I bought this for just fooling around with my friends and playing our darbukas and it is a fine sounding instrument!
The clarity and the frequency of it is unmatched. Has a great bass sound that I can't believe that it's just a piece of steel that creates that defined noise!
As far as the overall sound goes, the edge or treble hits are also very crisp, making the darbuka great all around. The relationship between all of the sounds and places to hit it is great!
The steel is great, however I was holding it and bumped it into a doorway and it dented about a millimeter down, however you shouldn't have to worry about that unless you are clumsy like me!
Overall great instrument, would recommend!