Price v sound

[zealot]

Here's one for you. Iv'e owned a pair of Toca Players for a couple of years or so. Iv'e now bought a 3 set of Toca limited edition for no small price! Imagine my dismay to find that the players sound far nicer than the limited edition. I can only assume, and hope, its just a matter of tuning (any help greatly appreciated). But perhaps it also goes to show that spending large amounts of cash will not necessarily mean far better quality of sound and performance.

[JohnnyConga]

Hi Zealot...sorry you are not happy with the sound of your new drums. It can be a catch 22 when it comes to buying drums. They look good, top of the line, but it's not the sound your looking for. Have you tuned them up yet? How do they sound now.? At your service...JC JOHNNY CONGA....

[Bongo Boy]

The best analogy I can come up with is buying cigars. There is NO correlation between price and pleasure!! I've paid $13 for a Montecristo that I threw out 5 min after lighting it up, and $2.60 for a Punch that is consistently extraordinary. And it's not just my opinion--the magazine ratings of cigars also show NO correlation. Wine is nearly as uncorrelated.

Same I think, for drums! This whole thing has nothing to do with "quality", either. Extremely high quality drums may sound like crap, eh?

But in any case, let those heads 'break in' for a while--maybe things will improve.



Edited By Bongo Boy on July 04 2002 at 21:12

[Simon B]

'They look good, top of the line, but it's not the sound your looking for'

Yeah, expectations and looking for that sound can sometimes be not so much a blessing as a curse. Ever since I borrowed a pair of wooden bongos from a friend (he claimed they were from Cuba, no manufacturer's stamp, he was given them), I have been searching for that pair, really high attack on the macho and warm tone on the hembra with no tinny reverbarations. I haven't found it yet and my own bongos I sometimes find more than faintly annoying as a result.


Simon B

Simon B

[zealot]

Well its been a couple of months since I brought up this price V quality issue. And I am pleased to say that after much tuning, re-tuning head removal, and tuning again etc the better quality drums are now sound far superior. I think its probably right that the heads needed to 'wear in'. Also the experience gained in the tuning has actually been a blessing in disguise. The cheaper drums also go out of tune far easier and do sound 'dead' in comparrison. So on balance I think it is better to spend more, not only in cash but perhaps more importantly in time.

[120decibels]

Zealot,

I agree with most of what has been written here, however I will share my experience as a matter of information. I hope that it is helpful.

My first conga was a used CP conga. Many might say that this is the most inexpensive conga and one of the hardest to get to sound good. After using that drum to get started, I upgraded to a set of beautiful LP Classics that I have grown to love.

About a 18 Months ago I got a really good deal on an LP Aspire tumba and decided to see if I could get the two inexpensive drums to sound good. After a lot of time and some new thicker, higher quality heads, these drums sound great. They still don't sound as good as the Classics, but the Classics are bigger drums made from higher quality materials. I still use the cheaper drums for teaching, high traffic gigs (lots of drunken folks), etc.

I guess I'm trying to play devil's advocate here. My message is still that you get what you pay for, but also that you can make a cheap drum sound pretty good.

In contrast, my Classics can sound like trash cans when thier out of tune! :p Just a little perspective.

My $0.02,

120dB



Edited By 120decibels on Aug. 08 2002 at 08:49

[gav]

Ive got LP Aspires for both Congas and Bongos. Congas must be synthetic heads, cause i played on much softer skins and it was a completley different experience.

You get what you pay for definatley rings true, but say i went to natural skins, what am i looking for? are there many makes etc?