drum head dressing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Branhwyfor on April 9, 2008 at 10:55

Hello Fred,

The only maintenance and care a good drum needs, is to play it as often as possible :-).

Cheaper non tunable drums sometimes do need a bit of help.
I assume you have a non tunable Walton's. If you want to improve the sound, try sanding the skin with a fine sandpaper (p400) on both sides of the skin and then try taping the sides with electrical tape. If you can get it, try 3M super88 tape. It's available in various sizes. For the waltons i think about one inch width is the handiest. I tried all this with my old Waltons and it has improved a lot.

I think lanolin is used to permanently tune down a drum, but i don't know if it's adviseable.
If you go to www.thesession.org there is a discussion going on this topic and on www.bodojo.com as well.

Grtz,

Martijn

Permalink Reply by Branhwyfor on April 9, 2008 at 11:33

I'll also leave you a "before" and "after" picture of what i did to the walton's.

Before:


After:


Grtz,

Martijn

Permalink Reply by Nick Cannon on January 12, 2009 at 9:07

Fred, welcome to the site, you could try GLYCERINE this gives the drum a nice deep tone it is also a preservative for the skin, i have used this for 25 years i used to use Guiness this only gave the skin a nice brown colour but aftar a while it went all sticky and started to smell real bad and at the price you pay, i agree drink it and enjoy, i have not used lanolin so i will look out for comments about that

Permalink Reply by Sher on January 1, 2010 at 23:23

Hi Fred:
The first time I picked up a bodhran was also in Halifax. YEAHHHH Halifax! Now I play in a fiddle band in the Ottawa Valley. Both of my good bodhrans are Brendan Whites, made to order. One is a double skin. The other is a triple. One was around $700.00 US the other was closer to $1,000.00 US. I also bought a no-good drum at a folklore store for $100.00 to see if I liked drumming and to learn on. It played like a cardboard pizza box. You get what you pay for. Brendan Whites are tuneable and top of the line. I can and do play scales on them. Rich and deep and mellow. I tried lanolin cleaner. It left a crappy sticky film on them that sucked up dirt and then I had to scrape it all off. Better is plain water. Best is nothing at all -- Wash your hands and tipper before playing and then the drums dont get dirty. Store in a drum case.