This is a beautiful little drum, I bought it for my Step-son, as he loves to play my Ashiko drum, and I can´t wait to give it to him for the holidays. The artwork is very pretty and it looks great, it has a very nice sound to it as well. The head of the drum is only 7¨ instead of 8.5, but beyond that it´s beautiful. The string binding it all isn´t quite as strong as I would like, but for the price it is fantastic!