Skin question

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Skin question

Postby pcastag » Sat Jun 06, 2015 5:25 pm

Since all of the good suppliers have gone away, I'm going to go back to what I used to do which is buy sides from on line retailers and cut my own. Sides of cow can be bought for about 170 adn I used to be able to get five skins from them Anybody ever try elk, deer or american buffalo? Just wondering.


Eld hide

https://furandhide.com/sites/default/fi ... 000n-1.jpg

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Re: Skin question

Postby Mike » Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:17 am

Elk and deer are said to be too soft and stretchy for congas.
I do not know about the American buffalo, as you hardly see them roam over here in Europe :wink:
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Re: Skin question

Postby burke » Sun Jun 07, 2015 2:36 pm

I just talked to the guy at Stern Tanning a few weeks ago and put an order in for white steer. just processing a new batch now he said so it will be a while.

I knew a guy who put deer on a bodhran once ... nice and mellow, but yes very soft. You can get away with that more in a bodhran since your hands on the back all the time varying the tension.

Maybe really thick deer rawhide would have less bounce?
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Re: Skin question

Postby rhythmrhyme » Sun Jun 07, 2015 3:51 pm

I purchased skins through Moperc once, they were excellent quality. Not sure if they're still into selling just skins, but as with most businesses, if there is a mark up they probably will.

Another option may be Drum Skulls. They don't have conga heads on their site right now but I expect emerging demand (a couple calls) would prompt them to source stock.

Manito percussion looks to be alive and well, they have cow and mule listed as available on their site.

As a funny aside, I played a drum with Ostrich skin on it once. Weird pock marked skin, super bouncy, no good for a conga but suitable for a novel sensory experience!

Burke -- you a bodhran player? I got one a while back, given my irish/newf roots thought I should give it a try. I'm having a hard time committing to training just my right hand to play all those strokes. Feels super imbalanced, after so many years on kit I'm a bit concerned it will throw me off when I go back to using 2 sticks instead of one.
Last edited by rhythmrhyme on Sun Jun 07, 2015 4:02 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Skin question

Postby pcastag » Sun Jun 07, 2015 3:52 pm

So stern is still up adn running? They have nice skins.
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Re: Skin question

Postby burke » Sun Jun 07, 2015 5:51 pm

Seems to be and I spoke right to the guy that took over. I read somewhere they were the original gon bops supplier and they also seemed to be the only ones who have 'white steer' on the website which matches my other GB's

Hey RR - been playing bodhran for decades as well as bongos, congas and doumbek. Never had any crossover brain interference, seems to be apples and watermelons. But I'm not a kit player so I can't really speak to what effect it would have on two stick playing. Personally I would be surprised if it did. Flinging a tipper on a bodhran seems really different than kit playing.
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Re: Skin question

Postby rhythmrhyme » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:01 pm

Burke, your right hand is still working well then. No arthritis or carpal tunnel issues after all that time on the Bodhran -- that's encouraging. It's the repetative strain on the R wrist that concerned me most -- my right forearm still lights up when I play, lots of learning yet to do. I've seen a few different tipper styles though, probably need to decide on one that feels to have the least amount of strain, I'm thinking 'top end, baby hand', at least that's what I think it's called. Double ended came easy though, finding clean double strokes playing top end is much harder.

Sorry for the hijack folks...
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Re: Skin question

Postby burke » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:32 pm

We are hijacking ... last one just to respond. I play old school 'Kerry Style'. Using both ends of the tipper. Frankly I don't get all the fuss about the single headed style - I've usually heard it described as West Limerick style. IMHO I think you'd have more danger of wrist issues with that than the more trad style. I play with a heavy stick and find it effortless because I'm using the momentum of a very relaxed, loose wrist with the bounce off the skin [perhaps akin to control a stick player uses on a snare]. My 'feeling' is that the one ended stick shift style would take more muscle power than the controlled momentum of the old school. My only real lesson came from an Irish guy who described the hand motion as being like trying to flick snot off the end of your finger.
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