Hey, I was wondering if any of you bodhranists out there had tried modifying your drum(s) by adding gaffer’s tape around the outside edge and/or adding a weighted patch to the back of the head? Results?
Anyone know where you can get those patches that Rob of Metloef uses?
I thought the gaffer tape was just to keep the skin on better and to stop the screws from rattling when you’re recording!
No, it’s actually supposed to reduce extra ringing/ buzzing and “wolf tones”.
Ah, the trusted old gaffer tape; staple of musicians the world over … and drummers. (drip drip)l
Hi Whacker Of The Goat,
My O‘Kane comes with the tape as you describe and …“according to Seamus this idea comes from Peadar Mercier, and it is said to make the instrument ’more contortable’ ” (off Seamus’s website). I don’t know if this means you can bend the skin more easily, or if it’s a spelling mistake!
As for the patch, I was curious about that myself and experimented with blobs of blu-tak on the skin. It certainly changed the tone, making it more focused. It might be OK for recording with this, but when I took it to our session it just sounded dull. Took the patch off there and then and had the harmonic-rich tone back.
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Following someone’s suggestion in another group, I put two or three layers of electrician’s tape around the edge of the playing side of the skin. I thought it made the tone deeper - maybe less overtones - and reduced the sustain a bit. That particular drum seemed to need it.
greenman, that’s hilarious about the O’Kane explanation. Never question genius though, even if they can’t explain it. I’ve ordered some gaffer tape, and I’m going to try it out on my rig. I may just have to e-mail Rob to see where he gets his patches.
Hey there,
The material you want is the heavy, stretchable vinyl tape if you are gonig to put the tape around the outside edge. I use Super 88 by 3M. But you can also use other materials, and apply the material to the inside perimiter of the skin for the same effect. Rubber, mylar, tape, etc., all have been done, all have a very similar end result.
As for patches- the goal isn’t just the tonal effects, its the playability also. What I mean by that is that if you use something like blu-tac or silicon gel or caulk you have a lump of meterial int he middle of the drum that you can’t run your “tone hand” over. The way I’ve got the patches now I have them covered by a very thin piece of goatskin what essentially integrates the patch into the head and allows you to use the tone hand over the entire back of the head. So the reality is that I don’t GET the patches…I make them! But you can use any number of things for the patch, from adhesive mylar or rubber sheet, or contact cement a patch of skin on the back. Play around with weights and diameters that work for you and your drum. The patches focus the tone and deepen the bass in every circumstance that I’ve used them.
Cheers!
Rob
www.metloef.com
Hi Rob,
Added your link to the site, sorry forgot to Email you to let you know. I can’t remember where I got that bit: “According to Seamus this idea comes from Peadar Mercier, and it is said to make the instrument ‘more contortable’.” from… All I remember is that I built the website at home when I was visiting after I finished my masters degree a couple of years ago. - Have you tried “go faster stripes” or “furry dice” as an accessory mickywhacker, erm i mean goatwhacker? :P They are all the rage in Ireland just now… (just kidding)
Even better…..you could use faux fur instead of tape! Like the ZZ top guitars but on the bodhran, you could do leopard skin or glitter tape or…You could do the drum up with a flamejob on the shell with the dice hanging down on the back of the skin to muffle the overtones, then have faux leopardskin fur as the tape and the skin dyed pink….hell CCE would love that! And in 10 years it would be traditional…or at least everyone would buy one once Andrea Corr got one…
…I need to lay off the Lone Star for a bit I think…
As to the tape the idea has been around a long time, and for bodhrans it is probably as Seamus said with it coming from Mercier. I took the weighting idea with high-density rubber-type compunds from a conversation I had with Kevin Crawford when he was here on a visit. I’d had a patch on the drum made of a circle of extra goatskin, but he suggested trying something similar to what is used on Indian tabla drums, so that’s where it came from. I then read a paper on the subject that suggested the density of the patch on the head is of highest importance. That might explain why the Indian drums have the patches made with iron filings and rice starch. My patches are made of beef bologna and goat cheese for authenticity added flex.
!
r
LOL -- the Glee Club bodhran! Gotta hang tassels on it somewhere.
here’s an idea! put a neck on it and some banjo strings and have a real instrument
You forgot to mention, replacing the skin with a lovely piece of carved sprucer
Meatloaf plays the bodhran????
nah - he’d do anything for love but he won’t do that…
hahahahaha….generally I hate posts that just react to other posts like this, but THAT was funny… You two cracked me up!
sifudave; I’ll take a good bodhran over a banjo any day…
Simplify your life. Bodhran playing is not high art. You needn’t have a tenor bodhran, a bass bodhran, forty varietal beaters, tunable bodhrans, and a set of stands to hold them while you play, and a stack of temperature-controlled and humidity-modified cases to store them in. Get a nice, standard bodhran, learn to be a welcome addition to a session, and have fun.
I’ve been playing bodhran for over 20 years and consider myself to be as good a player as any that live. Not because I’m fancy, but because I give a tune what it needs, from a driving rhythm to a subtle undertone. Sometimes i play best when I don’t play at all because the tune is better left without percussive embellishment.
You can tart up anything, but check out the pros. They keep it simple more often than not.
But if you just like to have fun and experiment, what the hell, go ahead.
I think there is plenty to be said for simplification, but I also think that there is plenty to be said for people pushing the instrument to new areas. You mention “check out the pros”, and I would suggest “check out the fleadhs” also. Because what I would submit is that bodhran playing has gone from just “keeping it simple” to more of a proper place in ITM accompanyment, and is absolutely as integral these days as guitar or bouzouki playing. And we all know that a lot of this advancement has happened in the last 5-7 years. As an example, if you look at all of the other instruments and competitions sponsored by CCE, in no other area but bodhran playing is an instrument and “acceptable” playing standard (as far as teh general feeling by CCE is concerned, which can be another thread entirely) moving into new and more advanced levels so quickly.
I think that has to do with a couple of things- first, makers like O’Kane and Alfonso really opened the door with superior quality, VERY responsive instruments that, while not “traditional”, allowed players an new way to approach bodhran playing and tune accompaniment. The second is the crop of players themselves who felt that it was OK to explore new styles while also respecting the more traditional ways as appropriate. Tomai Taylor, Junior Davey, JJK, in Ireland, people like Mark Stone, Chris Weddle and Anna Colliton in the US are some names that come to mind, and there are others.
I think that there are always going to be the camps of people who wish the tradition to stay “as is”, or “as was” and those who, while respecting that tradition, feel like taking playing styles, ornamentation, etc. in new directions. I think both are good and healthy. But I don’t think that taking one side at the expense of the other is any good.
At the end of the day, I think it is about the tunes and lifting of the melody when it comes to the bodhran, whatever the style or “highness of art”.
speaking of high…
r
Gaffer tape around players forearms (and body) works wonders and may improve the tone.
Hey Geoff…
maybe some gaffer tape in the Cathedral is in order!!!!
BTW
gaffer tape aroud the fore arms is useless!
Tape my wrists, that should do it! (-:
Ailin, I think all of us here would consider Peadar Mercier and Seamus O’Kane pros, and they use tape around the edge.
It has nothing to do with “Tarting” and everything to do with sound.