Getting the most out of your Cooperman frame drum
Some background history of our artist endorser program
The first Cooperman frame drums ( circa 1976) were 18” bodhrans, mounted with goatskin drumheads. Pat Cooperman Sr. had a friend, Tom Callinan, who had purchased a bodhran during a visit to Ireland, but the drum head had torn from shell during the flight back ( likely due to plane cabin's the low humidity). Tom asked Pat, who had just recently opened a rope drum building workshop in Centerbrook Connecticut, to replace the drum head. Pat was certain there was a better way to secure the head to the shell than simply tacking it with upholstery nails, so he rebuilt the...
FAQ: Can I mount a frame drum on the wall?
The weight of a drum shell can, over time and especially when suspended from a single point (like a nail or peg in a wall), cause the shell to distort. So, ideally, a frame drum should not be suspended, nor hung on the wall. That said, we recognize that it is both convenient and attractive to do so – and, sure, we do it from time to time. With the above caveats in mind, here are some suggestions to mitigate the potential problems: Use a larger peg rather than a small finish nail to better distribute the weight...
Some notes on using the Cooperman tuning system
It’s important to know how to adjust your drum to maintain its optimum sound range. The Cooperman tuning mechanism helps players adjust the relative pitch of both synthetic and skin headed drums. Here are a few points to keep in mind.
Charting the tuning range of our frame drums
We have explored the topic of the pitch range for frame drums with several endorsing artists. We have done our best to develop a simple chart - but charts are a bit reductive, and input from our endorsing artists has been invaluable in helping to understand this topic.
