vinnieL wrote:So it is your opinion that Ritmo and SOS are inferior drums?
I love the drum shell construction of both SOS & Ritmo. But they share crown designs & I have had to repair rivets that broke off the V's , warped & bent crown rims, bent saddles on the lug plates that caused the hook threads to be damaged from malalignments caused by the bending & warping parts. Also, I repaired out of round top drum edges caused by the fact that the Alma ring only made contact w/ some of the staves, not uniformly contacting & bracing each stave. If the alma rings were not flat stock but a more rigid square stock of same weight and counter sunk into a groove that holds the alma in place & uniformly bracing each stave, this would sucessfuly support the roundness of the drum and still allow natural expansion & contraction of the wood shell. Notice how wood barrel coopers cut a groove into the inside barrel so the lid is locked into a perfect circle and maintain a seal of the contents inside. This groove also keeps the staves locked against stresses that pull harder on staves w/ tuning lugs mounted which is where the upward tension pulls the staves & some times cause staves to separate or crack in the weaker soft grain of woods like oak that are naturally laminated w/ hard winter growth rings & more porous soft summer growth rings. Many softer tropical trees grow so fast all year long that the woods do not have the stronger dense winter growth rings ( like Asian / Siam Oak or Philippine Mahogany. These woods are more prone to natural & tension caused flexing and cracking. 100 year old wood sewer pipes had a V groove / tongue in groove stave construction that was very strong & locked the staves more securely than using pins or biscuits. In the case of using glue with tongue & groove, more adhesive surface areas strengthen the shells with out adding wider , heavier shell staves. I worked w/ Benny Sotello ( RIP ) who was a skilled cabinet maker / cooper who constructed the best 2 [ply staves shells I ever examined & played. Using heart woods on exterior & cross grained cheaper grade woods on interior, producing a stronger more uniform density stave w/ superior strength to weight ratios, used modern dependable adhesives, Fat Conga style crowns & lugs that could be guaranteed for life. The strong yet not heavy shells, resonated more in all tone frequencies. The only drum shells I see that approach this quality is Volcano shells fro Tom Alexander in Hawaii. A bright tonal drum can be muted to sound more like traditional congas simply by the care in selecting the drum head and species of hide used. By comparison, Lp's Paladium models which were inspired by drums made from Ritmo & SOS, have been over built, made to thick, too heavy, have heavier hard wares etc that all combine to limit shell resonance. It was the opposite direction to go in my opinion. How ever , improved Lug designs from Lp have been copied by all Asian brands. SOL, Ritmo, MoPerc & Timba use a lug saddle similar to old Gon Bops and this saddle is not braced enough to hold its original position on the shell plate. Timba did add more clearances to eliminate metal on metal damage to the hook threads and has room to add a nylon bushing as well to assist the function of the tuning system. Modern Gon Bops uses Asian style U saddles instead of the original Gon Bops or Valje style lug plate saddles. Meinl & Remo make the best rubber bumpers to protect shells. Simply using proper sized washers eliminate the protruding edges that cut into other drum shells. Sandwiching a nylon washer between 2 steel washers functions like a smoother bearing so less friction wears against crucial moving parts. I simply add a clear nylon tubing to my hard wares for a nice looking protective bumper that protects shells and is easy to allow tuning. I will add a picture as example of this from 1992 ? The crown is a low profile Stainless steel w/ 1/4 rounded top edge since st the time, the 1/2 round stainless was unavailable. Examine the shell, crown, lugs and protective covers on the hooks. All that is missing is a bottom of drum protective boot that allows more shell resonance.
- Congas by Benny Sotello formerly did work w/ Fat Congas. ( 1992 ? ) Ernesto Pediangco