How to buy a didgeridoo in a store or on the net?

A short lesson

Direct buying in the didgeridoo store

If you not a skilled player (yet) buy a didgeridoo that appeals to you visually. Love at first site is actually a very reliable guide - I had quite a large percentage of customers who came back a couple of hours or days, and a dozen of visited didgeridoo stores later to buy the one they picked up first. The look of a didgeridoo and it's connection to the local aboriginal culture is very important. When you find out later that didgeridoo playing is not for you, or not your everyday pastime, at least you ended up with a nice memento and valuable piece of aboriginal artwork.

A traditional aboriginal artwork would be done in earthy colours of ochre, but then you should keep it behind glass, because even the most gentle handling could damage the paint. Aborigines used to repaint their didgeridoo in preparation for the new Corroboree. Plastic paint, even though it was not authentic two centuries ago, nevertheless can reflect very well the traditional styles of aboriginal art and it will last. Look for individual artistic style with deep roots in the traditional aboriginal culture of the area of origin.

Under that piece of authentic aboriginal art should be a termite hollowed piece of hardwood - the harder the better: ironbark, bloodwood, stringybark, all different species of eucalyptus. Hard to tell them apart, but if you are going for a particular type of wood you have to accept the word of the craftsman or salesperson in this regard.

The taper, the elongated cone shape of the didgeridoo can tell about the back pressure and somewhat about the overtones. A flaring out in a bell or a chiseled out base acts like an amplifier. The bore makes all the difference: it is the spirit of the didgeridoo, and as with men, hardly distinguishable from outside.

•   If the aboriginal artifacts in the didgeridoo store look and feel mass-produced, then they are! Question the didgeridoo stores' connection to the local Aboriginal culture and build your trust upon the answers.
•   If this is your first didgeridoo, you have to trust your craftsman, salesperson or someone with a bit of real knowledge about the subject. Avoid the traps of urban myths similar to the ones mentioned on the page titled Urban myths about Australian didgeridoos.

You can, also, use these simple tests:

•   Tap on the mouthpiece with your open palm. If the sound you hear is a clear ringing sound than the didgeridoo has a good resonance. If the sound is cushioned out, muffled than it is not a good buy.
•   Put the mouthpiece to your ears and you will hear the resonant frequencies of the background noise amplified in the didgeridoo, compare it to other didgeridoos and make your choice.

How to buy didgeridoo on the internet?

There is not much difference in the guidelines relevant to buy a didgeridoo on-line or direct in a didgeridoo store, apart from the hands on experience (and a couple of thousand dollars in airfare).

The site you buy your didgeridoo from is not a flashy one with flying didges and the likes, but you should at least have a visual display of the instrument on sale. A good photograph will tell a lot about the look of the didgeridoo. The look, and some measurements and description can make your virtual shopping almost real. The sound is not very reliable for two reasons:
most didgeridoo stores lack the sophisticated studio equipment for good quality sound recording,
the sound of a didgeridoo depends to a good degree on the players sound-making organs and expertise.
For wood-type and other characteristics you have to trust the seller the same as you would do in a didgeridoo store. Most of them want to establish a long term business, with satisfied and returning clientele, so they would avoid upright cheating or falls declarations, but you should check on the security of payments methods and the refund and exchange policy to make sure your money is safe and redeemable. The overall content of the internet site, the subject knowledge and the connectedness to the local (aboriginal) culture will help you to make up your mind about the professionalism of the on-line store - the look of the site credits the webmaster. (Keep in mind that you are about to buy a didgeridoo, not a web-site!)