Spirit in the Wood...

[Tumbas]

I did a search and didn't come up with anything regarding the posting of this video...

Here is Omo Anya, Conrad's teacher playing 5 drums. No ringing or other undesirable noises coming from the drum... pure tone and clean slaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klSR9kJna6w

These drums sound awesome to me.

Any critique on sound from you guys?

[pcastag]

I like the way the quinto and the two tumbas sound, the congas ( two drums in center,) sound like they have some funky overtones. Overall nice sounding set of tubs and nice playing!
PC

[windhorse]

Wow! He's great! I love the way this guy plays! I think whatever sounds good out of those drums comes mostly from his mastery..
If you like them tuned high and ringy.. Sort of the normal band sound, then fine.. Nice and loud that way.
But, I would re-head them all and go with a lower tuning for folkloricnous.

[spiritwood]

The sound quality on the Youtube does not reflect what these drums really sound like. No doubt Chuckee is one of the best drummers I know and I am grateful to have him as a friend and a teacher. But its not just his skill these drum really are amazing sounding. Maybe I am a little bias since I made them. I find all my solid wood "Enrerzo" drums are louder than staved congas.
I'd be glad to give you more info about Chuckee and or Spirit in the wood drums just contact me.

[rhythmrhyme]

Hey Spirit in the Wood,

I checked out your website, very inspirational! I especially like all the big logs stacked around your shop, gives the place an interesting energy. A bit of a Narnia/lord of the rings thing.

A friend of mine had a set of solid wood congas. I don't think you made them - he purchased them through DrumSkulls, another great company by the way!

I had the opportunity to play his drums on a number of occasions and unfortunately they had a lot of overtones. They would have recorded in a similar manner to the vid posted above by Tumbas. It seemed very counterintuitive to me as I thought that a solid shell conga would be more resonant, but I think the solid shells are somehow more rigid than a staved drum. I think his tubs were also made from quite a hard wood and he tended to keep them tuned up fairly tight. I'm also not sure how much he played them or if the heads every really got fully broken in. So - it's not like my experiences are empirically validated or anything.

Have you ever tried making a solid shell conga out of a wood that is a bit less rigid and dense then ash? I ask this because I wonder if the solid shell is unique in terms of additional rigidity and if a slightly softer wood would maintain projection while cutting down some of the overtones. I believe in your design but wonder if solid shell manufactures are going a bit overkill with the wood density and if this is working against them.

BTW - you seem to have a nice simple, and traditional, hardware system sorted out. Do you do a chrome as well as the anodized black and gold? Also, are they fully welded up in addition to what looks like rivets from the photo's?

Cheers, and keep it up!!

RR