congaplace.com

Tonio I appreciate your humble and sensetive response. I do in fact understand all that you are saying. I my self can only vouch for the hardware which I have seen, and I’ve seen plenty, but in light of that I could not be honest and truthful if I was to make the same statement that oz made unless I in fact had compared, not just visually but mechanically, all hardware. Now having said that I must say, SOS hardware together with Matt's hardware is by far the best I have ever seen thus far, in my personal opinion, though I have not yet actually seen, up close, the moperc hardware.
You know Tonio my profession is Quality Assurance, and I can tell you, that unless you use a computer operated mill (CNC), lathe or any other (CNC)machinery for that matter, you will always have some variations in detail, in which case the drum would be considered as having been manufacture by a machine, then again I don’t know if I want such a perfect drum,. I believe that it’s those variations, those small minute surface imperfections, which by the way all handmade drums have, that characterize the drum itself, that show that the instrument was not made by a machine or just hand crafted, but hand made by a real human being, a hand drum artesian who through sweat and effort hand forms, hand welds, hand turns and hand polishes these wonderful instruments, now that I appreciate and am sure you do as well.
Tonio thanks again for sharing all of your helpful and constructive knowledge with us in this forum.

P.S. Man I love your New SOS bongos, congratulations.

Jay's and Matts hardware are pretty simple, I don't findeither of them to stand out to me as anything out of the ordinarry. Very functional, and they look good, but again nothing too extreme. Mopercs stainless steel hardware is definitely nice, but to me the true determination of a drums quality is the shell, Mopercs definitely have a great sound and shape. I was just kind of tripping out that someone who has so much experience (apparantly) with congas would dog them out. Considering they were pretty much modeled after juniors drums I would say the shape and sound is prety authentic, like i said I've only played his older mahogany drums, but they are phenomenal, my buddy sold his set of SOS drums to purchase the mopercs after playing them once and Michael Spiro thought they were the best sounding set of drums he's played on. I can't vouch for his newer maple drums or ash , but if they're build like his other drums they probably sound good as well.
PC

pcastag wrote:Jay's and Matts hardware are pretty simple, I don't findeither of them to stand out to me as anything out of the ordinarry. Very functional, and they look good, but again nothing too extreme.

Greeting pcastag, you are no doubt correct about Jays and Matt's hardware, in regards to being "simple, good and functional" but consider the fact that both jay an Matt both use 3/8 diameter tuning lugs and 1/8 steel for their crowns as well for their side mounts. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I am not familiar with the moperc hardware and if moperc uses the same size hardware then they are no doubt comparable one to another. When I mentioned Jays and Matt's hardware I was not referring to anything fancy but as you mentioned "very functional" and if I may add, and the reason for my comment on their hardware, "super hefty", very well made. This to me is "out of the ordinary because not all of the hand drum manufacturers use this size hardware.
Why moperc would be criticized I don't know I can only speak for myself. What I do know is that moperc makes a very desirable product and like I said, one day I hope to be privileged to own a set.
Peace.
Juan

No problem KC. Sure the big guys (artisans) have imperfections and thats what makes them such a hot ticket. SOS, Matt, Moperc all uses3/8" lugs.
Notice the lug retaining part (where they meet the washer, nut. Matt uses the rivet method , SOS , Moperc uses the rounded and welding on the back method that goes though the sideplate.
Once you get one of these quality drums, I don't think there is much to worry about. It just becomes a personal preference and you should be at the highest quality level. At least in the current crop.

PC, yeah Moperc in Mahogany was the peak in his drums. Now you can only get them in ash. Bongos can still be made in maple though. The older models hardware were somewhat non perfect on alignments but functional and has been refined through the years

One thing that I have noticed is I hardly see any Mopercs for sale.

I'm going to ask Jay about pricing his drums appropriately i.e. quinto through tumba all the same price, no matter what wood in use. It doesn't make sense to me. The wood used has a totally different price point, and the amount of hardware and wood . I suppose the work involved would make a difference also. Oak is alot harder to work with than ash , not to mention the cost.

T

Having some Skin on Skins, and Isla, some Resolutions and one of the new DW Gon Bops California series,
I can say Moperc's hardware certainly was the equal of any of them. Actually the DW GB's, while
strong hardware, and very nice, is not really anything special. You can tell it's mass produced, versus
the handmade character apparent in the other drums mentioned. The GB hardware is not inferior, it just has
a different character to it. So please no misunderstandings on that subject.

hey fellas
my assesment of the moperc congas hardware built better than any other custom congas is basesd on its structure and durability. while all or most custom conga makers build their hardware with steel and a coat(s) of chrome, mopercs is solid stainless steel. harder, will not pit, chip, stain or rust. ever. 3/8 lugs 3/16 side plates and crown, and wider than most. unlike most drum makers, the moperc side plates are designed to contour the body of the drum. with the smaller top and wider bottom it off sets the side plate screws vertically, no one screw is on top of each other on the same vertical line, the same cant be said for others, especially with the square and rectangular shape side plates. the hole the lug goes through is almost the same size of the lug, which keeps the lug centered, as oppossed to it being loose. the bumperc system although it may not look like much works perfectly. and oh by the way did i mention that matts, sos, islas and most custom drum makers dont even have lug protectors. plus michel gurantees the hardware for life. i will admit they are not as nice looking as ritmos, but they sure are solid.
when i was doing my due dillegence and research i subjected all makers to the same scrutiny, open minded, all the way.
when i compared everything with all the others, moperc was the overall best deal, of course that was 3 years ago.

suave

oz

PC the offer is still open, give me a holla if youre ever in the area.

Are there any videos on youtube where these drums can be heard?

vinnieL wrote:Are there any videos on youtube where these drums can be heard?

Moperc salsa model I believe, not the best of recordings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxfHWlLZlew

Man I would like to hear them better say one man playing on a set in a room that would be interesting to get an idea of how they sound. Thanks BnB

Try looking for some videos of Mopercs endorsers.

http://www.moperc.com/html_anglais/sponsors_an.php

I think that good looking MELISSA LAVERGNE might have some production videos
out there.

http://www.moperc.com/html_anglais/spon ... hp?ordre=6

Remember my post about Melissa -Hot Mama or something? I tried looking for some videos for Belle & Bum, but not too much-some music oriented variety comedy type show. I did look for the sound of the drums, but she was nice to gawk at too

Hey didn't I post a track to compare Isla and Moperc?

FYI, the shipping cost me $120 for the tumba

I really want to complete my set with a quinto (11"), but man I don't know. Michel did update his prices. Remember, congas are only in ash now.

T

Tonio wrote:Hey didn't I post a track to compare Isla and Moperc?
T

Yeah that's right you did. I remember that now.

here's a video of my moperc's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vobuHy_KKSM

ozrivera wrote:hey fellas
my assesment of the moperc congas hardware built better than any other custom congas is basesd on its structure and durability. while all or most custom conga makers build their hardware with steel and a coat(s) of chrome, mopercs is solid stainless steel. harder, will not pit, chip, stain or rust. ever. 3/8 lugs 3/16 side plates and crown, and wider than most. unlike most drum makers, the moperc side plates are designed to contour the body of the drum. with the smaller top and wider bottom it off sets the side plate screws vertically, no one screw is on top of each other on the same vertical line, the same cant be said for others, especially with the square and rectangular shape side plates. the hole the lug goes through is almost the same size of the lug, which keeps the lug centered, as oppossed to it being loose. the bumperc system although it may not look like much works perfectly. and oh by the way did i mention that matts, sos, islas and most custom drum makers dont even have lug protectors. plus michel gurantees the hardware for life. i will admit they are not as nice looking as ritmos, but they sure are solid.
when i was doing my due dillegence and research i subjected all makers to the same scrutiny, open minded, all the way.
when i compared everything with all the others, moperc was the overall best deal, of course that was 3 years ago.

suave

oz

PC the offer is still open, give me a holla if youre ever in the area.

Cool boss , will do, we head south every summer to South Padre, love the beaches down there and north padre right outside of Corpus. Used to play a lot of gigs at the Cantina Santa Fe, don't know if it's still there, good times in Corpus for sure!

ozrivera wrote:here's a video of my moperc's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vobuHy_KKSM

hey nice job there Ozzy !

T