Hi all,
I need to purchase a Bodhran on line. My usual sources don’t sell them.
Does anyone have an idea on where to go? I don’t need an expensive one, nor a case.
Thanks,
Lolly
…don’t 
My best advice for buying a bodhran is to buy a good one. Don’t skimp and buy a cheap one. If you do buy a cheap one you’ll be unhappy with it and have to buy a good one a couple months down the road, but only after having struggled to get the right sound out of the thing and convinced yourself that it was your own fault.
I highly, highly recommend bodhrans by Seamus O’Kane - the bodhrans of champions. http://www.tradcentre.com/seamus/
If you want to spend a little more money I also highly recommend Rob Forkner’s drums available at http://www.whistleanddrum.com . I hear Kevin Crawford is playing one these days.
Best,
Chris
2 words: Real Skin
I don’t know anything about bodhrans, but I’ve seen them on these three sites:
www.folkharp.com
www.andysfronthall.com
www.songsea.com
Lolly, are you a registered eBay user/buyer?
On any given day there are 50-60 bodhrans, instructional videos, cases. Quality ranges from poor to excellent, as does price range, very low to pretty high. And you always get instruments for less than retail, assuming you are buying from an individual and not a dealer… which is easy to spot.
I’ve personally sold 8 bodhrans on there in the last 12 months. (I buy em’, try em’ and either keep them or sell them). I don’t mind giving up 10-20% on resale for the opportunity to pick and choose what I really love, and I have 6 bodhrans in that category right now. Every musician I know does exactly the same thing. What doesn’t work for one person becomes the treasure of a lifetime for another.
You should try ebay, it is excellent!
If you could tell a little more about what your price range is and what quality you are looking for we could probably give you better advice. Whistle and Drum is a good place to start.
While we’re on the subject, are there any good instructional videos, or are they all trash?
Do you need a drum with a good sound?
As with many other things in life you normally get what you pay for.
Stay away from all Mid.east, Waltons, Gremlin and Roundstone drums as you are buying on the net and can’t try them out.
The quality of the skin is really everything, and even if you can get lucky and find a decent cheapie, most of them are for tourists not musicians.
I’m with Chris on the SOK drum, Seamus makes some spectacular drums and is on the top of my list. I heard nothing but good things about the meatloaf drums (recommended by Paul Marshall at www.drumdojo.com) even though I ended up badmouthing Rob here at C&F some time ago.
Considering the current exchange rate, a good European drum can be a bit pricy at the moment.
Here are some more links in US and CND:
Albert Alfonso
Mance Grady
Fred Halpin
Bridget Drums
You can also check Whistle & Drum, Blayne is also a frequent contributor here at C&F.
Good luck!
/MarcusR
Q: What if you paid $50 for something that really sucked. Would you still consider to resell that to some poor sucker knowing that he/she would be better off with a cardboard box? Or would you take the loss?
All I can say is that I wasted more money on crappy cheapies in the beginning than it would have cost me to get an expensive professional drum right from the start.
Cheers!
/MarcusR
get a “tunable” one. If you don’t, and you play in areas where the humidity changes - you can spend a LOT of time with either a misting device (for when the skin dries out) or a hair dryer (for when it absorbs too much moisture).
Thanks for all the replies.
I need to use it to record an album. I doubt it would ever be used on
stage or in public. Yes, I noticed TONS on e-bay, but don’t want to
have to pay $15 just for shipping and then not have it sound good.
What TONE or KEY or ? whatever one would call it, is it supposed to
play in? (I know tom-toms with deer skin are too low a sound for Irish
music). But what tone does a Goat skin play in?
Thanks,
Lolly
I think they’re fine for American-style Irish music. 
I’d borrow a bodhran, along with someone who can actually play it, if it’s for a recording.
If you do buy one, I’d go with Fred Halpin’s tunable bodhrans.
So what’s the least you can pay for a usuable instrument?
I thought this was a thread about bodhrans. 
Oh, right. What’s the least acceptable amount you could pay for an acceptable Bo-ron?
Steafan Hannigan has two videos, beginning and advanced which
are pretty good. Another good one is Tommy Hayes’ “Bodhran,
Bones & Spoons.”
Yipee! I just joined the 0.1 k club! 
Here’s what I would do…
-
Get a nice drum. Do not buy a tar with a crossbar. Expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-$350. Maybe more, depending on what you decide on. Tuneable is a must. I prefer raw, flexible, thin goat or kangaroo skins. Other people like thicker skins for more of an American sound (more thud than pop), or tanned skins for very fat, attack-free tone. Its all a preference thing. The thing is, if you get a cheap drum, its going to limit you from the outset, and likely sound bad, which will discourage you from playing more, etc. etc. etc. get a good drum from the outset. People I would consider would be O’Kane, Alfonso, Davey Drums, Steve Forman Drums, and (dare I say?) Metloef…!
-
Don’t get a drum over 15" in diameter. I say that because, in my humble opinion, anything larger is too big and inefficient. Efficiency with pitch modulation makes a lot of difference down the road. That, and starting on a “small” drum means that you’ll not have to adjust to a smaller one later. The idea that 18" is “traditional” with respect to ITM is a pantload. Larger drums are somewhat more traditional in regards to the Wren boys, I suppose, but I have plenty of old photos from the early part of the century with folks playing smaller drums. In the current world of ITM, smaller drums reign. There is a reason for that.
-
If you can’t find a living, breathing tutor near you, I would go for the MadForTrad CD tutorial with Frank Torpey. The reason is that you actually see the man play, and there are movies shot of both sides of the drum taken as he plays through any particular lesson. While he doesn’t cover every style under the sun, the man does know what he is doing, and the resource is an excellent one for a beginner-intermediate player.
Hope that helps a little. Just one person’s opinion…!
Good luck!
R
WHAT!!! $250-$350 for a DRUM!!!
I bet none of us even spend that much for a Penny Whistle!
It just goes bang, bang at the back of the band’s playing…this isn’t
rock and roll…I’m not trying to be Ringo!
I thought people would write in and say “avoid a $30 one but
$50 on up should be fine”
If they REALLY cost $250, I’m sure banging on the cardboard box
will have to be good enough 
Lolly
WHAT!!! $250-$350 for a DRUM!!!
I bet none of us even spend that much for a Penny Whistle!
It just goes bang, bang at the back of the band’s playing…this isn’t
rock and roll…I’m not trying to be Ringo!
there you go Rob… talk about a pantload.
If I was you Lolly, I would just stretch the skin from tonights chichen dinner over an empty pie pan, and heat it in the oven till the dinner’s done,
that should suffice… Or else, just produce a circular mouth formation similar to my Emoticon above, place your mouth near the mic, and rap the top of your head several times, hard, with your knuckles, it will produce quite a satisfactory percussion sound for your record. The hollower the dome, the better.
Regards,