The special thing about brush or bristle tippers is that you can combine the "tsch" sound of the bristles with the touch of a normal wooden tipper. So it is possible to create a basic rhythm of "tsch" sounds and still set surprisingly powerful accents that sound completely different from the brush sound.
The slightly thicker synthetic bristles and the smaller spreading angle provide a lively „swish" sound.
"Will the bristles break?"
"Will the plastic bristles bend by and by?"
"Will the bristles drop out?"
All these tippers come with wonderful skills and sound capabilities. Those are only possible because the tippers have a certain amount of flexibility and hence fragility. For that reason, I cannot provide a lifetime guarantee. Please remember that, for example, guitar strings or the hair of a fiddle bow do not have an indefinite lifetime either, and need to be replaced from time to time. Nevertheless, I guarantee that the wonderful qualities of those tippers will make them indispensable to creative bodhrán playing.
The N-EF 4 is equipped with extremely hard-wearing, natural plant fibres. Protecting them from direct UV radiation (basically, don't leave your tipper for days on your window sill…) will extend their lifetime immensely! Also, a few drops of good olive oil carefully applied to the bristles will keep the bristles flexible for a very long time.
The N-EF 3 and N-EF 4 may lose a bristle or two in the beginning. This is absolutely normal and there’s no need for concern. The bristles are care-fully glued in place by hand, but it can easily happen that a small number of "runaways" will not attach themselves to the glue...
All plastic bristles can be easily straightened again, in case they become "single-sided" after a while.
And now: Have fun with these exciting special tippers!
The above stated tipper lengths may vary within a tolerance of several millimeters. Wood is a natural product that responds to atmospheric conditions which may affect length or playability. Also the depicted and actual woodgrain may vary
