Lonnie Ezell

A couple of months ago, I started teaching myself how to play the bodhran. I’ve had an inexpensive one for years that I never played. A year or so ago, I pulled it out to learn how to play it and, as luck would have it, the skin had started to rip off the rim. With the help of a band-mate, I bought a new goat skin and put it on.

Then it sat on the shelf for a while. Oh, I tried picking it up and learning, but to little avail. Until one of our band members moved away. He’ll still make it to the occasional gig, and he’s a phenomenal bodhran player, but there’s still gigs that we won’t have him on. I figured now was the perfect time to learn. We have some shanties that just don’t sound the same without bodhran or percussion.

I have always had a tendency to want to build the instruments that I get interested in. The biggest problem is that I don’t really have the tools to do it. So, a few of those projects never really got off the ground. I built a cajon (or box-drum for those of you not in-the-know) and it works really well. The urge struck again, so this will be my account of the journey to build a bodhran.

Goals

Since I’m going to the trouble of making a drum, the goal is to get it as close to pro-quality as I can. I did a ton of research, watched a lot of YouTube videos, and sketched out a plan to make it work.

For those looking for some of the best bodhrans out there, be sure to check out the following makers:

• Hedwitschak Drums – some of my favorites.
• Metloef Drums – some more beauties, awesome tuners, and a very helpful builder.
• Albert Alfonso Drums – excellent maker here in the USA.
• Seamus O’Cane – arguably the best traditional-style bodhran maker alive.
• Brendan White – heard great stuff about his drums, and the couple of YouTube vids I found make me agree.

It will be tunable. That’s a must. And the tuners must be finger-tunable so I don’t need to carry around a wrench. (I ended up getting a full set of 8 tuners from Metloef. Very awesome tuners. Highly recommended.)

I currently have an 18″ bodhran and it’s a decent size. Seems to be about the standard for the cheap ones you get from Pakistan. I wanted something smaller and deeper. The tone I want to get always seems to come from the smaller, deeper drums that I see in the videos. I was originally going to make a 16″ drum, but logistics got the better of me and I’m now building a 15″ because that’s what a 1/2 sheet of plywood will get you.

And I want a decent sized angled area between the outer rim and inner rim to provide a pretty good target for quieter ‘rim-shots’ than what my non-tunable drum has.

First Steps

The Mold

The first thing to do was to construct a mold to help hold the sides in place.

This is simply two pieces of 1/2″ plywood with 4 x 4″ tall 1″x2″ spacers in between. Nothing special.

Remember how I said I don’t really have all of the right tools to do this? The circle was cut with a Dremel and a routing attachement. Believe it or not, it actually worked out pretty good, though did taking a bit of putzing with as the bit kept coming loose as I had to go around and around the circle digging deeper and deeper.

I used 4″ spacing blocks because I’m making a 6″ deep shell and figured that would be better. Looking back, I’d opt to make them a little bit shorter to give myself a little more working room for clamps and such.

The Sides

For the wood, I opted to go the simple route and use bending luan (a hardwood plywood) because I heard that it could be done and makes a decent rim. The stuff I’m using is 1/4″ thick, and the shell will be 2 layers.

Once the pieces were cut, it was time to sand the sides of the plywood until they were nice and smooth. This will, hopefully, let the glue hold better.

I cut it so that it was about 1/2″ longer than it needed it be. This let me use a splice joint to overlap the ends and glue them together so that the joint is almost invisible. Not that it matters all that much since I’ll be gluing a veneer on both the insides and outsides, but I was hoping it might lend a touch extra strength to the pretty flimsy feeling plywood.

 I cheated a bit on the splice joint. Remember – don’t really have the right tools for the job here.

Since I didn’t have what seemed to be the right stuff for the job, I clamped the wood down to the workbench and used an orbital sander to get the right shape.

Somehow, I got pretty close with the joints and they actually fit pretty good. There’s a small gap on the outside of the first layer that I’ll have to fill in with epoxy and sawdust, or wood filler, or something.

Gluing the Layers

 First thing I did was to spread some glue on one end of the splice and clamp it up in the mold. I used Titebond III, but I’m sure any good wood glue would work. After this sat for an hour or so I was ready for the next layer.

The next layer was even easier. I placed it squarely inside the other rim and marked the place to cut it. I wasn’t planning on doing a splice joint here, but a butt joint, so I cut it just slightly longer than needed.

Putting it back inside I checked the fit. Took it out and sanded a bit off the edge and put it back in once more. This time, it was a solid fit. Time to glue it up.

I placed some waxed paper below the mold to keep the shell from getting glued to the worktable, then slathered plenty of glue all around the inside of the outer layer. I snapped the inside layer in place and clamped the joint.

Nothing left to do at this point but wait.

I was a bit nervous at first, because the two layers, freshly glued, seemed a bit too flexible still to make a good, solid rim. I checked it an hour or two later and it’s much stiffer now, with very little give. There’s still another small layer to add so I think everything will be fine.

To Be Continued…

This is just the start of the project, but I figured I was actually doing something other than work so I should probably post a bit about it.

I’m looking forward to working on this more. But for now… back to work.