Detunning Congas

[luv4congas]

First I want to thank all of you, this is one cool site, Thank You!
Does anyone else detune their congas? The benefits from this is less stress on the shell and hardware as well as prolonging the life of the conga skin especially the Thailand water buffalo skins. I like to buy old drums and re skin or head them and one thing on drums that aren't detuned is the head stretches so much that there is no more thread left on the lug. On A drum that is detuned the distant between the rim and the top of the drum always stays the same. I even detune my Nuskyn even though they say you don't have to but I don't want the stress on the shell or hardware. Anyone have a take on this? the pic below is my 1970's I just cleaned up and re skinned, the skins were just cut and still wet.
L4C:

[gonefishin]

Those are some sweet lookin congas you have L4 , our resident expert , B-Bro will be with you momentarily with a reply.....lol , this is definately his neck of the woods .

I have a set of Gon Bops that are my 9 year old daughters , but I havent done anything to the heads . This is another good thread Im getting an interest in thanks for posting it , you're gonna fit in real nice around here . Keep up the good work .

[bongobro]

...our resident expert , B-Bro will be with you momentarily with a reply.....lol , this is definately his neck of the woods...

Thanks, GF, but I'm still learning about congas!

Actually, l4c, I haven't detuned my congas. I know you're supposed to, but in over 20 years of playing congas, I've broken only one head (the one on my black fiberglass CP quinto, the one for which I'm still trying to find a replacement). In my experience, it seems that humidity and temperature extremes do more damage to the drumheads than how you play them...I do tune or detune them when I notice the sound on one or more of them is "off" to my ear.

I guess I've been fortunate, since my church congas and bongos are set up all the time in the sanctuary, and the temperature stays fairly consistent. I don't haul them around all that much! Either that or I've been playing on borrowed time!

Love those LPs in the photo, by the way! Classics, aren't they?

[luv4congas]

Thanks GF and BB,
The skins can break but it's pretty rare. The main problem is the stretch. I wish I would have took pics of these drum before I restored them but they are a perfect example of what could happen. The skins had stretched so low that they could not be tuned anymore. the original owner added up to six washer to get more turns out of the lugs and even that ran out but were talking over 35 years.
L4C

[jimbolimbo99]

Specs on the dog?

[midgard]

lol! yeah, inquiring minds want to know! specs on the dog! Kind of looks like a bassett....

[Jack]

I only tune my congas down when its really humid/hot. In fact I have been intentionally stretching them further to lower the ring to a more comfortable
position. I play current issue LP performers series and I feel the rim is a bit
high. My conga has successfully stretched to a place I like. My Tumba is still
about the same and I recently replaced my quinto head with a fiberskyn. I think
playing gigs, transporting and moving the drums around....road trips etc cause
more damage to the shells than not detuning. I think detuning is wise, but its
one of those habits you have to develop. Like I said, tune them down when
when you get serious humidity and temperature changes. I think thats when
the skins go through the most dramatic and fast tension stresses.

On another note, detuning regularly forces you to tune.... and with that you
develop an ear for proper tuning. I say more power to you for taking care of
your drums bradda. I am not religious about it but do tune down when I think
I should.

[luv4congas]

Hello Jack,
Thank you for your interest in this topic. Alot of people pretty much do the same thing, tunning their congas up or down when needed which is probably good enough. Now that I think about it, out of all the people I jam with I'm the only one who does it...LOL A while ago I was checking out a set of drums for sale from an ad, this guy happen to be a hardcore congero that I recognized from local Latin jazz fest. He seemed to know everything there was to know about drums including the original origin. His arsenal of drums was massive and amazing. Of cource I started tapping on his drums and thats when I noticed they were all detuned which came with a lecture of course, so I've been de tunning ever since.
How do you like your Performers? Here is a pic of one I put an american cowskin on.
Thanks,
L4C

[BongoCajon]

I detune every night. Counterclockwise and then slap the skin after every complete circle to take any uneven load of the skins and I'm done when I can turn all the nuts by hand.