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Care and Tuning

a few hints

Care and Tuning

The good care and also the good tuning of a bodhrán sometimes leaves beginners with many questions. As we will see shortly, it is rather simple.

Here we will first look at a few points about care and then we will take care of the correct tuning.

Care

  • Playing in

    let it settle

    The skin needs to settle for the next 3-6 months, depending on the skin and how much you play. Play it a lot! You will notice that the skin now reacts quickly to weather changes and even if somebody opens a door, it will react. This will stop once the skin has settled.

    Also, you will get more bass over the next couple of months.

  • After playing

    keep the tension

    Leave the playing tension on when you put it away. Make sure it's not too tight in warm and dry conditions, but don't loosen it all the way down.

  • Treating the Skin?

    Play, Play and Play
    Do not put anything on the on the skin apart from your hand and the sweat from it. Also, nothing outside. Play it a lot!

Further notes and explanations

Caution is advised when breaking in new skins, as some may have a tendency to stretch. For this reason, it is not recommended to completely loosen the skin after playing. Instead, it should be left at normal tension. Otherwise, the skin might tighten over time, even when the tuning system is fully loosened.

Another aspect to monitor is potential skin wear. Players who use higher tension may notice that the space between the lower point of the adjusters and the tuning rim increases over time. In some cases, a gap may even form between the tuning rim and the main rim. This varies from skin to skin: some show no signs of wear, others may display slight wear initially, but then stabilize, while some skins wear down gradually over the years. This is completely normal with natural skins and should not be a cause for concern, as it won’t negatively affect the sound.

Additionally, my HighEndLine bodhráns offer the option to replace the intermediate rim. This eliminates any visible gap and restores the instrument’s like-new appearance.

If, after a few years, it feels as though the screws are too short to maintain the desired head tension, the abutment of the tuning screws in the tuning ring can be raised using a 2mm Allen key.

With time and experience, players will learn how to properly care for their instrument.

Basically one can condense all instructions on how to care for your instrument into a few simple words

Try to develop a feeling for your instrument and treat it with respect, then you will have many years of pleasure and fun with it.

Familiarize yourself with all the characteristics and peculiarities of your instrument and apply them to optimum effect when playing.

A new life

Skin Reset

A “SkinReset” might be a great idea after extended periods of playing. While an experienced player can perform this, Christian Hedwitschak also offers this service at his workshop. The process involves carefully removing the tape, detuning, and relaxing the skin. Afterward, the skin is lightly moistened, dried slowly, retaped, and then smoothed on the inside with 600-grit sandpaper. This procedure helps restore the skin’s tension and ensures a more balanced, homogeneous sound.

It’s especially beneficial for players who tend to strike the same spot repeatedly, which can lead to uneven vibrations over time. In such cases, a “SkinReset” can work wonders and bring the drum back to its optimal performance.

Tuning

Only those who know their goals will find their way

Goals

Tuning a bodhrán has two aims:

  • high or low

    Desired tension

    First, you should aim to set the desired head tension, which can vary depending on the playing situation:

    Higher tension provides more rebound and attack for fast playing, while lower tension allows for more relaxed bass tones and works well with brush tippers. Especially with new drums, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the different pitches.

    To find the right tension, loosen all the screws until the skin is slack, then gradually tighten them again (in quarter turns) until you achieve a nice bass tone. This is your fundamental pitch. From there, it’s a matter of personal preference, and the head tension can be adjusted according to the playing context. Always tighten in quarter-turn increments, working your way evenly around the drum.

    All screws are always turned!

  • even tension

    Well-balanced skin

    The second goal of tuning is to achieve a well-balanced skin. Sometimes, the skin may not vibrate properly because one area of the playing surface has more tension than another, causing the clean, resonant tone to disappear.

    This can happen due to excessive pressure from the hand in one spot, moisture from sweat, or simply unevenly tightened tuning screws.

    To ensure the skin is evenly tensioned, lightly tap it with your finger about 5-8 cm from the edge (just below the tape on taped drums) at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions. You can hold the drum with the open side near your ear and tap the skin from the outside. Each spot should produce the same pitch. If not, gently tighten or loosen one or two screws in the area that sounds different, depending on whether the pitch is higher or lower.

    Once all areas have the same pitch, the drum will sound beautiful again, with the skin vibrating freely.