tone of shell

[sean valdepenas]

Does anyone know if the conga shell has a tone to it, when one knocks on the wood. While removing the head I knock on the wooden shell and each drum produces a tone. Is that the inherent tone of the drum, or is it just incidental?

[funkyruss]

the shell will produce a tone, indeed ya might even call it a note. Different size shell, different note. How the drum is made will also produce a different note. DW stamps the note of the shell on the inside, as others may do as well.............

[sean valdepenas]

These are LP Salsa congas. I looked inside and they are stamped with a 'G' for all 3. But handwritten is a note after 'LP' and some numbers. The notes are "c" for the quinto, "b" for the conga and "g" for the tumbadora.

Do these affect the tuning in any way? In other words, will the range of the drum when the heads are tightened be affected by what notes the drums are?

[Ernesto Pediangco]

Does anyone know if the conga shell has a tone to it, when one knocks on the wood. While removing the head I knock on the wooden shell and each drum produces a tone. Is that the inherent tone of the drum, or is it just incidental?

Wood shell weight and type does shape much of the tone of a conga. Valje drums were famed for designing the shell shape & height and overall tone of the shell itself...so as to make it a more focused fundamental tuning range per drum size. The head weights further more either enhanced the sound or dampened it. Many over built Asian Shells...like LP Giovanni models & Paladium models, have heavy thich shells, interior fiberglass & exteriors coated in dense plastic that chokes the shells resonance so much...they may as well be made from sewer pipes ! The mid & low tones suffer...and near imposible to get a decent bass tone from these models. The shells, hardwares and heads are not well balanced...they are simply thick, heavy and made for volume over tone, Asian heads also are selected for volume over tone. LP is just a name....Giovanni is just a name !