Chinese Opera Gongs for Hire

These Chinese gongs are also known as pitch decay gongs. They range in size from 8" to about 12" and are very thin gongs with an upturned lip that angles away from the gong at about 15 degrees. The unique trait about Chinese Opera gongs is that after striking reasonably hard, their pitch will either rise or fall. Generally, the larger diameter gongs will decay when struck whilst the smaller diameter gongs will rise. If struck quietly, there will be no rise or decay.

There are many variations of gong found throughout the world and generally these instruments come from the Far East. A gong is easy to mistake as a tam tam and hire companies are regularly asked for tam tams when the client means gong and gongs when the client means tam tams. As a general rule, the gong has a specific pitch and more often than not a nipple or raised boss in the centre (but not always) and a tam tam has a more indefinite pitch and is much more splashy and crashy.