Thanks to Michael Vignoles who actually donated some tuning hardware to me. Please visit irelandwoodcrafts.com! I also purchased a set of Uilleann Pipes from him, which sound absolutely wonderful. Thanks again Michael!

Get a shell w/ a tuning ring (wittpercussion.com), tuning hardware (irelandwoodcrafts.com), a skin (Village Bazzaar or other various places), 18 6x sized brass screws 1/4″ long, screwdriver, tack hammer, tacks (Jo-ann Fabrics), nylon strap 2″ wide (Jo-ann Fabrics), wood stain, string and a meter stick.

Take the tuning ring and wrap a piece of string around its outer edge. Then cut the string to the length of that circumference. This will be used to evenly place the tuning hardware. Measure the total length of the string you just cut and divide that number by 5 (because I used 6 tuning pegs). Then use a Sharpie to make a mark at every interval you just did the math to get. Then wrap the string back around the tuning ring and use a pencil to make marks on the wood where the marks on the string land on the tuning ring. Where the ends of the string meet gets marked also.

Once the tuning ring is marked evenly in 6 places, place the shell upside down on a table and place the tuning ring upside down inside of it so that you can see the marks you made on the tuning ring as you look down on the shell. Use the tuning ring marks to reference the marks you make on the inside of the shell so that you have pencil marks that line up with the ones on the tuning ring. Then take the pencil and trace around the inner edge of the shell flush with where the tuning ring sits so that when the tuning ring is removed you can see where it sits when both are flat on the table.

Mount the tuning hardware using these marks and measurements you just made. I mounted the tuning ring half out/half in by referencing the line I traced on the inner edge of the shell. I did that so if I accidentally mounted the skin to tight or too loose I would be able to tune up or down if needed.

Now that the tuning hardware is mounted, stain the wood to protect it and make it look nice. After that is fully dried take your skin and soak it for a couple minutes in hot water. After is it soaked and stretched out (happens naturally in water), put it over the top of the shell with the tuning ring in place. This next part is almost impossible to describe with words but I will try my best…

Once the skin in centered on the top of the drum take one of the loose hanging edges and hold it against the outer edge of the shell. Then take the nylon strap and put it on top of the skin (which is on top of the outer edge of the shell). Tack it down with one tack centered in the nylon strap. Continue to move around the edge tacking along the way about 2″ between each tack all of which should be centered in the strap. The skin should end up mounted just tight enough (when wet) so that it doesnt flop around with any wrinkles or anything like that in the center of the drum head. After it is mounted go back around and tack more tacks on the top edge and bottom edge of the nylon strap. Look at the pictures I posted to get an idea of what the tack pattern should look like. You dont have to tack it in that particular pattern as long as it is kept in place well.

Then take a scissors and cut the excess skin off up to the bottom edge of the nylon strap. Wait for the skin to dry. Once it is dry use electrical tape around the outer edge of the drum head working inward an inch or two. This helps get rid of annoying overtones.

Presto! You have a new drum.

First I took a flat head screw driver and ripped out the tacks that looked to be holding the skin in place. Apparently the skin was attached with tacks and some strong glue. Next I put the drum (now tackless) in a bathtub full of extremely hot water. This loosened the skin and weakened the glue. I used a knife to peel the skin away from the side of the shell. After I got it started it became quite easy to rip the skin off the drum shell. Next I let the drum shell dry and went hunting for a new skin, new tacks and a soft border for the edge of the drum shell.

I walked to a shop called The Village Bazaar where their drum maker led me to his shop in the basement of the store. It was super cool to see how he made some of his drums. He gave me a stack of drum skins and I found a really nice thin, soft goat skin for $23. Next I went to True Value and picked up a tack hammer, some black furniture tacks, electrical tape and some velcro.

The drum shell was dried so I started to soak the new skin in the hot water to get it loose for the mounting procedure. This next part was the biggest pain in the neck and it took me at least an hour. I looked at the materials and scratched my head trying to devise a good way to mount the skin evenly and quickly before it dried. I took some string and wrapped it around the drum shell and cut it to be a foot longer than the circumference of the drumshell. Then I tied a loop in one end and passed the other end through that loop creating a sort of lasso. I planned to use this “lasso” to hold the skin on the drum shell just long enough for me to tack it in place. Sounds easy enough but it turned out to be much harder than I first imagined.

I put the wet skin on the table and the drum shell upside down, centered on the wet skin. I attempted to bring the edges of the skin up to the side of the drum shell so I could “lasso” it into place but that didn’t work at all. After trying this method for 30 minutes I decided to use electrical tape (which was purchased for a different reason all together) to temporarily hold the edges of the skin in place so I could put the “lasso” around and then finally tack the skin in place.

With the skin temporarily held in place by the electrical tape and the “lasso” I took the soft portion of the vecro and cut it to be exactly the circumference of the drum shell. Then I peeled off the backing to the stickable velcro and wrapped it carefully around the edge of the drum shell and began tacking the skin and the velcro edge in place. I tacked with about 1/2 inch between each tack. Once that step was complete I took off the “lasso” and the electrical tape and waited for the skin to dry.

Once the skin was dry I took out my tipper and tried it out. Due to its large diameter (18″) it had some annoying overtones that needed to be dealt with. I took out the electrical tape and began taping the outer edge of the drum skin. This may seem strange but it acts the same way a plastic outer rim ring does on a snare drum. I taped about 1 1/2 inches in towards the center of the drum.

Well, thats it! The tunable bodhran should be even more fun!