Final run from Marnie’s shop in Ucluelet • In 7 active carts • 18 left
Marnie's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Marnie's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Ships in 1-3 days
30-day money-back guarantee
One of Marnie’s final 240
Couldn't load pickup availability
Marnie's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Hand-Tuned in Ucluelet, British Columbia
Marnie Ruddick, 66. Coppersmith. For thirty-five years she made the copper gutters and rain chains on the west coast of Vancouver Island. For the last seven, only rain drums. This is the last batch she will tune by hand.
“I spent thirty-five years making rain quiet. Then I made it sing.”
— Marnie Ruddick, Ucluelet, BC
What’s in the Box
Everything That Comes With the Drum
The Drum
One 10 cm steel rain drum, tuned by hand.
Two Mallets
Wooden handles, rubber tips. Or play with your fingers.
Beginner Songbook
Simple number notation. Anyone can play on day one.
Cloth Pouch
For storing it, carrying it or giving it as a gift.
Why This Drum
Six Things a Machine-Tuned Drum Doesn’t Have
Every detail comes from thirty-five years of working copper on a coast where it rains two hundred days a year.
The Pentatonic Promise
All nine notes come from the same five-note scale. Whatever tongue a raindrop lands on, it fits. There is no wrong note.
The 432Hz Calibration
Tuned a touch lower than the usual pitch. The notes come out softer and rounder in the open air.
The West Coast Finish
Powder-coated steel, sealed against rust and salt air. Marnie’s own drum has sat outside through nine wet winters.
The First Cup
Every drum gets its last check against the crooked copper rain-chain cup Marnie made in 1991. It rings just under a G.
The Palm-Sized Shape
Ten centimetres across. Small enough for a deck railing, a fence post, a stump or the end of a dock.
Played by the Weather
Set it outside and the rain plays it. On dry days, a watering can or your fingertips do the same.
— Expert Note
“Most steel tongue drums sold today are stamped and tuned by machine, which is why many of them sound thin. A drum tuned by ear, one at a time, against the same reference note is a different instrument. The five-note scale means anyone can play it without a lesson. That isn’t marketing. It’s simply how the scale works.”
Dr. Elaine Fraser — Music educator and percussion instructor, Victoria, BC
Where It Lives
Perfect For
Quality Promise
Five Things You Get With Every Drum
30-Day Return Policy
If it doesn’t feel right, send it back within 30 days for a full refund. No questions asked. Just one email to our team.
A Note From the Shop
Every drum is tuned by hand, so each one has its own small character in pitch and in the pearl-flecked finish. In places with real snow, many owners bring the drum in after the first big snowfall and put it back out in spring. Snow mutes it; cold doesn’t hurt it.
The Details
Product Specifications
| Material | Carbon steel |
| Finish | Pearl-flecked powder coating, six colours |
| Size | 10 cm across (Standard) — XXL Premium also available |
| Notes | 9 tongues, pentatonic scale, A=432Hz |
| Set Includes | Drum, 2 mallets, beginner songbook, cloth pouch |
| How to Play | Mallets, fingertips, or leave it outside and let the rain play it |
| Outdoor Use | Built to stay outside, sealed against rust and salt air |
| Care | Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Do not submerge. |
| Maker | Marnie Ruddick, coppersmith in Ucluelet, BC, since 1991 |
| Final Batch | 240 drums |
Why This Is the Last Batch
Why This Is the Last Batch
A note from the shop in Ucluelet:
Marnie Ruddick has worked copper in a small cedar-shake shop on the harbour road in Ucluelet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, since 1991 — copper gutters, downspouts and rain chains for half the houses in town. In November 2016 a commission didn’t work: a flat steel splash plate with cut tongues, made for the bottom of a rain chain. She set it on the cedar stump under her own downspout and forgot about it. A month later, in the middle of a four-day Pacific storm, the thing was playing notes — a clean, pitched tone for every raindrop. By 2019 the shop made nothing else.
In 2022 she noticed a small shake in her hands while holding a file. By last fall she could no longer hold a file still on a tongue for more than a few seconds. She can still cut copper and bend a gutter. She can no longer file a tongue to pitch, and that is the whole job.
So this is the last batch she will tune herself. 240 drums, one at a time. After these, the files go in the drawer.
Size, Care and Returns
Size, Care and Returns
What you get
- One hand-tuned steel tongue drum, 10 cm × 10 cm (4″ × 4″), nine tongues, pentatonic, tuned by ear to A=432Hz
- Two mallets with rubber tips, a beginner songbook with number notation, a cotton drawstring pouch
- Six colours; XXL Premium size also available
Living outside
- Powder-coated carbon steel, sealed against rust and salt air
- Built to stay outdoors. Marnie’s own has sat on the same cedar stump through nine West Coast winters
- Where winters bring real snow, bring it in after the first big snowfall — snow mutes it, cold doesn’t hurt it
- Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Do not submerge it
Returns
- 30 days, full refund, no questions and no forms
- One email to info@backroad-goods.com and it is sorted
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Email info@backroad-goods.com, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Pacific Time. We answer within one business day. Marnie does not own a smartphone — Kaia, who builds the website for a surf school in Tofino, set the shop up and handles every question and every order herself.
Can I return it if it is not for me?
Can I return it if it is not for me?
30 days, full refund, no questions and no forms. One email and we sort out the return. You do not pay return shipping.
How is it made?
How is it made?
Powder-coated carbon steel, cut and tuned by hand in Marnie’s cedar-shake shop on the harbour road in Ucluelet, BC. Nine tongues, pentatonic, tuned by ear to A=432Hz. Every drum gets a final check against the crooked copper rain-chain cup she made in 1991, which hangs on a nail above her bench. Final batch: 240.