The handpan market has always had a transparency problem. Instruments with wildly different quality levels sell for the same price. Cheap instruments get dressed up in marketing. Beginners - the people who need guidance most - are also the most exposed to bad decisions.
When Malte Marten co-founded the Yataoshop in 2020 with his childhood friend Stephan and his brother Sebastian, the mission was clear: make handpans accessible to everyone, without compromising on honesty. The YataoPan was born from a simple question - why should a beginner spend €2,500 or more just to find out if the instrument is right for them?
The answer was the Yataopan Starter: genuinely a good entry-level instrument at a fair price, sold without inflated margins. Not the best handpan ever made - but the best handpan for where most players start. Four years later, the YataoPan is more than a beginner instrument. Built in close collaboration with trusted manufacturing partners we've worked with since the beginning, the line has grown to include fully handcrafted Expert and Master models. Every single instrument is play-tested before it ships. If the sound isn't right, we don't send it - we fix it first.
Having started out as purely an online shop, we increased our knowledge and skillset to be able to also tune our handpans directly in our facilities.
Our goal is to provide you with the perfect handpan: from affordable entry-level quality to high-end artisanal instruments.
That's the YataoPan promise. It always has been.
