by onile » Sun Dec 24, 2006 2:28 pm
Alafia Abures!
I hope that you are all extremely well and in an abundance of blessings!
Abure Diceman! I totally concur with you "save yourself some money," I own some 'conga feet' (LP). At first I thought it would be the answer to getting a better sound out of the drum when playing seated, and yes it did work. The problem is that unless your drums have thick wood, or are just fat at the bottom, they will "wobble."
I was at a gig last month and I forgot to bring my "conga feet." I played the first set and being that the drums were on 'tile flooring', the sound was not as true as I would have liked. A very good friend of mine, and great fellow drummer (congas, timbales, bongo and traps), E.J. came up to me with an incredibly simple and cost effective solution 'on the spot'.
He grabbed some toothpicks (I was playing in a supper club), and he placed them underneath the two drums on either side of me, the center drum I have tilted forward, so there wasn't a need for that one. I tapped the drum and 'Booooooom!' there was the souund I was needing.
Now, I'm not recommending here that you go out and buy a box of toothpics and use them in place of a conga stand, no! What I did the next day however, was go to a local hardware store and buy some little "Heavy Duty Felt Pads", the kind used to prtect tables and countertops from scratches. They have self-adhesive and so I applied them to the bottom of the drums. Very inexpensive ($3.50 for a pack of 20), and so I bought a couple of extra packs which I carry in my gig bag.
Many blessings Abures!
Happy holidays!
Onile!
Que Nsambi les acutare pa' siempre!