The phrase, "the ducks-guts" is Australian slang for information

without any embellishments and it may often be "politically incorrect"

or blunt, or straight to the heart of an issue.

This blog is in that tradition BUT as in most blogs

it is only one persons, personal opinion and reflects only their view of the world.!!

Interchangeable heads.................before looking at photographs or going any further it is necessary to clarify some details. The basic and fundamental idea that underpins this design feature is the mechanical changes to frame drum(in particular, the bodhràn) tensioning systems. This to change from a PUSH-AWAY to a  PULL-DOWN SYSTEM, ie to use the same tensioning approach which is virtually universal within the percussion world. The additional benefit, apart from a more efficient transfer of energy to the frame, is that the musician can use different heads to suit different situations. Of course this will only work if the maker has developed the necessary head development skills with the different skin species available. In the real world this means a musician may have for his bodhràn: a lambeg style thin goatskin head; a medium weight, "warm toned", calf skin head; a kangaroo skin head, thin, heavily worked and very fast best suited to top-end style playing. Effectively he has three different drums(one frame plus three, independent heads) and his "three drums" should cost him a lot less than buying three separate drums and the whole kit should fit in just one bag.

The "nuts and bolts"-a frame with a built-in-the-rim tuning system, an engineered bearing edge and three independent, different species/type heads that have been stabilized and worked to the musicians requirements That means you don't need finger tuners( you can fit them if you are happy to sacrifice the efficiency of the frame) and you don't need miles and miles of electrical tape like on your mountain peak old style, poorly engineered free floating tension rim! Now if its a versatile, no frills, working musical instrument dedicated to producing the greatest range of sound out of head AND frame as well as being easy to cart around, that you want you may have an idea of where you can get it!!

   "..I have seen the red drum, is it a joke.....? or have I missed something??? "

                                                                        one makers observation.

The "red drum" in question was one of a pair of Pull-Down, Interchangeable head prototypes developed and built late in 2006. The second drum was an in-the-rim version of the same concept; where they differed is that the red drum was the inner cone only with the tuners on the exterior of the frame, whilst the black drum is the full in-the-rim version.

 That drum was trialled by Colm Phelan and then "gifted on" to it's current owner Rob "Metloef" Forkner; the second drum is in the hands of Guy from Luxembourg and is the drum that has come back after three years of playing to be re-lacquered and have it's tuners tweaked. This drum has been photographed and a commentary added and it will follow on...............  

Guy has been playing this radically different frame drum/bodhràn for three years. The kangaroo skin 16in x 5 1/2in drum has its head mounted on an independant, thin composite plywood, carbon fibre and epoxy frame that pulls down onto the frame and is tensioned through tuners placed within the rim. There is very little to see, just the head and the frame and whilst a player may express the desire for a tool less tuning system on this system there is no need. The design and construction is such that the head is stable requiring no additional adjustment once set at the start of performances; there is no taping as the bearing edge, the internal taper of the interior and the head treatment have been set to remove any unpleasant overtones. This drum has the maximum playing surface and the pull down construction means full transmission of energy into the shell: head and shell work together giving a highly defined and clearly articulated sound that cuts cleanly and allows the drum to be heard without over powering the melody instruments. With the design now fully proven it is now in use in other styles of frame drums in other hand drum traditions and allows the musician to design an instrument to suit his needs.

The playing styles within the Irish Traditional Music framework has seen the development of what has become known as "top-end" playing and with that hand and stick movement moving to the edge of the drum and striking being closely linked to the melody line of tunes. Many makers have tried to adapt the tensioning systems but there has not been a great deal of success as all the design still have the tuning rim with the bearing edge isolated and not connected to the frame. The interiors of these drums are cluttered with additional rims and protruding tuning mechanisms of varying degrees of mechanical complication all of which are not acoustically efficient. The few other approaches see synthetic heads being pulled down with heavy exterior rims and current bodhràn design still sees drums with the weight being concentrated close to the head bearing edge and full acoustic performance suffers.
The design of Guy's drum and others from this maker changes all this thus allowing for the development of playing styles more in common with other hand drums, it also allows the advanced player to move his thinking into the area of fret-less sting instruments and to consider stick and hand striking as closer to "bowing" techniques.

The facility of being able to choose different head materials and "loading techniques" plus the ability to "tune" the drum now sees younger players adopting approaches that allow them to play "up" with the melody instruments as well as the more traditional, simple motor rhythm accompaniment. The "new design approaches of this maker" is allowing the percussive tradition in Irish Traditional and Contemporary Music to move into the foreground and we are starting to see the flowering of what may rightly called "Irish Percussive Arts"

The Entry Level Drum: A new bench mark for the bodhran!

The Entry Level Drum is only avaiable now through the Bodojo site. This change is now accompanied by the offer that it is post free and the price is the same wherever you live in the world. The cost of materials, labour, packaging and the postage for pretty well anywhere were all put into the pot so to speak and after absorbing some costs and reorganizing production a single price was arrived at so that potential musicians ALL have a level playing field at the start of their journey.

What sets it apart is that whilst it is an entry level drum it will mature and play in such that it is capable of taking you through to an ALL Ireland, that means a good base and mid tone range with a clear top end----but at this price there are no whistles or bells. It is simply a tool, you apply the magic.

Was delighted to hear Niall Preston's winning solo at the WBC. It was also special as it was the first serious public performance of the drum that was made for him as his prize for his 2007 WBC performance. I think the drum features elsewhere on the Youtubes made at the WBC. For those interested it was a composite,epoxy, carbon fibre and ply framed drum of medium density and with a really well worked kangaroo skin that was also heat treated. The drum was prepared so that the final "tuning" would happen as it was played in and that is some couple of hundred hours away. There is no instant "out-of-the-box" bass on this instrument as it is designed to have the head last 20years and not 20 hours!

 A bit worrying were the atmospheric conditions that played havoc with the drums all day, damp and humid one minute, bright sun the next and the finals played in the rain-needless to say most serious players had their drum tuned fairly high. Still it sounded great and it was a "proud parents day"!

Public comment on the drum reached it's ultimate banality when one maker commented in the normal authoritarian manner-----bit tricky as that maker had to ask later whether another drum had a calf or kangaroo skin head!!----not too much experience there for making "informed" comment me thinks!

Competition: the open section has three places; 1st,2nd and 3rd. The adjudicators  allowed three players through to the award winning final!

Horror section of the day was the sight of drums being carefully put into bags for protection and then having a great collection of sticks and bibs and bobs thrown into the case to roll around on the head. The more thoughtful had the full armory rolled up or put into a case and that was then thrown in on top of the head. Still, we  put drums down on floors, rest heads on table tops and allow them to be passed around for a good banging by anyone who asks. We still have a long way to go, if we don't respect the instrument why should anyone else!

There we go, another comment not in the interest of the "family" feelings of the twee! Better do a spell check and see if Preston is spelt wong!!

Previous Comments

A common phenomena today is the thin, soft, and short lived head. The consumer push for an 'out-of-the-box' drum with plenty of bass and good top end has pushed many makers with little or no tanning experience to use unsuitable chemical fixes and the old adage applies 'the more you do to a head the shorter it's life'.

Archangel Drum Heads do not have this problem as they are based on sound chemistry and good tannery practice.

As a drum maker and not just a bodhran maker I use many different materials for my frames and each has it's own unique sound properties. I pay a great deal of attention  to the bearing edges and musicians can choose from vintage style edges, a common 45 degree edge either centred or offset.

The current 'love-affair- with pretty timber frames, be they a single  or multiple veneers, is more a marketing trick than a scientifically established truth of some sort of acoustic superiority; and musicians can only be reminded that it is the'sound' not the look that determines performance.

Tuning Systems

Again, consumer demand has lead to finger tip, tool less tuners, hasty makers now use over thick reinforcement hoops to get the space necessary for those gross four prong star tuners---simple physics-----on the O'Kane pattern that means the tuning rim bearing edge is just too far away from the skin fastening point and the head/rim angle becomes too shallow to maintain an adequate level of tension and the head vibrates past the bearing edge. The result is that you do not have a great deal of tonal control and variation in the bottom half of the head. Many drums with 'fat rims' and 'high Victorian Collars' do not have enough tonal variation and volume for good top end playing.

The search is still on for the magic single point tuning system, just a simple observation. Animal skin heads are just not uniform in density or are they capable stretching in a uniform manner ----- you have never wondered why during performances you see musicians  some times 'tweaking' just one or two screws; sometimes 'tweaking' half the drum and vary rarely tightening the 'whole' head ----- not saying it doesn't happen!!!!!