Causes of Strong Overtones - Questions about Tuning and Equipment

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Postby CongaCaja » Sat Jul 12, 2003 3:48 am

So, I drove my matador drums (conga & tumba) to the Sol Percussion shop (couple miles from my place in San Francisco) to be re-skinned. Although I was getting a good sound out of those drums, I didn't care much for the texture of the stock heads from LP.

The owner, Akbar, was very helpful and gave me a loaner drum (so I can continue practicing) while he re-skins my drums. Nice, huh? Anyway, I brought home one of the Sol congas which have different shape than the Sol Rumba models (which are similar to the Valje drums). http://www.solpercussion.com

Why am I telling you all this? First, to report that the hardware on these drums is really cool and the drums are really hand-crafted in their small shop in San Francisco.

Second, I am finding it quite difficult to get an open tone sound that I like from the drum. Granted, it could be my lack of tuning experience, but over the last few months I have been getting a nice sounds from my matadors. With this Sol drum, it seems that the second overtone (roughly, an octave and perfect 5th above fundamental in a imperfectly harmonic drum) is incredibly strong. Within the range of the drum, some fundamentals reduce this overtone but it is always strong. This gives "ringing" or thin open tone ( although the bass tones tend to quite deep and nice! )

So, what's different between this drum and my drums? I'll make a list and I like to get opinions regarding what might be a cause.

1) cow hide vs. buffalo
gee, I hope that's not the case, because I'm reskinning my with cow!

2) thinner skin on the Sol

3) shape : the Sol shell decends almost straight down from the bearing edge before tapering to a smaller diameter at the bottom. the matador are more barrel shaped. (btw, the Sol Rumba drums have the Valje shape...the loaner is not a Rumba model)

4) 5 lugs on the Sol vs. 6 on matador

5) anything that I forgot?

6) my inexperience ???

Sorry for the long, drawn-out posting, but I am curious because these are one of the options that I was considering for a future purchase. thanks in advance for any opinions/advice.

chris
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Postby Raymond » Mon Jul 14, 2003 5:33 pm

You are forgetting "break in". Natural heads tend to require break in. Some more than others.

Your former heads had probably a "break in" based on the way you play them and tune them that the new ones do not have yet.
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Postby CongaCaja » Mon Jul 14, 2003 6:50 pm

Raymond,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the loaner Sol drum was not new. It seems to have been around the shop for some time and fairly well-used. Thus, I don't think "break-in" is a factor with this drum.

chris
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Postby CongaCaja » Thu Jul 17, 2003 1:56 am

btw, the new cow skins that Akbar of Sol Percussion put on my matadors are nice. They need break-in time but they feel, sound and look good.

cjk
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