I. Introduction and history of Dan Bau

The Dan Bau is mainly made by hand.

The first step is to select the raw materials and then to process them. For the Dan Bau made of wood, the raw materials must be air-dried thoroughly after logging, before being used. The longer the wood is left to dry, the more beautiful the sound is and the less it will shrink when used to produce the instrument. For the Dan Bau made of bamboo, it is best to choose old and straight bamboo trees which are not topless. These bamboo trees should be logged in the last months of the year (October, November or December of the lunar calendar). After logging, the raw materials, which are used to produce the intruments, should be air dried to create good sounds.

In terms of manufacture, although the acoustic and electric Dan Bau have the same parts, there are some differences in the way of making such as:

The body/soundboard of the acoustic Dan Bau is usually made larger and its surface is made thinner than that of the electric Dan Bau. For example, for the acoustic Dan Bau made of bamboo, the instrument maker often chooses sections/parts of bamboo 13 to 15 centimeters in diameter and then removes the outer layer, leaving only the 4 to 5 millimeters thick core to make the body. However, when making the electric Dan Bau, the instrument maker usually only chooses the bamboo sections 10 to 12 centimeters in diameter and does not remove the outer layer. For the Dan Bau made of wood, the surface of acoustic Dan Bau is usually about 3 to 4 millimeters thin, while that of the electric Dan Bau is usually about 10 to 15 millimeters thick.