Page 1 of 2

Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 6:42 am
by Mr.Rumba
I was able to find 2 relatively unscathed Isla drums, a conga and large tumba from 2009.
There are absolutely no cracks, just the usual scratches here and there and a few gouges.. and the drums do indeed sound incredible.
The bass tone on the tumba is really amazing. The fit and finish is def. not on par with Matt Smith, Skin On Skin or PM Percussion, but the sound is! The top rims are a bit bent which I am told is indicative of the materials used and a common occurence on these drums. All and all great drums I would say! I love the shape, fat belly and 3 bottom bands! The skins are quite good as well. I played a variety of Pele's drums a while back and they had much thicker skins which I did not like as much as these thinner cow skins.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 6:48 am
by Mike
Wow, those two are beauties for sure!

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 10:25 am
by RitmoBoricua
Nice drums. They seem to be canoe wood when Mario was building them in California.
I have a quinto made by Mario with sound second to none.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 3:46 pm
by Mr.Rumba
RitmoBoricua wrote:Nice drums. They seem to be canoe wood when Mario was building them in California.
I have a quinto made by Mario with sound second to none.


I am not a wood expert but I was told they were Mahogany and built in Belize, but I am not sure :)

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 4:00 pm
by RitmoBoricua
My first impression was that, mahogany but the more I looked at the pictures and
the wood grain the more they looked like stained canoe wood. I see the rim ears are
riveted and I think he started doing that in Belize. I think you right.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 7:06 pm
by bongosnotbombs
Those congas really look like canoe wood to me, and not the mahogany. My mahogany Isla bata looked much different. They resemble the canoe wood Islas I have seen. Mario began making the crowns screws prior to moving to Belize. My requinto had screws and it was made in LA.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2013 8:30 pm
by Espresso
Very impressive drum , congratulation to Your finding

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2013 1:50 am
by RitmoBoricua
Mr. Rumba drums are clearly stained and they seem to be canoe wood
according to Bongosnotbombs Mario made rims with riveted ears while
he was still in LA. Mr. Rumba you may have canoe not mahogany drums
still nice drums. Here is my quinto:

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2013 9:19 pm
by Thebreeze
You should be able to look inside the drum and see how the wood looks in there and should tell if its mahogany or not.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 12:25 pm
by Mr.Rumba
Does anyone know what canoe wood is (what family of wood)? I can not find out anything about it on line when I do a search. Thanks!

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:32 pm
by TONE74
Not a hundred percent sure but I think canoe wood is really poplar.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:42 pm
by RitmoBoricua
As far as I know is poplar.

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:56 pm
by bongosnotbombs
Mr.Rumba wrote:Does anyone know what canoe wood is (what family of wood)? I can not find out anything about it on line when I do a search. Thanks!


Don't search online, search the forum

search.php?keywords=isla+poplar

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 10:08 pm
by Thebreeze
I went online and found this link that states one of the names of Poplar is Canoe Wood. Here is the link.

http://www.woodworkerssource.com/Poplar.html

Re: Isla Percussion 2009 Conga and Tumba~ No Cracks!

PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 5:41 am
by Mr.Rumba
Thank you so much everyone for educating me about this wood. I had no clue about it before! I want to say that these drums sound great despite some questionable hardware (very bent top rim), and somewhat "uneven" craftsmanship. I still love them!