Now I am NOT a sales rep of El Greco, just a happy customer,
so here´s another quick
sound review of the two reskinned congas:
I have just played the
Matador conga a lot which is still tuned rather low (something like f sharp) and I was blown away by the
crispness of the slaps(what ease!),
the
open tones] which DO sound exactly like I wanted them to -
compare old Mongo recordings...
The
Afro conga has an incredible
bass tone and also a
round, mellow open tone with real body( no, I am NOT writing about wine - the scent would be different apart from the taste..
)
SO, these two taken alone are practically a set on their own. You cannot tune them much apart at the
moment though, but once they are finished drying, that would be possible.
Now I can combine my other quality-hide congas with them for many
different setups:
Folkloric - each on its own - both are fine as conga or tumbadora in Rumba
Two drums - my preference: LP Classic quinto with thick cowhide + Matador conga with thick mule
or any other two
Three drums - e.g. LP Classic quinto + Matador conga + Afro Conga as Tumba => old skool sound
Four drums - LP Gio quinto + LP Classic quinto + Matador conga + Afro Conga
all in a Latin Jazz setup in diamond shape => Great melodic playing with beefy open tones suspected
Yep, I know, a colorful mixture - well my conga bunch does the trick for me at least.