case of problems you are welcome to contact us.

How to change jingles on any pandeiro

How to change jingles on an HP pandeiro

How to mount a skin on a pandeiro

How to tape the skin on a pandeiro

How to measure the right slot size

How to take care of your instrument

Basic Procedure

In order to change your jingles you need very little knowledge or tools, it is a simple process. What you need is basically just a pair of thin pliers or a blunt blade of some kind. The process is as follows:

1. Remove the skin.
2. Take out the nail that holds the jingle.
3. Align all pieces of the new pair of jingle in your hand so that you see through the hole in the middle.
4. Place them in the slot and check that there is 1-1,5 mm of space between the jingle and the rim, before you insert the nail.
5. If there is adequate space for the jingle to move, push in the nail.
6. Make sure the nail is not sticking up, push it in until it is flush with the rim.
7. Put back the skin.

about 1 mm range for the jingle to move

Troubleshooting

Despite being a simple process there are some obstacles you might encounter. Here is a list of a few of them along with a possible solution.

1. There is no room to grip the nail. File down your pliers until they are thin enough or get smaller pliers. We use pliers that thin down towards the point. You can also try to wedge a thin, blunt kitchen knife in between the jingle and the rim and while pressing on the nail, try to move it upwards little by little. Or you can take a pointy knife and try to lift the nail from above.
2. The nail doesn‘t move. It might be glued or just stuck. Saw it off above the jingle with a hacksaw blade. Remove as many parts of the jingle as possible and pull out the lower part of the nail. You can get out the upper part either by tapping it with another nail from above or pushing it out from below, depending on whether it has a head or not. Be careful not to damage the rim. Replace the old nail with a new nail of the same lenght and diameter, or use our “jingle-friends“ instead (order via our website).
3. The nails are heavily worn out. Replace them with new ones of the same lenght and diameter, or better replace them with our “jingle-friends“ (order via our website)
4. The nails are bent. Replace them with new ones of the same lenght and diameter, or better replace them with our “jingle-friends“ (order via our website)
5. If the nails are a bit too loose you can drop some candle wax on top of the rim where the nail shows in order to secure it in place.
6. The jingles don‘t fit into the slot. Send them back to us and measure the height of the slot again more accurately. We will supply you with the right sized jingles.
7. The jingles have too much space to move. You can either send them back or insert our “damping dudes“ to reduce the space. You can order these special rubbers via our website.

Mounting advice of jingles

The HP jingles have been tried and tested in a variety of different settings and combinations. For the best results we recommend the following order of mounting them (applies to C, M, A and K series), from top to bottom:

C-series:   Brass - Middle - Bronze

M-series:   New Silver - Middle - Brass

A-series: Alu - Beer cap - Alu Middle - Brass middle - Beer Cap - Alu

K-series: Copper - Middle - Beer cap - Copper

The Little one we place on top of the jingles if it is necessary. Keep in mind that if your jingles have one mm or less of space without the Little one you don’t need to use it. These are only recommended orders, feel free to experiment with your own.

Taking care of your pandeiro

The skin does not need any treatment at all. With time and playing its sound will even improve. To ensure the longest life for your skin we recommend loosening it while not playing and keeping it out of direct sunlight or excessive humidity.

With time your jingles can change color due to oxidizing of the metals. This will not harm their sound, in fact, many old sets of jingles sound warm and smooth due to the natural aging process.

Please keep your instrument in its bag while not in use. This will protect it from weather influences and shocks. Be careful not to drop your pandeiro on the floor. This easily leads to damage of either the jingles or the wooden frame.

Tuning your pandeiro

The tuning of your pandeiro is a question of individual taste. With our specially selected skins you can use a low tuning as well as a high tuning. It is good to maintain an equal tension across the tuning lugs. This you achieve by tightening them in half turn steps, either crosswise or clockwise. Check the tension of the skin on each lug by tapping it close to the lug with your fingertip, trying to make the sounds equal in pitch.

A common practice to reduce overtones of the skin is to apply some tape to the inner side of it. This technique is mostly used on low tuned skins, giving them a bass drum character.

How to order your pandeiro or platinelas

To order, just click on the PayPal-button below the product that you want to buy and make the necessary specifications. The price you see is an exclusive price, but as we are a small business, you can purchase our products tax-free (According to the § 19 UStG we do not charge the German sales tax, and consequently do not account it). Shipping- and handling costs are included in the prices. If you don‘t have a PayPal account, send us an e-mail with your order and we will send you an invoice.  All pandeiros are sent with a track&trace-service. Our other smaller products are sent without shipment tracking due to increased postal costs.

We ship worldwide.

We recommend that you make sure you can remove your jingles before you order.

In case you have any questions we will be happy to answer them.