Buying a didgeridoo should be fun, but one visit to the didgeridoo pages on eBay, for example, can make your head spin. There are endless choices, bad photos, and very misleading descriptions. Many didgeridoos found on the internet are made with cheap labor in India or Indonesia, where manufacturing labor laws and terrifying ecological damage corrupt the very heart of what playing the didgeridoo is all about. Even on many Australian sites the didgeridoos are not painted by Aboriginal artists. L.A.Outback is different. We hope that our ethics and standards of quality appeal to you, and thanks for being here.

When selecting a didgeridoo for a novice there are two things to keep in mind: pitch and portability. While the word pitch is the correct term for the soundwave or drone of a didgeridoo, the word key has become the most common expression among didgeridoo players. Both words mean the same thing. A didgeridoo has only one pitch, so you play rhythm rather than melody. The common pitch range for didgeridoos is from high A to low A. Beginners should pick a didgeridoo somewhere in the middle of this scale, namely, C, C#, D or D#.

As far as size goes, buying a large didgeridoo because it's within your budget may not be a bargain at all. In fact, didgeridoos over 5 feet long and/or heavy didgeridoos over 8 lbs could actually discourage a beginner from practicing. The pitch may be too high or too low, and if it's very heavy, the instrument will be left behind on camping trips, a visit to friends, or a jam session with other musicians. The size of the player is much less important, as even a six year old tin lid (Aussie for kid) can pick up the basic sounds straight away.

Our specialty at L.A.Outback. For nearly a decade we've earned a solid reputation for hand selecting and importing the best variety and highest quality eucalyptus didgeridoos into the U.S. Naturally, we'd like for you to consider an Australian eucalyptus didgeridoo with genuine Aboriginal artwork, but there are other choices below to fit most budgets. The eucalyptus didgeridoos that we have are naturally termite-hollowed, properly crafted and hand selected. They vary in price from $80 to over $800 depending upon the quality of sound, rarity of shape or size, and how much time went into the crafting and/or artwork. The average cost for a great sounding unpainted eucalyptus didgeridoo is about $140, and the average price for a beautiful Aboriginal painted didgeridoo is around $260. We help support over 30 Aboriginal artists and crafters, and on this website you will find their photos, bios and information about the Dreamtime artwork on your didgeridoo.

We have awesome modern didgeridoos (not from India!) crafted and painted by hand for just $79. These instruments play so well that many advanced players and professionals own them. In fact, you'll hear one of our modern didgeridoos in the new IMAX™ film, Coral Reef Adventure. These are light in weight but nearly indestructible, and it won't matter if they get wet, stressed, or tossed into the open bed of your pup (Aussie for pick-up truck).

You won't find mention of this on most other didgeridoo websites (although they should). A concern about clean didgeridoo mouthpieces began with my very first trip to Australia. I had gone there to suss out contacts with Aboriginal artists and didgeridoo crafters from the Central Desert to far NE Arnhemland. I also found gift shops filled with low quality souvenir didgeridoos, and folks were always trying to play them, including me! I started carrying disposable alcohol wipes, and then did some research about germs, viruses and antigens just to educate myself and my customers.

The biggest health hazards to look out for are viruses. So I found out that the only way to contract a virus from playing a didgeridoo would be to pass the mouthpiece from a person with a local (lip or mouth) viral infection to yourself while the surface is still wet. Viruses can only live for a matter of seconds without a living host, so no worries unless you play on the wet mouthpiece of an infected person. Wait for it to dry, or clean it first. Some germs and antigens may be present, but these are easy to wipe off and are not as potentially hazardous to your health as a virus. Most folks hardly ever clean the mouthpieces of their didgeridoos and never get sick from them, so it's not as scary as we may think. Still, we disinfect all of our didgeridoo mouthpieces with tea tree oil (a natural antiseptic), so your new didgeridoo will arrive clean and ready to rumble!