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These special order PM Percussion congas are near completion. They feature (non standard) recessed bands and a branded PM logo. They are made from recycled wood from French antique wine barrels by Peter Muser in Petaluma, California.

Mr Rumba,

These look absolutly wonderful! I can hear them right now.

...marcus

Very nice. That oak looks amazingly similar to my SOS. Beautiful!
Are those for you Mr.Rumba?
Cheers.
K.C.

KING CONGA wrote:Very nice. That oak looks amazingly similar to my SOS. Beautiful!
Are those for you Mr.Rumba?
Cheers.
K.C.

The craftsmanship on these drums are fantastic. Without a doubt the nicest I have ever seen on stave drums!
I have owned Skin On Skin congas (made in 1986) in Oak that were quite nice as well, but they did split over time and also went out of round.
Lets see how these do in the next 20 years or so

So I take it that these are yours. The hardware looks good but not as hefty as SOS or Ritmos, am I correct? What diameter are the tuning lugs? I dont see Almas on them, does Petter make all of his drums without Almas? The SOS that you owned which went out of round, did they have Almas?
Thanks.
K.C

KING CONGA wrote:So I take it that these are yours. The hardware looks good but not as hefty as SOS or Ritmos, am I correct? What diameter are the tuning lugs? I dont see Almas on them, does Petter make all of his drums without Almas? The SOS that you owned which went out of round, did they have Almas?
Thanks.
K.C

The hardware seems great and super strong to me on all of Peter's (PM Percussion) drums I have tried over the last year and a half or so. I do have 2 sets of Matt Smith by the way, Walnut and Quarter Sawn Oak. I would say for me, for what I like the hardware is just as good. Also, I prefer the crowns (rims) on Peter's drums. I believe it is called Modena (curved top). It is a little more comfortable for my particular playing style. Also, the rims bent (warped) on my Skin On Skin, which I also know is a common occurrence on some of them. I know this may be hard to believe and again, is only my humble opinion..but..the attention to detail on the PM is amazing and I will go out on a limb here and say better then Matt's.

Furthermore, I would say the joinery is much better then on the M.S. Of course that is only my opinion and I have only seen about 20 of M.S. drums in person, (6 of mine and all of my friends sets). I obviously love the M.S. or I would not have two sets. I love M.S. and the sound is the best I have heard for stave style congas. However, we will see what these sound like and I will be making plenty of demo videos
I will make a video of the drums up close so everyone can see for themselves and you can decide.

As far as the S.O.S. goes, I did not have almas. So maybe that was the problem. Peter does put almas in all his drums.They are just not in yet for some reason. I do not know the sizes of the lugs, but that is a great question! I prefer larger lugs if I have the option.

Looking at the pictures, it looks like there burned in the inside. What does this do, if anything, to the tones of the drum?

Mr.Rumba wrote: They are made from recycled wood from French antique wine barrels by Peter Muser in Petaluma, California.

Above statement is key here Kaban. Those rum, whiskey, wine barrels etc get charred or toasted
inside before they put wine, whiskey etc in the barrel to age. Since Mr. Rumba congas are made
out of recycled wine barrels is normal for the drum to be charred inside. Caribbean Rhythms oak
drums were made out of recycled barrels too.

This is a reply to me from Peter:
"The drums have almas now, they just hadn't been made when I sent you that pic. The insides are stained from the wine not burned. They burn whiskey barrels to help remove the impurities, that's what gives whiskey it's color. The lugs are 5/16" with a standard 18 threads per inch and I use coupling nuts that are about one inch long to spread the load. Most external parts are stainless steel, I use case hardened washers to make tuning a little smoother"..

Wine barrels are charred or toasted too just like whiskey barrels.
Alcohol does not burn the oak barrels fire does.

http://www.bucket-outlet.com/oakbarrels.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-wine-b ... #slideshow

http://www.beekmanwine.com/prevtopah.htm

http://www.cellarnotes.net/wine_barrels.htm

The drums progress: