Conga Skin dealers

[frquent flyer]

Are the dealers of drum skins really sensitive and smart enough to select skins suitable fo each different drum that you are working on.In other words do they send you a tumba size skin for a tumba or a requinto size for a requinto.? This is simply a question ,not a criticism.

[Gretschhead]

Everyone who I have dealt with has been a conga player themselves, so I was pretty happy with what they picked out for me. Usually if you tell them what you want they can get it pretty close.

[Ernesto Pediangco]

Are the dealers of drum skins really sensitive and smart enough to select skins suitable fo each different drum that you are working on.In other words do they send you a tumba size skin for a tumba or a requinto size for a requinto.? This is simply a question ,not a criticism.

Best guess is that anyone endeavoring to be in this limited biz is more likely passionate & educated regarding appropriate skin per drum etc. BUT I always send samples to represent the heads I require. Fragile drums cannot withstand too thick of a head...nor do they sound full ranged & are harder to mount. Thas why many Asian made drums seem to have thinner heads...even if they sound more like djembe heads than conga heads. Bongo can be matched either thin or thick on the small drum...and that dictates what u should want on the lrg bongo. Medium weight / thicknesses are always best. The head tone can be adusted by adding muffling or thined w/ a sander on the underside of the head. I have used thin rubber foam w/ adheasive applied to the underside of congas w/ great results on both plastic & natural heads. I recomend LandH percussion & J.C.R. percussion as a source of select rawhide heads. ( they dont use Asian waterbuffalo ) they use Cow or Steer hides which I prefer regardless of brand of conga / bongo ~ wood or fiberglass.