congaplace.com

Hi guys, just wanted to share with you that a few months ago I was officially signed up for endorsement by MEINL Percussion. I hadn't said anything on here as I was waiting for the gear to arrive and today the first half of my package arrived, I could not be happier.
The drums are awesome and they sound fantastic. A real pleasure to play. The finish and workmanship is amazing, the pics dont do them justice!
The rest of my gear is on the next shipment, prob 8-10 weeks away. The items I selected were not all in stock and were special order.
Proper pics to follow once photo session is worked out and then it all goes up on the artist registry page online.

Some pics from tonight once I got everything home:

Straight off the truck at work:


First box gets torn open:


Bongo!



Tumbas! (Another Tumba & Conga are on backorder to make set of 5)


Skins!








The MEINL family grows at home!


2 Generations of Woodcraft model - Late 80's/Early 90's Tumba & current model Tumba - both Woodcraft model.



First hands on


Very happy, the support from MEINL has been great, I'm honored & truly humbled to have joined the growing international MEINL Percussion family.

CONGRATS,BRO!...WELL DESERVED!...I KNOW THE FEELING AS A FORMER PEARL ENDORSEE...ENJOY!...

A Big Congrats Bro. You no doubt picked a great line up, those are Fantastic!!!
Enjoy
Cheers
K.C.

Great new, Marcelo!
Your house must hold a dozen Meinl congas now or so

Congratulations!! Beautiful drums man.

Madlatin

Awesome gig bro. Hard work pays off! Nice lookin stuff and I'm sure it sounds just as good as any other production line drums. Now them oak woodcrafts? Thats some real G-Shit!

JohnnyConga wrote:CONGRATS,BRO!...WELL DESERVED!...I KNOW THE FEELING AS A FORMER PEARL ENDORSEE...ENJOY!...

Gracias JC!

Mike wrote:Great new, Marcelo!
Your house must hold a dozen Meinl congas now or so

Thanks Mike. hahaha aside from my 2 solid shell Cubans and the Matthew Smith Requinto, they are all Meinl now, the 4 old school Woodcrafts, the 3 new model Woodcrafts + 2 which are on backorder to make 5!
Plus they are supplying me with a set of 4, model & sizes of my choice in the next shipment. Might need an extension built in the house.

KING CONGA wrote:A Big Congrats Bro. You no doubt picked a great line up, those are Fantastic!!!
Enjoy
Cheers
K.C.

Thanks KC, the new model Woodcrafts are their flagship model, available in the finish I chose as well as the matte finish, colour like the Gio Galaxy & Palladium. (see pic below) But I wanted something a little different.
While Id never seen this model in person or played them, I knew they had to be good drums as Meinls top end stuff. They sound amazing bro and are effortless to play. Great selection of skins too.
Matte finish:

Madlatin wrote:Congratulations!! Beautiful drums man.

Madlatin

Thanks Madlatin! They certainly are beautiful!

pcastag wrote:Awesome gig bro. Hard work pays off! Nice lookin stuff and I'm sure it sounds just as good as any other production line drums. Now them oak woodcrafts? Thats some real G-Shit!

Thank you PC. Oh yeh, them old school ones are a nice bit of gear, especially now with the new cueros mounted and manteca corojo in them
The new ones do sound great though, decent thickness skins, great bass tones, sharp slaps, clear opens, big projection and no nasty ringing overtones!! They are a real pleasure to play.

Congrats the hardware on Meinl high end drums is definitely stout! I personally really like their congas.

Gracias Vinnie, yes, the hardware is nice and beefy on the high end stuff. Im loving the drums.

Here's a sneak peek from my photo shoot. Will post the link to my profile once its all sorted on their end etc.




Aside for the additional Conga & Tumba due in to complete the set of 5 new Woodcrafts, with the second half of my package due in around 4 or 6 weeks, they are setting me up with a bunch of other gear including 4 of these bad boys:

11" x 1, 12" x 2, 13" x 1

Very nice pics, Abakua!

ABAKUA wrote: they are setting me up with a bunch of other gear including 4 of these bad boys:
11" x 1, 12" x 2, 13" x 1

Please do expect some heavy tubs there...

Absolutely! But its cool, they get carried from the house to the car, from the car to the gig/rehearsal in bags with straps etc, the lug in and out of most venues is a breeze, some even have lifts and provide big trolleys for the musicians, so not too much of a drama there.
Many years ago I had the bongo/bell gig in a salsa band and their conguero had a conga and tumba in those floatunes, they were heavy I remember that, but I always loved how they sounded.
Seeing as I could pick an extra set of congas of my choice, I chose the floatunes to have something different from the usual tumbas out in the scene, plus Ive always wanted a set of those.

Here's another shot I like from the shoot featuring the old school woodcrafts.

Congratulations. Those are some fine drums and the people at Meinl that I have talked to on the phone are super nice. You are a lucky man.

I just picked up a Meinl Marathon conga and tumba for a great price sadly the woodcraft series is way out of my price range.

Yeh, retail on those can be pricey. The new Woodcrafts are the flagship model of their line up. I can normally get 20-25% off for friends and students. Shame we aint closer homie.
Taking nothing away from the Marathons, a friend of mine has a set of 3 matched with some nice skins, and they sound great. Those are nicely priced, I would prefer them with chrome hardware instead of the black, but thats just personal preference. Ive played those, I dig em.

These right:

To me personally, there is nothing in looks like the old-skool Woodcrafts.

As I have never played the new generation of Woodcraft congas I cannot do them any justice though, and it
seems as if they are extremely well-built professional congas too - just different.