natural Skin for conga - how to ...

[Mbalax]

i need to know what is the best animal skin for a conga: cow, mule, horse... and what is the treatment of the natural skin before put it in the drum because i know a man who tan skins, and i have bought him a skin for djembe. the skin for the djembe is the skin of a goat pulled out and dried ... i mean that there is no treatment,
¿is the same for the cow skin or is needed a treatment to make it like leather?
excuse my poor english

no se si me explique bien asi que les pregunto tambien en español.
Queria saber cual es el mejor tipo de piel para una conga, la piel de vaca, mula... ¿sirve la piel de caballo?
¿Que grosor debe tener la piel ?
¿La piel necesita algun tratamiento o simplemente es la piel arrancada del animal ?

Agradeceria una respuesta urgente.

Muchas gracias.

Aché.

[yoni]

Hello Mbalax,

Skins for congas require no special treatment. They are usually of cow skin. They are much easier to mount than djembe heads because there is not all that cord involved.

Laurent Lamy wrote an excellent guide page on this site for mounting conga heads. Hope this helps,

yoni

[Mbalax]

thanks, but i want to know what are the steps BETWEEN killing the animal and tuning the new skin. i Mean, how do you treat the skin, how do you remove the hair...and this things
but thanks at all
Mbalax

[yoni]

Good questions, Mbalax, wish I could answer in detail. I do know the skins are never tanned, as in leather making. I see goatskins left piled with lots of salt on them for a while, dont know for how long. Hair is removed by three different ways I know of - shaving, and/or applying a chemical they call here "sid", a kind of whitewash paint or undercoat for house paint (I forget the word in English), and some people burn the hair off, but I'm not sure exactly how. There's a guy in a valley near me who now has some goatskins curing in salt, I want to buy one from him, I'll try to get back with the preparing details as well, if it might help.

[Mbalax]

lot of thanks yoni.
i will try to replace my meinl buffalo head with a cow or horse skin because i dont like the ringing overtone...
could you give me some advice of what is the best skin (cow or horse or mule), and what is the best thickness for a quinto or a conga or a tumba.
Thanks.
Aché.

[yoni]

Hi again,

I think most are cow skin, but my congas have steer skin heads (a steer is a bull without balls), quite thick and have lasted years. Next time I replace the heads I might try thinner ones. There's differences between sounds of thin and thick skins, can't describe it, you'll have to try for yourself and see which you prefer. Thick heads will likely last longer, though. Good luck!
yoni

[JohnnyConga]

If you can find Mule skin I would recommend that. Yoni I disagree that "skins require no special treatment".In the Latin drumming community we have always used "manteca" (lard) to treat the skins when they start to age and show signs of possible 'cracking". We also use "palm oil" using a lite coat of it rubbed into the skin and then sit it in the sun for 4 hours. Another way of getting hair off of skin is to boil the hair off in hot water,jut don't let it sit too long just long enough to make "shaving" easier.......At your Service....JC JOHNNY CONGA.....

[JohnnyConga]

PS.....the head on my requinto is over 20 years old,it is a mule skin......JC JOHNNY CONGA....

[yoni]

I stand corrected, Johnny. Should have said just that they don't need tanning like for leather. Muleskin! That rings a bell. Maybe old gon bops heads are muleskin, not steerskin as I thought I remember? Better I chill on subjects I'm not sure of!

???

[JohnnyConga]

If you can get Muleskin,great. i only know of one place and that is Venezuela,maybe Mexico but it's harder to find. Or the local slaughterhouse, the way we used to buy 'sheets' of skins. You would get about 6 conga heads to a "sheet". I am going back a bit now. There are 2 slaughterhouses I know of one in Chicago and the other somewhere in Texas. Perhaps you know someone in Caracas that knows where to get the muleskins?.......At your Service..JC JOHNNY CONGA....