Tattie, I was addressing the people who have to get on every thread about the bodhran and complain about players who supposedly have no talent and can't keep time. (I suspect it's the posters who can't keep time.) It's another example of "The Great You Shut Up," the very common tendency to embarrass and squelch ordinary people who want to make music.

This thread, for example, has more than one link to men playing very tight, tintinnabulating drums with their hands. It's kind of fun to watch their hands, but the cymbal-like impurity of the tone gets irritating after a while - 20 seconds. Why link them? Bodhran playing produces a warm, deep thrumming, not a shrill jingle.

As for Ebarnacle's new bodhran, here we have an instrument unloaded at a garage sale by people who couldn't even keep track of the tipper. Does it seem likely that it has been properly cared for? No. So why risk an unusually heavy tipper at the outset?