Why Buy From Best Singing Bowls?

Best is a pretty high standard to hold yourself to.

Sound Quality

First and foremost EVERY singing bowl we sell has an extraordinary soundscape. Our most important advantage, what brings a constant stream of appreciation from our customers, is founder Ryan’s “ear” which has been honed by decades of experience.

Unlike most vendors, we personally select every bowl on buying trips to the Himalayas. This is important because there is such a wide range of quality in antiques and it is quite difficult to make these selections remotely. With our years of travel and deep old connections we get to review a significant portion of all old singing bowls coming to light in a year. Each bowl we bring back meets our exacting sound standards.

Sound Clips

One of your most important touchstones in selecting a Tibetan singing bowl is how it sounds. Ryan makes two recordings for each bowl, one with a mallet and one with ringing sticks. Mallet strikes are deliberately very simple, a single strike 30 seconds in length. This way you can hear the sound of the bowl and how it changes over time. You can also get a feel for the sustain on the bowl. The ringing stick clip typically has more than one segment. You can hear the bowl played with leather and wood – low tones, middle, highs and even sometimes super high notes.

Selection

The hundreds of singing bowls you can see on this website are just the tip of the iceberg as far as availability goes. We have a stock of thousands of bowls, all properly inventoried with their vital statistics so that we can find that perfect bowl for each customer. Whatever your interest, from a single special bowl to a specific frequency, there’s an excellent chance we have it.

Labeling

Each bowl we sell comes individually labeled with a unique identifying number. This number ties to our database so we can always look up your bowl’s characteristics. The style of the bowl is listed on the label as well. An additional sticker has the note and octave of the primary tone, they also are labeled as to whether the tone is a bit sharp [ # ], flat [ ♭ ] or in the center of the note [ <> ].

We provide singing bowls to some of the most discriminating buyers in the world. In order to be able to satisfy their sometimes very exacting requirements, keeping a huge stock of high quality antiques is vital.

Price

Best Singing Bowls’ emphasis is on value, excellent quality for moderate prices. The tremendous energy we put out on our buying trips results in bringing back the best old singing bowls of a given grade. We have many really nice bowls and specials under $100. Larger and rarer bowls reflect the market and our willingness to pay our suppliers their due. We can often provide excellent bowls out of backstock for quite reasonable prices due to the labor savings involved – so feel free to ask for those special requests.

Matching Accessories

There are a lot of choices in how to play singing bowls. We have a great selection of specialized ringers. When we record a bowl we determine which ringers will work to bring out the range of sounds in that particular bowl. Our recordings are designed to let you hear a good part of the range of sounds. We have a list of recommended accessories on the “details” page, selected just for that bowl.

Photos

Of course you want to see what your bowl looks like. Each bowl has a handful of photos taken by Ryan so you can see it at all angles. Special features like etchings inscriptions and rims are shown in close-ups. We also make sure and “features” such as cracks or dings are shown as well so there are no surprises.

Information

We really pay attention to our singing bowls which means a close examination and recording of vital statistics. Take a look at the detail page of any bowl to see all the factors we measure; not only weight, dimensions and tone but playing characteristics, artwork and thickness. I write about the physical characteristics and artwork as well as craft a description of the soundscape of each bowl.

Sonic Accuracy

It is surprisingly difficult to come up with the correct note and octave. Many inexpensive tuners get confused and provide inaccurate readings. Part of the reason is the sonic complexity of high quality antiques. Using custom designed software, we come up with the best measurements of frequency, notes, octaves and overtones.

Database

In the background behind all the sweet magical sounds we maintain an unparalleled highly structured relational database. The foundation of this database is labeling. Our singing bowls are not commodities but individuals and each one has a unique label with their own number. This individual labeling takes quite an effort. The result is that records are readily available for all of the many thousands of bowls we’ve handled over the years. Many of our customers come back time after time to expand on their collections. Knowing the tone and size and physical characteristics as well as having photos and sound recordings of bowls that were posted on the website gives us the ability to select harmonious additions to even large collections.

Genuine Antiques

There are only so many truly old singing bowls left “in the wild”. Our decades of experience gives us the ability to separate out the many modern and fake antique bowls now on the market. You can buy with confidence knowing you are going to receive an artifact from a different time and century.

Documentation – Certificate of Authencity

Available for a nominal charge with any singing bowl is a certificate that gives you as much information as can be had about each bowl including photographs for exact identification.

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