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Rawhide on travel/compact conga?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:01 am
by tae
Hello,

Does anyone have experience putting a rawhide on a Pearl travel conga or LP compact conga? The synthetic head has overtones I don't like, but I'm not sure if it's a bad idea due to its non-standard mounting scheme.

cheers,
Tae

Re: Rawhide on travel/compact conga?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:47 am
by Derbeno
Have you tried some duct tape on the botom side and see if that helps?

Re: Rawhide on travel/compact conga?

PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:47 am
by willfry
Also hoping someone else has tried this. I tried a pearl pre mounted head but that didn’t fit. Looks like i’m Going to have to get a flesh hoop made and also buy some longer bolts to get the skin on there.

Re: Rawhide on travel/compact conga?

PostPosted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 8:30 am
by drbongo42
I am planning to give this a try over Christmas - I am planning to swap the three Remo heads that came with the travel congas with three rawhide heads from three Tycoon drums - to see how they sound. Will report back my findings...

Re: Rawhide on travel/compact conga?

PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 10:08 am
by willfry
I tried it on a Pearl travel conga.
I went thinner than I usually would just in case but the drum can take a thicker head tuned to a C. I wouldn’t risk cranking it to quinto levels though.
It still hasl a bit of a ring but I’m intending to re skin travel Conga and Tumba with thicker heads soon when I get time.

Interested to know if it would work on a compact Conga as they’re easier to carry.

Re: Rawhide on travel/compact conga?

PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2022 8:57 pm
by drbongo42
I did get round to this but forgot to post back. The travel congas sound a lot better with rawhide heads on than the original synthetic heads - they have more depth and a purer tone - the synthetic heads work fine on my full size congas. The 12.5 Tumba is the hardest travel conga to tune as it has a large diameter in relation to the depth - I would actually recommend buying two congas and the quinto size rather than the Tumba model. I tune them to G3 Tumba, Bb3 Conga and C4 Quinto - if you tune the Tumba any lower it just sounds very flat and lifeless. These drums are ok for practising at home on the sofa and would be fine for a low volume acoustic gig - but if anyone is using amplifiers you will definitely need mic'ing up through the PA...