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Good evening folks,

I've noticed a big difference in the sound of my Bongos when playing inside as compared with outside. The overtones and ringing in the hembra are much more pronounced when playing outside. I know that varying room accustics can absorb a lot of the sound, but it's like a different instrument almost, particularly the hembra sound. The other day, i had a hell of a time... 20 minutes just getting the hembra to sound acceptable to play outside. I did put some tape on the inside, but that made very little diffrence in the right direction.

I've read varrying opinions here on how to solve the ringing problem and was wondering, if the skins make the real difference in this situation; or is it a matter of breaking the heads in, so that they quiet down some?
And what exactly constitutes breaking the skins in, is it just from playing them at the same tuning always, or is it important to tune them higher than usual now and then to stretch them more?

From all that I've been reading here the past few weeks, I've begun considering putting Goat Skins on my Bongó.
And I just so happen to spot a skin on e-bay, (below link), here in Berlin and wrote them to ask the thickness, as well if i could see it before I buy it. Any thoughts and opinions are most appreciated.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... Track=true

Good vibrations,
Blairski

Here are my two cents on:

1. Ringiness:
Well, first of all it also depends on the bongó model you have - and the type of skin.
Some skins, especially water buffalo, tend to be ringier than others.


2. Breaking in:

blavonski wrote:And what exactly constitutes breaking the skins in, is it just from playing them at the same tuning always, or is it important to tune them higher than usual now and then to stretch them more?

Breaking in the skins simply needs some time. Do not crank up fresh skins from the start.
And with bongo skins: Always detune, or the skins might rip one day or the other!

3. Skin selection:
As to the skin you spotted at ebay: That hide is NOT suitable for bongó in my opinion! It might be funky for African drums though.

You might want to look for a rather thin skin, otherwise you will not get that popping sound out of a bongó.
Try to get some quality goat skin from Banux: http://www.banux.de/trommelpergament-zi ... white.html
They also have terrrific cow skins for bongó as well as conga at a moderate price.

Hope that helps.

Going off piste a bit, what thickness skin is best to get that dry sound on the hembra. I like it to sound a bit like a conga.I had a Hector Rochas hembra skin on my stolen bongos and was perfect and havent been able to get the same sound on my replacement road bongos which currently have LPs and are too ringy?
Suave
Dice

Dicemanb wrote:Going off piste a bit, what thickness skin is best to get that dry sound on the hembra. I like it to sound a bit like a conga.I had a Hector Rochas hembra skin on my stolen bongos and was perfect and havent been able to get the same sound on my replacement road bongos which currently have LPs and are too ringy?
Suave
Dice

Well, a conga does not altogether sound dry, does it?
But I know what you mean. My Palisades Park LP bongó hembra
really sounds fantastic with a 2.8mm thick quality cow skin, natural colour.
Hector Roche usually mounts some bleached cow skin though which is defo dry sounding.

Not a fan of goat skin or mule skin for bongos, especially the hembra. Get your skins from Land Hand Percussion, get cow, don't mess around with Ebay. Many things can contribute to ringiness in the hembra, an uneven skin, porr quality skin, uneven tuning and the drum itself.

Mike wrote:Here are my two cents on:

1. Ringiness:
Well, first of all it also depends on the bongó model you have - and the type of skin.
Some skins, especially water buffalo, tend to be ringier than others.


2. Breaking in:

blavonski wrote:And what exactly constitutes breaking the skins in, is it just from playing them at the same tuning always, or is it important to tune them higher than usual now and then to stretch them more?

Breaking in the skins simply needs some time. Do not crank up fresh skins from the start.
And with bongo skins: Always detune, or the skins might rip one day or the other!

3. Skin selection:
As to the skin you spotted at ebay: That hide is NOT suitable for bongó in my opinion! It might be funky for African drums though.

You might want to look for a rather thin skin, otherwise you will not get that popping sound out of a bongó.
Try to get some quality goat skin from Banux: http://www.banux.de/trommelpergament-zi ... white.html
They also have terrrific cow skins for bongó as well as conga at a moderate price.

Hope that helps.

Hey Mike,
thanks for your imput and the link!Have you purchased form them before?
Ithought that skin looked a bit funky, but thought I'd get a more experienced opinion on it.

They are Water Buffallo skins on Meinl Marathons and no worries, I detune always.
I'M not neccessarily wanting to change the heads out of capriciousness, but if a better quality Goat or cow hide gives a more rounder, balanced, consistent sound, then I may consider it. But, I'll work through these for a while longer and see what they do.

Diceman, I too prefer a deeper sound on the Hembra and don't tune too high anyway...not interested in the very high, pop sound in particular, somewhere in between sounds to me more earthy.
Maybe Goat on the Macho and Cow on the Hembra would be a good combo.

Mucho gracias,
Blavonski

These days I have a lot of different bongos so I can easily experiment with different skins & synthetics. I have a HR skin like the 2.8mm skin that Mike has on his LP on my old HR bongo and it sounds great but is way too thick for me to use on most of my other bongos. I'm on & off about mule. My favorite combination, on my LPs that I play the most, is thin, 1mm, goat on the macho and med, 2mm, cow on the hembra. I crank up the macho and tune the hembra low. But goat needs to be detuned a lot and has to be changed more often than other skins.

One experiment I keep repeating is moving one set of skins back and forth between a $500 Junior Tirado bongo and an old Meinl the same size that I bought in a pawn shop for $35. The Junior looks better and feels better but with the same skins - it really doesn't sound better.

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leedy2 wrote:Goat skins for bongos is the best when it comes to sound it basically picking the right thickness. Though I prefer goat I would recommend Plastic for the beginner you will get a good sound out of it and the maintenance of the raw hide become obsolete. Goat skin they must be un tune after use or they will stretch out on you or crack there is some maintenance that is a must.

Hi Leedy,
No plastic for me thank you!
I try to avoid plastic in any form as much as possible, but it's not easy these days, and prefer natural materials, especially when my skin is making contact with it. My computer keyboard is half covered with cork points on the keys. It was, is an unfinished experiment. And it feels good so far...

When I'm at the point, I think I'll try the Goat and Cow combo.

Good Vibrations,
Blavonski

blavonski wrote:

Mike wrote:Try to get some quality goat skin from Banux: http://www.banux.de/trommelpergament-zi ... white.html
They also have terrrific cow skins for bongó as well as conga at a moderate price.

Hey Mike,
thanks for your imput and the link!Have you purchased form them before?

Yes, I have purchased several Banux skins before, but not goat. For my Raúl bongó I have
chosen - after a long trial and error journey - thin cow skin from that dealer which works
fantastic. Also the conga cow skins are really outstanding in quality and sound, very homogeneous.
You can not go wrong with them.

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR