Synthetic heads or rather dead cattle? - Anybody touching synthetics lately?

[Mike]

It seems as if the circle close, i.e. we get back to the original topic...
Well, as far as the $%&!€ synthetics are concerned: I´ll never use them. I tried them out in a store: Plastics on nice LP classic woodshells, no thank you. They really feel a bit slippery and quite unnatural (how else could they..) Sound is just mediocre. (N.B. this was REMO NuSkyn)
Sorry, Bill, (earlier post) I can´t quite agree.
Perhaps it´s as always: If you´re doubtful U don´t like something, but for me, the thing is clear: dead cow is my thing....! But hey if you want, use synthetics

[Bongo Boy]

Well okay, if you're saying "staves move" and "give up", then that tells me the drum is coming apart. In that case, sure, I'd certainly expect a misshapen drum. Of course, this is much more likely with *traditional rims , traditional assembly that doesn't pin the staves to one another for shear strength, and use of traditional, natural adhesives vs modern synthetic epoxies or PVAs. Using these techniques, I'd expect the drum staves to stay intact (no relative motion) under full head tension for 20 years. I'll try it and get back

So I'm in agreement--a drum that begins to come apart due to long periods under tension is also likely to deform.

*Because the traditional design is not all that stiff in the direction perpendicular to the head surface, they will bow upward in the region between drawbolts. This relieves the compression on the staves that are between the bolt anchors, producing higher shear stresses on all staves. I seen this deformation in photos, but not firsthand.



Edited By Bongo Boy on Mar. 14 2002 at 23:16

[Bongo Boy]

In response to Kracker re: Giovanni playing Evans heads (see above). This may have come from a studio PR shot of him posing at the controls of an LP Galaxy set, rigged for speed with LP synthetics--which are in fact Evans heads. This of course doesn't mean he actually plays with these heads--but since he's an LP endorser and I assume LP wants to sell the heads it just OEM'd from Evans, well...I think that's how endorsing works!! See photo at

http://www.congahead.com/Musicians/Meet_Musicians/Hidalgo/hidalgo.html



Edited By Bongo Boy on Mar. 07 2002 at 21:04

[Firebrand]

On being with Giovanni,

I agree with Paquito D'Rivera (who I met recently at a concert in Amherst, MA). They call him "Mr. Nice Guy". Giovanni is a profoundly spiritual and humble person. I performed with him playing electric bass/drums and he was inviting all the other musicians to solo with him, when HE was the invited guest and star of the show. That says volumes about the character of the man.

The only thing about Giovanni is that he's hard to get in touch with and he's hard to organize logistics of concerts with. But, other than that, he's a wonderful man, a fun guy to go joke out in the street with, and an inspiring musician. And I got to hang out with him on stage and "rumbiando" with him for 7 hours straight, drinking Heinekens. And he always was nice. Go see him if you haven't already.