congaplace.com

Ok s oall the majors use laminate Two ply, and all the boutique manyfacturers and artisans use soild wood. Anybody know the appreciable difference in sound ? I would imagine the solid wood would have a more powerful tone with more sustain and projection, of course depending on wood type etc. Anybody know when LP nd others started using to ply's for their drums instead of solid stave?
PC

It is funny when you say "solid wood" what you mean is staved construction. If you want solid wood i.e. drum shell made from one solid log of wood ,then one can tell a difference , whether its laminated staves or solid wood staves there is a lot of glue and wood from different trees being put together. All that glue and joints
as well as the bands needed to hold it all together interfere with the resonance of the shell. Not to mention the pressure the wood is under when it is steam bent. When you hear a conga cut from a single tree, the wood is all the same density and resonates at the same frequency, there is nothing to break up the vibrations so the whole shell can sing.
They have the loudness of a fiberglass shell with the sonic smoothness you can only get from a solid wood shell. Check out www.spiritinthewood.com all the congas are true solid wood , oh and Bombas and Batas as well.