I recently flew out to Germany to visit Christian whilst we were finalising the details for the launch of the new bodhrán and took a few snaps to show the whole process from start to finish. So you can see how the drum is built from scratch.
In this first picture, you can see the 3 sheets of wood which make up the frame going into the mould where they will be glued and set.
From there, the drum is smoothed out before sent to master woodturner Stevie Moises, who cuts the concave shape into the drum.
Stevie below, in his workshop getting ready to apply the concave finish to the frame.
Here’s me inspecting the skins which are going to be used and stress testing the wood to make sure it is of the highest quality :-)
Below you can see 2 finished drums as well as one ready to be fitted with the skin and with the tuning system ready to go in.
One last inspection :-)
Please note, due to insurance reasons I did not use any of the power tools in the workshop and you’ll be pleased to hear that my hands were not involved in the making, only the playing ;-)