With Christian I have a long friendship and even longer cooperation. And as master craftsmen and drummers we have of course done some projects together. One of them is the development of tippers according to Christian's ideas as a bodhránmaker, paired with mine as a tippermaker!

We took the trouble to redesign the Hot Rod Tipper from the ground up, rethinking, questioning and optimizing every detail. The result is a product that is available in different sound variations, but always remains the same in terms of construction. As a result, all models feel and play the same. Only the sonic result is clearly different from model to model. It was important to us to create a product that is suitable for all common playing styles and finger positions - without any limitations.

To accommodate all playing styles, we wanted to create a grip that offered a good grip but wasn't too tight, whether you were holding the tipper in the middle, at 2/3, or at the top. We achieved this with the Precision Control Grip: A thin mesh under a special shrink tube provides a comfortable grip without being too obtrusive or even restrictive. In addition, two sliding rubber rings in the grip area can be individually positioned to either quickly position the usual grip point or to limit the grip area. The position and length of the grip area was deliberately chosen to be "just right" in terms of playability, sound and comfort.

The HedRods have one more o-ring compared to the hotrods. This gives you a lot more flexibility in adjusting the playability and has a direct effect on the sound. In general, a hot rod will always feel a bit "softer" than a solid wood tipper. However, you can control this over a surprisingly wide range: The front o-ring: This is where you adjust the "click" of the rod. The farther forward you move it, the less the rod will move when you hit it, and the less the typical click you hear. Conversely, the farther you move the o-ring towards the handle, the stronger the click will be, since the individual bars can move more and more. Depending on the construction of the rod, this can lead to a sound similar to that of a jazz brush. The two rear o-rings: These allow you to adjust how massive the hedrod feels. For example, if you have the front o-ring very far forward and the back two right on the handle, the result will be a very clear attack, in the direction of a massive tipper. However, the whole thing still feels very soft in the hand, not to be compared with a solid wood tipper. The reason for this is that the rods can move quite a bit between the front o-ring and the beginning of the grip, so a lot of energy is "dampened" and you feel less attack feedback. At the same time, of course, less "unsprung mass" hits the head, and the audible result is a lower bass volume. By moving the rear O-rings, you can now also limit or fine-tune this movement.

Since when triplets are played double-sided, only the tipping noise can be heard from the upper end of the tipper, but not the typical hotrod noise, we decided to make all HedRods one-sided. The upper end of the tipper is made out of wood and connected to the tipper. Of course, all HedRods are glued in the grip area so that no stick can slip out or even change its position. The basic material for the different models is hand-selected wooden sticks (beech/walnut/bamboo) in different diameters and top quality. The surface of the beech and walnut sticks is oiled and waxed. Each stick is individually surface treated. The bamboo sticks remain natural, as a surface treatment would not make sense here. Depending on the model, the arrangement of the sticks is either parallel to the tilting axis or intentionally twisted to achieve a different click behavior. HR stands for HedRod, the following number is the diameter of the rods in mm, the following designation refers to the head formation, i.e. the sound-determining detail.

A tipper made of figured ash wood, a weighted drop-shaped head, an oval grip area and adjustable rubber rings - these were Christian's specifications and the result is this light tipper with the playing power of a heavy, hard tipper with an incredible bass content! Just like "enchanted"!

Length, weight, stroke weight and balance point are perfectly designed and coordinated. In this way we achieve an optimum of physical properties, i.e. the tipper plays almost by itself! Basically, we have adopted the proven handle design of the solid wood tipper enchantHED. However, since the dynamic properties of a "stick tipper" are completely different from those of a one-piece tipper, we have adapted the design accordingly. For the wood we use figured maple, which not only has all the important properties, but is also beautiful and available as leftover wood from the production of Christian's drums. You can't get more sustainable than that! The special handle shape is a combination of oval (middle) and round (ends). Together with the freely adjustable rubber rings, this results in a handle that is suitable for all types of playing.