Meinl Woodcraft - quality oak !

[p.a.dogs1]

THey were said to have had reindeer skins if I am not wrong.

I don´t remember this. But their skins were of outstanding quality already at that time. Maybe I romanticize a little bit, but I got in contact with a pair of them in a shop in Aarhus and this made me totally impressed because of their smoothness. I will never forget this experience.

Woodcraft oak and Delaporte ash and other wooden shells were made by barrelmakers.

I am not sure if this is a sign of quality. Barrels are not manufactured very much precise. They keep their forms from getting wet and then expanding. The ancestors of modern congas are made of whole pieces of wood, I guess.

These drums from massive pieces of cuban trees are made by Peter Kragh Jacobsen who founded PJ and now is the owner of the Slagtøjcentret (Drum Center) in Copenhagen:



Kai Simonsen, who is a turner, adjusts his saw blade with an angel accurateness of 4 decimals behind the comma (he uses an electronic perpendicular) in order to get perfect miters at the staves.

p.a.dogs1

[Mike]

Woodcraft oak and Delaporte ash and other wooden shells were made by barrelmakers.

I am not sure if this is a sign of quality. Barrels are not manufactured very much precise. They keep their forms from getting wet and then expanding. The ancestors of modern congas are made of whole pieces of wood, I guess.

The latter yes, even if Cuban slaves have successfully turned barrels into congas as far as I know.

Well, and as to the barrelmakers: Per se, their business might be a bit on the rough side,
but definitely not the special conga barrels that were manufactured in Nesselwang/Germany or St Georges sur Cher/France
for Meinl and Delaporte... The staves are just perfectly put together. I believe this must have been a rewarding challenge
for those barrelmakers/tonneliers...

EDIT: I found a link of the Delaporte successor: http://md-tonnellerie-percussions.fr/page3.html

[consciousnist]

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[Mike]

This is a nice video where they play some of these in Cuba, just great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCgHIAiScOk

Trio Peligroso is IT, man!

I am
not sure if I should found a Tumbadora museum at this time.

Better play them, brother
Drums are made for playing...

[Mike]

THey were said to have had reindeer skins if I am not wrong.

I don´t remember this. But their skins were of outstanding quality already at that time. Maybe I romanticize a little bit, but I got in contact with a pair of them in a shop in Aarhus and this made me totally impressed because of their smoothness. I will never forget this experience.
p.a.dogs1

Do I sense a whim of nostalgia here?
Seriously, those older PJ congas must be a dream to play, and they are quite rare
- at least I have never come across them.

Now that you mention the German conga maker Kai Simonsen http://www.simonsen-holzart.de/eng/conga_congas.html
I can remember the quality the outstanding quality of that tumba of yours you once showed me.The rare and beautiful elm wood
is alone eye-candy, and the overall construction impeccable.
BTT: that does not mean that Mr Mueller in Nesselwang has not done a consistently great job with Woodcraft oak "barrels" as well,
as you wrote here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=8416#p77986

[consciousnist]

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[Mike]

Like p.a.dogs1 wrote, those are surely 1980s quality congas made by Sonor.
Hard to tell if they are fiberglass or wood.

[consciousnist]

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[p.a.dogs1]

... is this one of the expensive Sonor sets made in the eighties ?

Yessss! Where did you get these photos? I searched very intensively several times but could not find any.

My congas were of beech stained in dark brown - similar to this:



This seems to be a very early exemplar, because later drums had only one metal band at the bottom. Consider the skins! They seem not to be preformed. On your photos can be seen that the skins were already of preformed standard quality (water buffaloe?) I remember that Sonor produced those models until the late 80ies and I remember also that the latest were laquered in white, black, red and dark blue. Maybe they built fiber models as well. The older (maybe all) series had this leather handhold.

batch says "made in Germany" or even "made in western Germany" if I am not mistaken.

Beech is the most typical wood in the middle of Europe. I think it does not appear in other parts of the world, has almost the same specific weight as oak and is rather short-grained (what makes it perfect for bending).

next thing I wonder, these "interesting" looking meinl drums

Meinl built such striped drums and resurrected this design often with so-called anniversary models. But I am rather sure that the real creator is the french company ASBA:



Their congas were already icons of percussion in Pop-music in the late 60ies (what obviously inspired Meinl to pick the design up for their products): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ_oxYf0Rw4

Consider the sideplates and compare them with your african congas! This underlines your statement about the specific relation between Africa and France. Btw.: I would suggest that ASBA invented the so-called comfort rims.

Regarding older PJs: I found another clip where Birger Sulsbrück explains the tumbao (as it was teached at that time): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMGcShOWUBM (maybe from the mid 80ies). And here is a clip from today, where Birger plays with collegues in front of the Slagtøjcenter in Copenhagen. It seems that Peter Kragh Jakobsen is the guy who sits at the table in front of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2ZSBDtrfys --- Not a big party

p.a.dogs1

[consciousnist]

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[consciousnist]

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[Mike]

Hey you two threadjackers
As this Woodcraft thread begins to deteriorate:
Why don´t you start a Sonor thread of your own?

And while we are at it: There has not been an ASBA thread in the last years,
so...

P.S.: Otherwise this thread is too lonely for the Germans of us here.
Everything has been said I guess.

[p.a.dogs1]

The black Sonor Tumbadora set is made from wood - I want it.

When will you get them?

the tack-head has been presented at the 1954 spring exhibition

Nice! The text says that there is a central tuning mechanism inside. I think it is the same as Sonor had inside their bongos until the end of 70ies. Here is a pic from 1960:

Why don´t you start a Sonor thread of your own?

Of our own?

As this Woodcraft thread begins to deteriorate

To be honest: I was not very satisfied with the information content when this thread started. Pics of polished instruments (nice!), but then soundclips which made me perplex regarding your statements about the sound/skin quality. I agree that our excursion has finally spread a little, but I think that the Woodcrafts had originally been a specific product in a much more complex market situation than we have today.

Otherwise this thread is too lonely for the Germans of us here.

I don´t feel lonely. Why should it not be enriching for all members (and guests) just to read.

Everything has been said I guess.

What is the purpose of this statement?

p.a.dogs1

[consciousnist]

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[Mike]

I agree that our excursion has finally spread a little, but I think that the
Woodcrafts had originally been a specific product in a much more complex market situation than we have today.

Uh-huh.
Apart from lots of off-topic talk going on between Kiel and Hamburg here,
"deteriorating" also includes your taking apart each and every of my sentences,
even including little language errors like "of your own" instead of "on your own".
Well, like you I am German, and like you I make mistakes as I am not a native speaker.

And if you do not like the sound of my Woodcrafts - I have no problems with that.
I never said I was too satified with the recording, their live sound is really amazing.
It seems too difficult to communicate that via the Net.

As far as I am concerned, I am withdrawing from this thread as I have had enough.
Btw I have just seen this my post #1000 in the congas & accessories subforum, so I
think it´s time to go