Tuning in to decide which Tibetan singing bowl to buy involves some self discovery, knowing what to look for and being perceptive of mutual resonance fields.
The best way to choose an antique singing bowl, really, is to fall in love with the sound. That feeling is a measure of your affinity with the vibrations coming out of the instrument. There are many different sounds available in the high quality bowls I offer and you may find you have a preference for tones in a specific range.
The most prominent tones range over five octaves so you have quite a bit of choice high to low. All the bowls I sell have at least one resonant undertone to match the main (loudest) tone. Keep in mind that the sound coming out of a singing bowl is not all that well related to its visual shape or thickness. Larger heavier singing bowls tend to be lower than smaller lighter ones – with the exception of the uniformly high sounds of heavy Mani singing bowls.
Choosing Your Bowl
I think sound clips recorded with the kind of high quality equipment I use are pretty good at conveying the sound of a singing bowl. You can be confident that when you buy a Tibetan singing bowl will have the same major sound you hear on the clip. The undertones are there, too but the experience is generally richer in person than on the web.
One limitation of the Internet sound is it does not convey how well you can tease individual sounds out of a singing bowl; that would take a lot of sound clips to accurately convey the full resonance of the bowl. That being said, the full range of sound is there to hear in the sound clips, just not how well you can isolate and amplify each one. I have been surprised how some of my customers have been able to use the sound clips to discern that a bowl has a special resonance with another already in their sets. I’ve rung singing bowls over the phone for people but POTS is a bit low res. I’ll do it if helps, including any of the singing bowl sets.
Also, you may find it helpful to review the Tibetan singing bowls page, where the singing bowl essentials are discussed.
Along with the sound you are going to get a unique beautiful looking object. Do you want a small or large singing bowl, a singing bowl with ancient patina or a bright cleaned surface?
Some antique singing bowls have inscriptions or extensive markings. Virtually all the bowls have some amount of incuse (carved in) workmanship. Bowls can be well worn or crisp.
I find it easier to hear the sound over the Internet than to imagine what the singing bowl is like in my hand. I post the weight and full measurements of each object to give you a clearer idea about it. Don’t get fooled by all the pictures of the singing bowls being about the same size – a big Jambati singing bowl can be 10X the size and weight of a tiny Manipuri.
