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Does the inside shape and/or finish quality of a conga (specifically wood conga) have anything to do with the sound? I have a set of LP Aspire (quinto, conga, tumba) and the outside is turned smooth and uniform then coated; however, the insided is raw and beveled shaped at the joints. Would it help/hurt the sound if I sanded that smooth. That would cause the shell thickness to drop. Could I use fiberglass and would that kill the "wood sound"?

Firstly wood congas sound differnt from fiberglass ones, the later is more bright. The inside of a conga is left "crude" mostly because it would take too much work to sand it smooth . Secondly the sound differs if wood is smooth inside. The sound waves produce a more 'straight' sound, ie. it goes stright down, the more edges on the inside the more the sound bounces around. Its like the difference between a stright drum and a barrell shaped drum, on the barrell the sound waves condesce toward the hole, and some bounce back producing a more lasting sound, while on the straight drum the sound just passes through the hole.
Honestly i wouldnt suggest sanding the inside, both acoustic wise and because the shell thickness would be reduced greatly, and this would also make the sound different, more weak. And it would lessen the life span of the drum. Hope this helps, I'm no real expert in acoustics, but iv made a few drums, some sound better some worse, and this is what i'v come to realise (put very shortly).



Edited By timo on May 28 2002 at 22:53

Timo... I think what you mean is some sound better and some sound even more better..
ben

Yeah, thanks for clearing that up.

:0 oooh. Thank makes sense. Thanks. I don't think I'll try sanding my only set of drums just yet.