We teased you last July about the BOD Deep – and then the entire stock sold within a month, through word of mouth and at the festivals, before we could put it up in the shop. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and most of those first drums are now in the hands of professional musicians.

At last we have re-stocked and the BODdrum Deep is now available in the on-line shop.

So what’s a BOD Deep, and why the buzz?

The Deep has a solid spun aluminium shell with a rolled edge like all our BODdrums, but the body is 6 inches (15 cm) deep versus our standard 4 inches (10 cm), making it very resonant throughout the range from high pops through midtones and into fantastic bass tones. For the Deep we have swapped out our classic matte black paint finish for a subtly metallic deep charcoal, but it’s the same full automotive standard quality finish, hard and reliable.

For the BOD Deep we wanted a new, more mellow sound that would really play up the resonance created by the deeper body and we found what we were looking for by customising the Evans ’56 Calftone. This 7 mil mylar based synthetic head was designed to replicate the warm traditional calf skin head sound of classic mid-20th century Big Band and Jazz kit drumming (think Gene Krupa’s drumming in Sing Sing Sing).

For the bodhrán, we have taped the Calftone to calm the cross harmonics and we re-finished the interior of the head to give a better texture for the musician who likes to work the inside of the skin with a hand or a sound bar whilst playing.  The customised Calftone has a remarkably warm tone for a synthetic head with a nice, not too aggressive attack and a bright sound which is mellowed by the resonance of the deep body.

We offer two other heads on the BOD Deep, which will be familiar to you from the classic BODdrums.  The Centre Spot Edge Control is a snare head, made of frosted pale grey single ply 14 mil film with an added 3 mil centre spot on the reverse. This enhances durability but also adds focus and crisp attack to the centre of the skin. Evans’ Edge Control technology removes troublesome mid-range overtones that can muddy the sound, much like taping.

The Hydraulic head has a thin slick of oil between two sheets of 6.5 and 7.5 mil black film. The result is a fat, deep and short sound, resonant and warm. You may see bubbles in the oil between the sheets – this is natural and actually, we like the lava lamp vibe it gives!

The head is removable, so you always have the option of swapping out the skin for another Evans head – experiment and make the sound your own. Like all BODdrums, the Deep is fully tuneable with the wrench supplied, to get the sound you want, but with a synthetic head, it holds its tune under any conditions, whether at a cold and rainy outdoor gig or on a hot stage.

It is worth noting that the BODdrum is a metal drum with a synthetic head – no animal products were used in any of the components.

What Does the BODdrum Deep Sound Like?

Adam Brown, of Rura and Ímar actually bought one of the first drums with the prototype head off us before our first production run was complete, and was so excited he went straight to Instagram posting a video on Instagram here. (you should be able to listen without an account or log in).

Take a look and a listen – use headphones if you can – this drum has fantastic resonance and intensity of sound.

John has also made a video which demo’s the Deep with all three heads and a few different beaters – you will also find this video on our YouTube channel and on the product page.