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Hello,

I need some advice on buying new skins, I have been told that if you can get it, mule skin is the best. I can get some calf skin quite easily, will this be just as good ? Also is it neccaserry to get 3 different thicknesses of skin for the three different sized drums?

Cheers,
Rory

Roryboy,

The calf vs. mule issue has been discussed at length here and I think that many of us would have to agree to disagree on the issue. I think that it's a matter of taste.

Mule skins are definitely the thickest and, in my opinion, dryest sounding heads out there. You won't have an overtone problem with a nice mule head.

However, I personally prefer calf head. I have some really nice cow heads and I've never been happier. Cow heads are easier on your hands. They fluctuate a bit more (than mule) with changes in humidity and temperature, but they are much more stable than the cheap, thin water buffallo that you get on a lot of drums. I also think that calf skins sound a bit warmer that mule.

As far as thickness is concerned, ideally you would have different thicknesses on your drums. However, it is more important to get skins of uniform thickness and quality. Some people prefer skins from the back of the neck of the animal becuase that is where they are the thickest. However, I prefer the skin from the top of the rump of the animal. This part of the skin provides both thickness and the largest uniform area.

Good luck.

Zach

Hello .........for each drum requires it's own particular thickness going from thickest(bass conga to quinto(thinnest). Most skins actually come from the stomach area where it is the thickest. Never heard about the back of the neck,to me it would be to thin from that area. But this is a new day and people try anything, anyway......At your Service..JC JOHNNY CONGA....PS TRY Tandy leather Co. for skins also...

Johnny,

My info on skin thickness and uniformity comes from two sources, my grandfather the cattle rancher and the guy that I get my skins from who is an african drum maker. Both said that for goats and cattle, the thickest skin is on the back of the animal. Futher, the thickest skin is at the neck. However, there isn't much surface area there. At the rump, near the backbone, the skin is still thick enough for a conga skin and there is enough surface area to make a nice uniform head.

Perhaps mule skin is thick enough all-around to take drum skins from the belly of the beast. I'll defer to your experience on that.

However, any time I've ever seen full cow skins cut for heads, the belly has been avoided as non-uniform and thin.

Zach

Thanks guys, thats a real help, I think I'll go for the calf skins. Do you think it would be a good idea 2 try & get one extrathick skin for the Tumba?.
Following the advice of earlier posts I've bought a tub of what is suposedly, lanolin, with a chemical name of......someting complicated.... anyways, its a creamy colour with a slight tinge of green and of a thick, gloopy consistency. Does this sound like the right stuff to lube my heads?
Just one more thing, I've been trying to figure out why I get such a prominent ringing sound from my drums on slaps. Could this be because of the thin buffalo skins?

thanks
rors

Hi RoryBoy.....the best thing for your skins is Lard or west African Palm oil lightly coated and then set in the sun for about 4 hours and the drums tuned all the way down. If your drums have what I call a "pinging" or "overtone" when slapped it could be that they are fiberglass? Which can happen depending on what type of congas you do have. I still can't see how the skin comes from the back of the animal because of it's back bones, that is why I said the stomach,which is thicker than the backbone skin. But I don't raise cattle either........ At your Service...JC JOHNNY CONGA PS The African drum makers deal mostly with goat skins because it is used for Jimbes not congas.......

JohnnyConga wrote:Hello .........for each drum requires it's own particular thickness going from thickest(bass conga to quinto(thinnest). Most skins actually come from the stomach area where it is the thickest. Never heard about the back of the neck,to me it would be to thin from that area. But this is a new day and people try anything, anyway......At your Service..JC JOHNNY CONGA....PS TRY Tandy leather Co. for skins also...

Hi. I noticed that Pearl congas skins are just like you said, thicker for the "tumba" and thinner for the "conga". If I am not wrong LP's skins are pretty much the same thickness regardless of head size.

I checked out some beautiful Extra soft and sturdy skins.
The had a Logo on them "Op". I think they're Mule and
that OP may be in the Bronx. I need to get hold of this skin!
but I prefer to mount them myself as I have some old
odd size LPs from the 70's and also some Gon Bops.
If anyone knows about these great skins, please post the info here.I saw some of these pre-mounted at Drummers World in NYC.

Isaac Hersh
NY/NJ
gutwilik@yahoo.com

I just had my drums reskinned for the first time. They came with the standard buffalo that comes on all LP Matadors (not the "Hand Picked" variety either).

Anyway, Akbar at Sol Percussion put on a couple of cow skins that look fairly thick. The tumba skin is thicker than the conga (as per Johnny's previous note). Oddly, the skins have a dark color to them. Although most cow hides have a light tan color these seem to be almost brown. Akbar gets most of his skins from Peru and he said this one had a unique color (more oily?...who knows). The look pretty cool, but more importantly...they sound great!

The tone is clear without being dull...aka well-behaved, in-tune overtones with moderate relative strengths with respect to the strong fundamental frequency. My girlfriend says that they seem louder than the original skins.

chris