Is changing the heads worth it?

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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Chtimulato » Fri Aug 20, 2021 11:19 am

scavard wrote:Thank you for your kind words Siete Leguas! I will definitely work on the consistency. Unfortunately, I don't have any teacher for bongo or congas for that matter. I tried looking for one but it seems there is none. Maybe some online lessons with someone abroad will do for now. Any suggestions? 8)

The Skyndeep still hasn't arrived so I have to wait a bit more. I will play around with the tuning in the meantime. Anyway, congratulations on the horse skin. Please, do let us know about the results :)


Hello.

There are several serious people who give online lessons. I'd first try to find the people Thomas told you, of course.

If not, all these guys (abroad) give online lessons :
Laurent Lamy in France
Johnny Conga (also forum member here I believe), Edgardo Cambon and Johnny "Dandy" Rodríguez (yes, "THE" Dandy) in the USA.

I still didn't find the time to look at your video, sorry.

Stay safe, everybody.
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby scavard » Sat Aug 21, 2021 10:34 am

Thomas Altmann wrote:I just have to remind you of Vasik Greif, who is still listed as a member on this forum. He once used to be pretty active here, but at one point disappeared from all discussions. He lives in Stod. He is an amazing multi-instrumentalist, playing congas and batá as well as piano and saxophone. Years ago, in 2009 he and his fellow drummer Michal Caba drove all the way to Hamburg to take some batá lessons with me for one weekend, which alone is an incredible action. Since then, they have taken classes with Piri López, started a fantastic band project with Marta Galarraga, and have collaborated with Kevin Moore of timba.com.

Thank you for the recommendation! I happen to know of Michal Caba so I may ping him and ask about Vasik and lessons.

Chtimulato wrote:Laurent Lamy in France
Johnny Conga (also forum member here I believe), Edgardo Cambon and Johnny "Dandy" Rodríguez (yes, "THE" Dandy) in the USA.

This is great to know if I won't find anybody in person soon. Thank you!
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Thomas Altmann » Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:57 pm

Hi scavard,

I happen to know of Michal Caba so I may ping him and ask about Vasik and lessons.


- If you know Michal anyway, you can also ask him directly. No need to involve Vasik.

Thomas
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby scavard » Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:20 am

Thomas Altmann wrote:If you know Michal anyway, you can also ask him directly. No need to involve Vasik.
Thomas

We are already talking about how to do it online with Michal, but we only agreed on conga lessons :) thanks for the tip.
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby scavard » Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:37 am

So I got the new head yesterday!

I already made another video with the old head so I swapped the heads immediately. As someone pointed out, it was a bit hard to fit into the rim, but I did it carefully and it went all right. I also did some lug maintenance as I was at it.

As for the first impression, the head is really amazing! I tuned it up pretty high (at least to my ears) without any problems. I already have a feeling that it is way easier to get a consistent tone out of every hit and I really enjoy the sound. The feel of plastic is there, but I don't really mind (I also have one plastic evans head on my conga and am thinking of buying some nuskyns for the whole set).

Will post the videos and some photos later.
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby scavard » Sat Aug 28, 2021 11:14 am

As promised, here are the videos and photos. After watching it I realised, that the sound has very low quality to show what the difference actually is like. I need to learn how to record it properly in an untreated room with my gear.

Anyway, enjoy and feel free to leave comments about anything :)


Attachments
IMG_20210825_182241.jpg
IMG_20210825_182205.jpg
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Chtimulato » Sun Aug 29, 2021 8:00 pm

Hello.

Both can sound good (though I prefer natural skins, but it's a personal taste), but I believe you could tune the macho a little more in both cases.

Just my 2 cents.

Stay safe, you all.
Last edited by Chtimulato on Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Siete Leguas » Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:32 pm

Hi scavard, nice job comparing the heads, thanks for sharing! I am considering trying out a synthetic head on the bongo macho some day, so I find it useful to get an idea about the Skyndeep. Also, I found some of your repiques quite interesting.

Like Chtimulato, I would personally also tune the macho higher for that track.

Salud!
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Siete Leguas » Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:33 pm

Hi scavard, nice job comparing the heads, thanks for sharing! I am considering trying out a synthetic head on the bongo macho some day, so I find it useful to get an idea about the Skyndeep. Also, I found some of your repiques quite interesting.

Like Chtimulato, I would personally also tune the macho higher for that track.

Salud!
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby scavard » Tue Aug 31, 2021 7:44 am

Thank you for watching and for your kind comments.

I really enjoy playing on the new head and I already tuned it a bit higher. It sounds exactly as I wanted it to sound, so it was worth it in my opinion. I still have to work a lot on my technique though :)

Now, as it comes to original hembra skin, I am having mixed feeling because I don't think I can tune it properly. It always has these sort of overtones like if one of the lugs is off. I always try the tone above each lug and adjust the lugs to match, but it still sounds unbalance as a whole. I also noticed that there are some spots on the skin where I can see through more clearly and it also feels a bit thin. Might this be related? Like if the skin is not thick enough on all the its surface and thus causes overtones?
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Siete Leguas » Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:43 pm

Hi scavard,

glad to hear that you are happy with your new head. It does give a nice impression in your video, indeed.

Regarding the hembra: from my experience (which, again, is not very wide compared to other forum members'), stock water buffalo heads tend to be quite ringy sometimes, even if you strive to be super precise with the tuning of each lug. I have found that thicker cow skins have a nicer, more powerful, drier sound, which I prefer for the hembra. But thick skins are more difficult to mount, and you also have to make sure that your shell and hardware are robust enough to handle them, otherwise you might damage your drum. Matador bongos have a fairly good reputation regarding robustness as far as I know, so I think it should be ok for a moderately thick skin (1,5-2mm?). In case you want to try it out, though, please get a second opinion first! ;)

A cheap and easy trick that can also make a remarkable difference is putting some tape on the inside of the head. That can reduce the overtones considerably without affecting other sound properties excessively. You can experiment with different tape patterns and see how it goes.

And of course, technique plays an important role as well. I find that widening the hitting surface of my hand on the drum produces a more muffled, less ringy sound than playing with just one or two fingers. I usually try to play with all fingers "en bloc" on the hembra, although I tend to adapt my technique to the drum that I'm playing, in order to get the best sound that I possibly can.

In any case, the hembra in your videos sounds pretty good to me. I don't believe that those spots on the skin that you mention have any significant impact on the sound or tuning (but I could be wrong).

Salud!
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Thomas Altmann » Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:37 pm

... And don't forget that SOME ringing enriches the sound of your drum in the ensemble ! A lot of what may sound annoying to your ears when you are playing alone for yourself, will be gone as soon as you are playing in a group.

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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Juaort » Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:55 pm

I purchased these Skyndeep Remos after seeing Johnny Dandy Rodriguez use them on his set. These are the low collar model. Which brings the rims closer to the bearing edge. I’m not a fan of stretched out skins.
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REMO Skyndeep Low Collar Bingo Heads.
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby Juaort » Tue Aug 31, 2021 10:19 pm

The feel and sound of the Skyndeep skins is something new for me. I had to special order these.
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Re: Is changing the heads worth it?

Postby scavard » Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:37 am

Wow, very nice!

So have you already mounted the new heads? What bongos are you mounting them to? And why did you choose the untucked version?
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