Hi y'all
I found a lot of help when trying to acquire single end, by using a chopstick, emphasis forced onto the hand action as Paul says. For me it wasn't easy at first, but gradually things dawned. Plus a single wood dowel about 5ml excellent.
I progressed to a piece from a fibre glass fishing rod,near the thin end, solid. But you need to creep up on an unsuspecting fisherman, and stay down wind...
I'm currently looking for a fiddler who spends too much time at the bar.
Also I long ago left out the bamboo skewers from the arsenal just cos any fraying could go unnoticed in the heat of the moment. Wood ones give me a better sound anyway.
My current favourite made a few months ago is 3 lengths of 5ml wood dowel with a wood skewer in each groove of the 'triangle' - iow a sixer. Has the wow factor.
Great thread, thanks all round.
John

Hey John,

Great to hear that we've been useful :).

IMO it's important to detatch the player from relying on a specific 'tool' to achieve what they want to do. Too often this is a 'lucky Tipper' or one that X person makes or plays, whereas realistically a player should be able to lift any tipper and achieve a rough approximation. There are extremes of course and there's always the question of matching the tipper to the hand and the skin but being able to play with anything (sharpies are good pocket-practise tools for single end stuff) certainly makes us more versatile and have a wider sound palette :)

Naturally there will always be weights, lengths etc etc that work best for players but with the skills learned 'in the hand' rather than ascribing the 'tool' with magical properties it allows us to usefully compare what works and what doesn't for us and for a given scenario.

I used to carry maybe a dozen tippers and chop & change between them, now it's just two weights of rods plus a drummers brush and a violin bow. I also carry the wee 3" baby bo stick just for fun - "you can't play that!" is commonly followed by "Wow!" :) It's fast as anything but doesn't have enough mass to generate a full low tone except on the 12" popcorn where it rocks! Wee drums always rock IMO.

Notr sure if any of this is relevant or useful but it is Friday. Isn't it? :)

P

I wanna jump into this chat its gotten interesting!

Paul I am in the same situation with regard to favourite tippers i.e. I've two I depend on and if they beat it! (pardon the pun) I'm scuppered. They were made by a mate of mine the great drum tutor and bodhrán player par excellence,Bob Armstrong. When I was living in London and thats over ten years ago now, crikey, how auld am.

The two I depend on are of the hot-rod ilk. I've tried the hod rod conversion using electric tape but they never hold their shape and consequently their power dissipates when they strike the skin. The one's Bob made were converted hot-rod's but they glued and then had a plastic barrel slid on over the glued area. Very robust, the barrel was a bit thick so he modified them to use a piece of plastic kind o', sort o', hose-like for want of a better term. It was better in that it was thinner and acted as a grip too. With the addition of an O ring you could slide up and down to modulate the timbre, I see Ralph uses the same principal. Bob's tippers are slightly thicker than the standard hot-rod, I've tried to persuade him to make some more but he just doesn't have the time what with his drum teaching, he doesn't even play bodhrán much anymore (A big shame)

I've emailed Ralph a couple of times in the last 2 years threatening to get some of his tippers but haven't followed through. Paul I see you're having discussions with him. Would you be interested in getting the dimensions of my two with with maybe a couple of photos. Might help you along with your plans with Ralph?

I did have one of Bob's in reserve, a kind of break glass in an emergency thing, but it was nicked by some old dear at a session in Howth, of all places!!

Bob has some interesting Bodhrán related stuff on his sight for those interested site address is http://www.bobarmstrong.co.uk/

Hope it's okay to put the site address here Paul? if not you can move it to a more appropriate place on Bodojo.

Let me have your thougts


Mike

Hey Mike,

I think that we do sometimes find a particular Tipper that just 'clicks' & exactly matches our preferences, most often though, a tipper won't and we learn to adjust our technique slightly to accommodate the tool. A benefit of having developed your personal technique on a wide range of tippers, pens, chopsticks etc etc..

The main one I have now from Ralf for example was originally 10" long iirc - I took a chop saw & belt sander to it so it's now 8" long - over the past 6 months I have grown to really like it and the variety of ways it can be used to seduce the goat - he's making me another one with a wee tweak and a few extra of them 'just in case'.
It is heavier than a standard barbeque tipper or drummers hot rod but it is heavier and more solid in sound and construction. It sounds quite like the one that Bob makes in terms of materials and solidity.

The link's fine, it's very relevant, its good to see what other people are up to :)

Essay? :)

P

Completely agree Paul, we adapt to the Tipper. It'd be nice to have a 'hand' in their creation considering how vital they are to playing style and sounds.



As you can see from mine the barrel is quite bulky and shiny to boot not easy to grip that was one thing I had to overcome when I first got it. Similar to yours it is quite chunky and gives a nice meaty sound with good balance between the brush and regular all wood tippers.

It's made up of 22 individual rods, not sure of the wood-type, 8 of which at 3mm from the centre, the remaining 13 around the circumference are a tad slimmer. I definitely think its the binding which makes this beater 'click', but flaws would be the width of the barrel and the material it's made from. I'm not a great fan of taped binding I think the individual rods, over time, move too much and effect continuity of timbre.

That said I'm yet to try any of Ralf's, I'm loathed to get onto him again and once more end up not following through on the project of getting myself new beaters. Mind you if he could create something similar I'd be hot to follow it up especially as I depend on the two I have so much.

Hey Carbis,

After reading your description of the 'sixer' I decided
to make a similar one to see how it works :P

I only had short dowels and bamboo skewers though...
Its a 6" bo brush Tipper - LOL

Its really good - I'm well pleased with it :D

Cillian.