congaplace.com

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:32 pm**

hi everyone
my question is how can tune my conga and tumba in best sound qualityit has any settings?

thank you...

Edited By zebb on 1110807241

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:51 pm**

zebb,

I'm a newbie, like you, and your tuning question is valid. This incredible site is a huge resource of information, with pros waiting in the wings to help out. I respectfully suggest you search the site, which contains a wealth of information and options for tuning. For the most part, it is a matter of personal choice, but guidelines area available here. Good luck, welcome, and hope this helps.

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:40 pm**

thank you for your help!!

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:54 pm**

OOOO INTERESTING! What is this site??? please

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:33 pm**

hi zebb,

to be honest i'm for certain no pro but im playing for almost 5 years
and perhaps i can give u some hints.

Tuning a conga and a tumba is not that easy but for certain i can tell u,there is no "magic button" u can switch on and voila u have that killersound

...so what does that mean? just keep things simple and do trial and error and be patient.

First to know - u want to tune the conga and tumba in an intervall which should sound similar to that astounding song here comes the bride ( if u hum for urself that taaadat tadaaa - sorry im no good singer

)....AGAIN the tone ( like C on a keyboard) is not really important just the interval.
Now u begin tuning. To be sure that the head is tuned evenly (every screw has the same amount of turns), first detune the conga completly, i.e there is absolutely no tension on the head. After that be sure that the head is mounted evenly ( in water - sorry i dont know how to say that in english ) and give every nut with ur HAND (!!!) a little turn, till every nut is pretty fastened/locked.
Then u begin to give in a clock/counterclockwise order every nut a quarter to half turn ( be patient and precise with the turns, otherwise you will get that ugly ringin overtones). Whenever u finished one complete circle - push ur palm in the middle of the drum !
You keep doing that till u hear a sound which is nice to your ears - and guess what? ur conga is now tuned perfectly and with time u will know which tuning gives best sound out of ur drum!
Now u do the same with the tumba. try to get the pitch of the tumba to the same as the conga - when you have that, just pitch it in small turns down, till you hear that "Here comes the bride" interval.
Now Your finished!

If u want to go a step further - of course after u mastered the above things - perhaps u want to tune your congas to a specific tune, like for example mine are tuned to G C E (Tumba, Conga, Quinto). If so i can give u the following hint:
Tuning is again the same procedure but how to know this is a C or C sharp or whatever? best thing for me is to have a piano besides me and doing it like this:
play drum and shortly after that the key on the piano ( c for example)
then do the same reverse ( first piano then drum )....with that u will find out if u have to move up (more tension) or down to get the tone - in case u have no clue what tone is tuned AND that happen very often.
BUT i want to warn you: first keep in mind, that with natural heads u will get into trouble to tune it to a specific tone - you will have allways overtones and does means for example u want to tune ur drum to tone C but it turns out that the drum sounds more like C MAJ than just a single tone !!! And next thing are ur ears - to hear a specific pitch on congas is not that easy, especially because the tones are not clear and too low for ur ears !!!! u have to train that first and i can say its pretty ugly and annoying till you have that sound.

hope that helps, my last cent for u

Posted: **Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:10 pm**

thank you funky its very advantageously for me..:laugh: