How To Choose a Handpan                 (For Yourself or Someone Else)

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably already thinking ❝I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those beautiful instruments! ❞ (Or give one to someone who will love it just as much). At the same time you might be thinking, "Goodness, where do I start!?". Well here's a little "How To" Guide which has helped over 500 customers already and hopefully will do so for you also.

First of all, if you’re considering purchasing a handpan with Novapans then we’d like to thank you for choosing a socially conscious business; the first ever handpans on this planet were never made for commercial use, though there still exists something a cult still around the first few makers of handpans in the early 2000s who still try to lay claim to who or where the best handpan maker or handpan comes from. The truth is, there is none.

The year is 2024 and the world now has over 300 different manufacturers of handpans, not including the endlessly growing supply of handpans now coming out of China. Where in 2016 it was difficult to even find a handpan that was available to ship in less than a week (or purchase for less than $3000), now we are overwhelmed with hundreds of choices on hundreds of websites.

After 8 years now of supplying over 5000 happy handpan customers with their first and second (some even third and fourth!) handpans, we're able to put together a little "How To" on best finding, choosing and purchasing your handpan. Here it is:

In 4 basic steps, this is how you can find the handpan that is right for you:

1. Sound
2. Service & Budget

Sound (model, player, scale, key, frequency, aesthetic)

There is no better assessment of the handpan which is best for you than what it sounds like to you. Yes, what you like. We cannot stress this enough. Supposed handpan gurus will claim origin or source of the best handpan for a certain person or budget based on their feeling or opinion but truth be told, the best handpan that is going to best serve and please you is more than often the handpan that you feel attracted to in the first place.

Where to start? The best go-to action for finding the handpan that calls to you is to listen, listen, listen. Have a listen to as many different (variety is important) handpan models (metal types), handpan players, handpan scales, handpan keys, handpan frequencies, and with different handpan aesthetics (colors) out there. Or don't even worry about categorizing them with the above handpan types and just simply create a collection and pinpoint the top two or three models that you would like to have in your possession or whose sound or production you would like to replicate. Create your video collection, and then find out what definition for the above handpan categories it is that you like the most. For instance, you might absolutely love the 10 Note Handpan D Amara in 432hz in Gold (Stainless Steel) which you heard Malte Marten play on Youtube, which tells us that you are most likely looking for the type of meditation sound (that comes from a stainless steel handpan) in a Major Scale (Amara), tuned to the notorious healing frequency (432hz) and played by someone in a way that famous for playing healing and ceremonial sound videos (Malte). The color option is really more of a personal option. So finding your reference handpan video/s is a great way to narrow down your handpan selection and you can then either find your narrowed-down options on our website or contact us and let us find it for you.

For a more elaborate description on the differences between handpan models, players, scales, keys, frequencies, and even aesthetics, read our blog on "Handpan Categories - Break it all down".

Service & Price

It's one thing to purchase a handpan that you like but it is another to purchase from someone you can communicate with and trust. Admittedly also, money is, most often, a key to consideration when buying any musical instrument - and a handpan isn't your cheapest instrument! We believe Service & Price really go hand in hand when it comes to choosing a handpan simply because where the value of a product oftentimes can imply the quality, it cannot always determine the quality of service. Although NovaPans Handpans is no longer the cheapest handpan on the market, it is still by far the most affordable handpan for quality there is and this includes not only the quality of the instruments (which have competed with top-shelf models for years now ever since we introduced our Generation 7 models) but also the quality of our customer service.

Bear in mind that when you go out into the marketplace looking to buy a handpan, you might expect to see prices vary from (in 2020) $800 to $3000+ and now (2024) from even as low as $400 to $3000+ thanks to China now releasing a lot of new very entry-level handpans. Be weary with both extremes of the market as where you may save thousands getting a Chinese cheap handpan for $400, you may lack the customer service (next point) that is really appreciated when purchasing, maintaining or returning and retuning a handpan (should you have to) in the future. Likewise, where you might spend thousands and wait months to get a handpan from one of the artisan makers of Europe who claim prestige over all other handpan makers, you may find yourself limited in return options or even purchase options as we've noticed that even the so-called best or pioneer handpan makers still cannot offer the same availability or diversity of handpan production and shipping time, cost, scale-frequency and color selection as we do, on top of the overly generous (we call it human) approach to offering free returns within 30 days as well as the value-added-service of tutorials and subsidized retuning and online customer service.

End Note

If I can offer some personal advice; if you're a beginner who just wants to make sweet/peaceful/[insert your own adjective here] music, the cheapest option is not going to mark you out as the worst or the least experienced player, so don't worry that you might be skimping on quality by prioritising price. There's a lot of elitism coming from more ❛established❜ handpan communities (something we're actively trying to fight) which is seemingly solely designed to pressure you into paying more for your handpan. I've paid £350 for one guitar, and I've paid £20 for another, and I still can't play a single song! But I can hold my own with my handpan, and that's because, right from the get-go, handpans are intuitive and just feel right in your lap. (James, the writer of this blog post)

So pick your budget, then dive into why you decided to buy a handpan in the first place.

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