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| Taking Care of your Bodhran |
Wed 05 September 2007 |
The bodhran or Celtic drum (pronounced bow'-rahn; it's an Irish word - we like to throw in a lot of letters you don't pronounce). It has a light wood frame with a skin, usually from the goat, deer or sometimes sheep, which is drawn tightly over it. Our bodhrans come with a cross-piece or bar which can be easily removed if desired.
They are available in different sizes, ranging from 12, 14, 16 and 18 and they are either fixed skin or tunable. All the designs are hand painted and are similar to designs from the Book of Kells or Celtic in origin.
We specialize in tunables for the more professional players and can offer a wide variety of styles and sizes - Tunable bodhrans have a mechanical means of tightening or loosening the tension of the skin of the drum; this allows the pitch to be raised or lowered without having to wet or dry the skin. An advantage of the inside-tunable bodhran is that you can't see the hardware, making your bodhran look more traditionally Irish.
Tunable bodhrans come in wide variation of sizes and rim widths and can be made to suite a specific player.
If you let your bodhran get too dry, the skin can split. Application of light leather-goods oil will help to keep the head pliable and prevent damage.
The larger the bodhran, the bigger and deeper the sound (this is a matter of physics and mathematics). The dimension given for each size is the diameter of the rim.
What size you choose is up to you; the smaller ones are easier and less awkward to hold; the bigger ones give a deeper sound. Every bodhran is a tradeoff of size versus pitch of the sound.
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