Can anyone recommend a ‘good’ place get a ‘beginner’ bodhran? I guess I’m looking for rec’s from experiences other have had. I don’t need a top o’ the line drum but I don’t want complete Paki crap either.
Any help is appreciated…Jack
My first Bodhran was/is a Walton’s. It won’t win any awards, but it was a good place to start. Not too expensive, but a decent player none-the-less. And my wife was pleased (I remember saying: “How about I get this one now and if I keep playing I get a nicer one?”).
Seems everyone was happy with that,
Erik
You should visit the Bodhranii website: http://www.bodhranii.org/
It ocntains lots of tips for Bodhrán players at all levels.
They also have a mailing list which is very useful for this kind of request.
To subscribe, send an empty e-mail to:
Bodhranii-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
It may be wise, though, to search through their archives first, since this kind of question gets asked a lot. And you will of course always get different answers from different people; there really is no Bodhrán to suit everybody’s taste.
You’ll probably be wise to get a tunable one - this might save you quite some frustration while learning; you dont have to depend on wetting and heating it all the time to get the skin to a playable tension.
Myself, I own a walton. But it was non-tunable so I more or less had to get another one (I live in a humid part of Norway) - that was a Brendan White at $180,-
Anyway; good luck getting your first Bodhrán!
Eivind 
The one bit of advice I can offer is, shop around. I found a drum I liked at Lark in the Morning, but it was a bit too rich for my blood. Then I found the exact same drum at Harp and Dragon for literally half the price. Once you have one in mind, it’s worth spending some time looking around for the best deal.
Redwolf
Hiz all,
a friend of mine loaned me his UT 18in Aidan MacRory. it was my ‘training’ one to decide whether i like playing it. playing it more and more each day fuelled my desire to get one of my own. I reluctantly gave his bodhran back to him after loaning it for 6 months. 
i subscibed to the bodhran e-mail list Eivind mentioned sometime ago and it was a gawd-send…very informative and very useful…esp for someone who is very far from the all the manufacturers…(I’m Singaporean)..
Fortuantely a few days ago someone on the list mentioned drums by Davy Stuart. He’s scotsman who’s moved to Christchurch in New Zealand. When i found out about it i whooped for joy and spilled my lunch. thankfully, none landed on the keyboard… 
U can imagine how much i would be able to save on shipping and his price for his 18inch bodhran (all are tunable) was NZ$320 (excl shipping)..more happy was I because the exchange rate between NZ & Singapore is nearly $1 to $1. So thus if ur someone who lives on the western hemisphere, u are sooo gonna be estatic with ur savings. I just wrote to him for a quotation, am looking forward to receive his reply soon.
Check his website out. his bodhran clients are Christy Moore, Donal Lunny & Phil Smillie of Tannahill Weavers.
Ciaoz all…
Hi Prom,
what’s your nick on the Bodhranii-list then?
E.
Have you visited http://www.bodhran.com ?
Wilfried