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I was kind of experimenting to play congas with wooden sticks and haven´t been too satisfied with the sound yet. Have been using drumsticks (thick+heavy) as well as my selfmade cowbell beater. Perhaps it´s also a question of the drum / the skin?
Is there a specific beater?? How to get a good sound with a stick out of your conga??
Patato sometimes uses a stick, doesn´t he?

Ok Stick on drum for me is a NO-NO except in bembe format. Patato plays with a stick now because of his right hand and age. It irks the (*&# out of me when I see guys trying to beat out rhythms on congas with sticks unless they are defined parts. For example I saw a guy backing up Lyle Lovett,playing "Brushes" on congas..Give me a break! It insults me to see the instrument treated like that....hey like Mongo says.."It's about Skin on skin".......JC JOHNNY CONGA....

hi mike
i use a thick about 3/4" self made stick, slightly rounded on the hitting edge, to play merengue, but not really otherwise. i also have a goat skin on my conga, (because its self made) and it has a decent sound. but i never played a thick skinned conga with a stick. or a synthetic. but yaeh, saw song where patato played with a stick, but he played really well so it doesn't really matter. but i agree with JC that unless people play specific parts, it is ridiculous to beat your drum with a stick. hope this helps.

Hi guys, of course your repies helped:
I really expected such fervent reactions on playing congas not with hands. Mind you, I am a follower of "hands only" normally, it was just a thought.
Timo, you are right, on thick skins the sound is really awful. On a quinto with thin skin, it ain´t THAT bad - but nothing compared to hand on skin. In order to prevent further fury, let´s leave stick-drumming for merengue, aged congueros, traps players and fools like me. ;-)

second to that

I'm fairly new to congas but I've just started playing them ( and other percussion) in a funk band and I find that Soft head mallets work quite well (Adams MB1 marimba mallets). It also enables me to play faster rythyms - probably because I come from a percussion background. Sorry if it seems sacreligious.

That's about it.
Fish

I agree with most of what's been said here. I only use sticks on my quinto when playing a few rhythms on congas. For example, rhythms that are trying to assimilate rhythms from other drums. The tambora rhythms of the merengue are a prime example.

I also agree that bembe is a good time to integrate some stick playing.

I've found that you can assimilate cascara patterns on conga with a single stick, too.

My $0.02,

Zach

Steve Gadd uses the flexible type of sticks that drummers call 'hot rods' in the Modern Drummer video with Giovanni for one piece on conga. That I would think is a lot less damaging to skins than a drum stick / large timbale stick. Truth be told I'm not a fan of sticks on congas, though.

Simon B