New tumba's pitch is too high

[markab]

I'm a bit freaked out. I got a new Matador wood tumba 3 weeks ago, to complement my LP Classic wood conga. But the tumba's tone is at the same pitch as the conga's, and it doesn't seem to be getting any lower.

I'm still new at this but I get that it can take a long time to break in a new LP head. Would you expect the tone to get lower, or the tone range to get wider, over time? I'm not seeing any trend in that direction so far.

So far I've played the tumba about an hour a day for 3 weeks. I've kept it tuned pretty tight except when I check how low it will go. Early on I treated it with red palm oil, and a bit later with shea butter.

The tumba is brand new, with a Matador head. The conga is an old Classic, with a 5-month-old replacement LP "Hand Picked" head.

-Mark

[Mike]

You just need to tune the tumba down, man.
Why you kept it tuned "pretty tight" is beyond my understanding.
You might want to tune your conga up. The tumba should be about a fourth deeper
in tone.
The factory head of your Matador tumba might be on the thin side (they usually are),
so you might want to replace with a proper cow skin in the long run.

[Derbeno]

To echo Mike, how low have you got the Conga tuned?

You may want to tune the Conga up a bit and tune the Tumba down a bit, experiment until you have the perfect combination.

[markab]

Mike, you misunderstood my "I've kept it tuned pretty tight except when I check how low it will go."

When I tune the tumba loose/low, the lowest decent sounding tone is about the same as my conga's lowest decent tone. I assumed that as it breaks in, I would be able to tune it looser/lower. The reason I tune it tight most of the time is to try to accelerate the break-in process. But then I loosen it for a while to check how low a decent tone I can get.

Seriously, it won't go any lower than the conga's lowest, and I haven't seen any progress on that in 3 weeks.

Regarding tuning the conga higher, I have tried that, but it won't go sufficiently high relative to the tumba's lowest. In fact, the tumba's highest good pitch is higher than the conga's highest good pitch.

[Marcus]

My tumba tends to tune up as the house dries out during the winter months but since I got one of the ultrasonic humidifiers all of my congas stay pretty darn stable.

But, being a new drum is the skin "glued" to the rim?? I would remove the head and get some parafin and rub the bearing edge vigoriously--then take a hair dryer and basically melt the wax and also blow off excess flakes. Put the head back on give it a day or two so that the head forms to the new rim position.

Also get some shea butter--as close to pure as possible and apply to the playing surface. You can use the hair dryer to melt it in a bit then play it for a few days and beat the butter into the skin. When your tired of that take a clean cloth and buff up the playing area so there is no longer a tacky feel

You should get various ranges of tones. Buy a pitch pipe or an inexpensive electronic tuner to check tuning until you get a good feel for tuning. Tuning techniques without a mentor is indeed a huge trial and error. Pleanty of information on this site for that.

Or, replace the skin which is a huge effort for the first timer. Might want to seek out someone in your area that would do it for a price.

Good luck,

peace marcus

[markab]

Crisis averted!

On the advice of my teacher (Sakuntu on this forum), I took off the head and soaked the top half of it, like you would for a stock replacement head. A couple of days to dry on the drum and Voila! The tone is dramatically lower!

(I guess that means LP screwed up getting this head started on the drum. The date in the drum is just 4 months ago -- somehow related?)

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

[Ebongo]

That technique is good. Also, whenever you try new skins look for evenly thick or extra thick cow skins, natural, or perhaps whitened.

Crisis averted!

On the advice of my teacher (Sakuntu on this forum), I took off the head and soaked the top half of it, like you would for a stock replacement head. A couple of days to dry on the drum and Voila! The tone is dramatically lower!

(I guess that means LP screwed up getting this head started on the drum. The date in the drum is just 4 months ago -- somehow related?)

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.