by jorge » Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:54 pm
I have been playing SOS drums since I bought my first SOS oak 13" tumbadora in 1983. I decided to get a SOS when I gave Steve Thornton a ride home one night after he was playing with Mongo, and asked him where Mongo got those drums. Both he and Mongo made those drums sing, of course they could have made my kitchen drawer sing too, but the SOS drums sure sounded good in their hands. Steve also played SOS drums with his own group, and with Jon Lucien etc. Daniel Ponce was blowing everyone else away back in 1982 playing SOS drums too, so the choice was really between Juniors, or another Valje, or SOS and I chose SOS.
I bought my last SOS in 2002 so I can't comment on the most recent drums, but I can give a medium term (25 year) perspective. Check back when I'm 80 and I will give you a long term perspective. I took my tumba to Central Park last week (no one else had brought a tumba), it sounded great. Even the guy playing palitos on the side of the drum couldn't dent it. It was a great rumba, Vicente Sanchez (Raices Habaneras) sat down on quinto for a few songs.
SOS workmanship is superb. The design is old school, Vergara style, with steamed, bent staves cut from flat quarter sawn oak or flat cherry boards. Metalwork and welding are excellent, Jay was a sheet metal worker before he started building drums. Some of the chrome on the lugs began to peel off after about 15 years, but they haven't rusted in the 10 or so years since. The lugs are very durable, I still have 5 lugs I bought about 20 years ago as spares and still have not had to use them. Both of my original oak drums that were finished with Watco oil only (no polyurethane) cracked in several joint lines between staves over the first few New York winters. I love the look of the Watco oiled oak, but the oak drums definitely expand and shrink a lot more with humidity changes from summer to winter when there is no polyurethane outer finish, and this can cause cracking. Jay fixed both of them and they haven't cracked since. One is still Watco oil only, the other I refinished with polyurethane. To refinish an area of Watco oiled oak, you just take some steel wool and Watco oil and rub it in with the steel wool. Gets rid of the discolorations from palito abuse in the park. No stripping, no sanding, no staining. Two oak SOS drums I bought since then were coated with polyurethane and even the NY/NJ humidity cycles have not caused any cracks. Jay told me he started using cherry because it has the lowest coefficient of expansion of any of the harder woods, and would be less likely to crack or move. Two cherry SOS drums have not cracked either. The cherry definitely expands and contracts less, although the bands did get loose in the winter and I relocated them in midwinter so they are tight year round now. Oak is more durable than cherry and withstands the Central Park concussionists better, playing palitos on the side, drunks stumbling over the drums and knocking them down on asphalt, etc.
The stainless bands are MUCH more durable than the black ox. After about 10 years, the black ox bands rusted. If it is covered with polyurethane it won't rust, but it looks tacky up close. The black ox rim rusted from sweat in less than 10 years, and the chromed rims have not rusted yet, even after 25 years. A couple of rims (one black ox, one chromed) did bend from using very thick skins and tuning the drum high, and I had to buy new rims from Jay. He has been using harder steel in the past 15 years and I haven't bent either of the new rims, even with a thick skin on the 11.5" tres golpe drum.
The sound is great, the oak is a little louder than the cherry, with a more aggressive sound to it (Jay used the word "ballsy" when I bought my first tres golpe drum, and it fits). All my SOS drums have a ring that you can hear when you muffle a slap, but you can't hear it playing with other instruments.
Bottom line: SOS makes excellent drums, the quarter sawn oak with stainless bands and chromed hardware is the most durable. I like the sound of the oak drums slightly better than the cherry, especially over an amplified band, but that is personal preference and less relevant if you mic your drums when playing with a band. For rumba, I have heard other drums that are comparable (I love Juniors too, and a couple of drums I heard or played in Cuba), but I have not heard better.