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I am new to congas having played drums for many years. I'll be starting lessons at Rhythms Traders in Portland, Or soon.

I have a new Isla conga/tumba pair. These are skinned very high where the hoop is almost level with the head. It's very hard to play any kind of slap without hitting the hoop since it's level with the head and even open notes wil loccasioanlly hit the hoop. Mario said in time (several months) the hoops will come down I would guess due to head stretching and needing more tension to produce the same tone.

Anyone have suggestions either how to speed up the process so I can get the hoop further down or how play slaps without hitting the hoop.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4853

Check out the thread above. I had the same problem... It will take some life out of your skins...but it may help... either that or get some comfort curve rims...I have some LP ones available...but I don't know if they would fit your drums...

Sonorlite, do not tune down the drums after playing, and when ever you need to tune up , do it ... ( keep in mind that the tension on the head should be the same all the way around ) what i mean it should never be lob sided ....eventually the crown will go down..and when it has reached the ideal height , then start tuning down the drum. I actually learned on a set of drums with heads very much like yours, at the beginning it was a bit difficult , but it did help me develop the correct technique of playing from the top and keeping the thumbs out of the way. I know some one who didn't and he developed a big ugly callous at the back of the palm hill, from hitting the conga crown.

Peace
Olsongo

You know what ... I'm just gonna say it.
Those skins are mounted too shallow.
I know ... it seems to be all the rage now ... mounting skins absurdly shallow is what all the cool kids are doing these days.
But I am the heretic after all.
I am willing to say "the emporer wears no clothes."

This is looking like a ridiculous trend to me.

There is such a thing as too deep ... yes ... of course. And I've learned a thing or two from this trend toward shallow mounting. I now take care not to mount my heads too deeply. But two wrongs don't make a right. Things have gone too far. I like a traditional support ring to sit about a half-inch below the top of the skin. Of course, different ring diameters relative to the drum situate the ring in different relations to the bearing edge. Wide hardware tends to drift down sooner. So there are variables.

But the OP here got a bum mounting on his first congas. He doesn't need just hard love advice toward technique, although if he toughs it out he may can overcome the bad start he's been dealt. He needs new skins ... preferably without further cost from whoever messed up the skins on the drums now.

It is what it is.

Cheers,
BMac

I would tend to agree with the last post , someone messed up putting the heads on when you pay that kind of money for quality drums you shouldnt have to deal with those kind of situations especially being told " wait a while and they will settle in " type nonsense . You should be able to play those babies straight out of the box !

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The photos are from when I first got the drums and they were slack. I have them tuned them up and it did not make much difference in dropping the hoop down, maybe 1/8".They do seem to be dropping a bit as I play them more

I agree that they seem to be designed to break-in over a long period of time. I really love the sound and hopefully with a good teacher I'll be able to play them well too.

Alafia Abure Sonorlite!
I hope that you are well!

Okay, I happen to be one of those people referred to, lovingly I'm sure in brother B-mac's post, who like to mount the crowns a bit close (about 1/4") to the playing surface. Eh! It takes a bit of getting used to, and applying a somewhat different attack on the conga, but I do.

Okay, enough about that.....I wound up mounting a set of skins once, in fact they were on my Islas too, and when they cured/dried, they were a bit too high even for my taste. Here's what I did, and some of you will probably cringe at the sound of it....I tuned them to a relatively high pitch, not too high though. I then put a wet wash cloth on the drum head. I folded the corners to make sure that none of the cloth was hanging over the side of the head. I then took a small cup of water and poured a bit more onto the cloth (I repeated this process throughout the day/night which either you are able to do). I made sure that the water gradually absorbed into the head/skin, after a bit....I would take the cloth off and tap the head to check if it was dampened enough to stretch. Knowing that I had tuned it prior to beginning this process, I could tell that the head was ready to stretch more, I would then tighten each tension rod just a bit more (bringing the tune of the drum back up).

I repeated this until I reached the distance (crown to playing surface) that I wanted. Be warned though that the skin will look somewhat nasty in this process, but it's only temporary. When the whole process is done, it will go back to the nice color and texture that you originally had.

Then of course, if this doesn't sound like something you would try doing, there's always remounting the heads (soaking them in warm water for an hour or two), making sure that the flesh hoop doesn't fall out, then remounting them and tightening them to the point that you are content. Or.......you could just start from scratch......(see pics)

Stay well!

Onile!

Sound like gr8 ideas onile.... although I'm interested more in the opening post's question about proper technique to avoid such a high rim.... flat hand? .... Adjustments to slap handing?

My drums were almost like that at first now they are about 1/2 inch down, quinto 3/4. I tune kind of low except the quinto which I tune high every now and then. I used to detune them everytime then I got tired now I only detune when the weather changes and they are too high. I think the constant tension sped up the process.
Are those new Isla crowns wider than the previous? Also those skins in the picture look like they got wet and have some sort of bubbles.

Those Isla conga skins are poorly mounted. When you spend that much money on a set of congas the skins should be properly mounted. If they were my drums, I'd ask Isla to ship me new skins. If you are not comfortable mounting them yourself, Isla should pay to have them mounted by some one in your area.
It takes more than a few months for a new skin to stretch a 1/4 inch, especially a thick skin.

dan

In defense of anyone who mounts heads for others, including drum makers (maybe especially drum makers), I concede it's tough to please everyone. Everyone has different ideas about how it should be done. For example, I've replaced the heads on both of my Mopercs and am happier with both the "better skins" I've used and the "better mounting" I've applied, despite my endless praise for the drums and their maker. I've heard it suggested that we should let drum makers be drum makers. If we can improve our drum heads after we get our drums from the makers, then that is more a positive statement about today's players and today's resources than it is a negative statement about drum makers. I'm also a bicycle enthusiast, and I've never bought a bike new or old that didn't get "improved" with some parts and tinkering that I called "upgrades."

I do hold the opinion, however, that new drums should be comfortably playable out of the box. I also think the break-in y'all are talking about, that occurs by leaving the tension on the drums, is actually destruction of the skin material. I believe in loosening the heads when not playing so my heads stretch very slowly and it is not something I ever make happen intentionally. I believe that the whitening of the skin material, especially at the bearing edge, is a visible indicator of damage. With enough care and a gentle hand, a head can be mounted to any player's favorite height without any milky stretch marks in the skin. But it may be that each player needs to take the task in hand, looking to others only for quality skins and helpful hints like the photos provided above by Onile.

Cheers,
BMac

Here are current photos (not great) showing where the heads lie. I would estimate the top of the hoop is about 3/8" below the head.

One thing I noticed was that on the conga the hoop is not level. There is a spot at one lug where the hoop is lower than the rest of the head. This is verified in that there is much more of the tuning lug showing below the nut than on the other lugs. The head is in tune all around (got very good at tuning my drumset) so it's not as if there is a lot more tension on that one lug than the rest. This would not be acceptable on a regular drumset but I don't know on congas.

Maybe it's the head that's not level. In the picture you can see that at one point the bottom of the head is much closer to the metal strap around the conga than the rest of the head.

The first two pictures are the conga from different angles and the last is the tumba.

Is it OK to detune completely and pull off the hoop to see if it warped or does that ruin the head seating?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

That crown height is high, but I've seen a lot of drums like that, even one of my own I put a skin on.
It will get lower over time, or you can lower it if you like.

As far as the uneven crown, it's hard to tell anything from your pics, they are so dark.
But a slightly uneven crown happens a little bit sometimes too. I can't say any of my conga heads are perfectly even.

Are these your first congas? Do the drums sound good? That is the main thing that matters.

Id like to add it sounds like your concerned with the bottom threads on the tension rods. none of the threads on my Islas are the same , this is not a way to tension your skins . get someone who has tuned congas before to have a look , the main thing you should be observing when you tension you skins is that you use the same amount of turns in a anti clock wise for tune up going around the lugs 1 to 6 with equal turns, keeping an eye on the bearing edge and the distance of the skin to the first steel loop . if you are trying to get level by the amount of thread showing at the bottom your going to get into trouble .
The First pic looks like a similar one Mario sent me when my Drums were finished the wet look is the epo *manteca de corojo* palm oil . my rims were all high , maybe not as high as yours but within a few months of playing they lowered no problem .
I would seriously get a friend to help you with the tune up if possible .

Nice looking Tubs . I have three in same finish .

Marco

I just want to explain that they sound great and I have them tuned evenly in terms of pitch at each lug.

As long as the rest is just cosmetic that's fine.

Thanks.