congaplace.com

Hello!

I am new here. I find this site and the forum great and decided to join.

I recently bought a set of three Toca Premiere congas (second-hand). The description from a website is here:
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"The redesigned Premiere Series features a durable weather resistant fiberglass shell and Remo Mondo heads to create what we at Toca refer to as an "all weather" conga and bongo. Finally, a professional series conga set that can withstand the elements of the weather without shell damage or having to re-tune to pitch after every song. Toca's Premiere Series combines a fiberglass, contemporary styled Afro-Cuban bowl with an enhanced bearing edge to feel just like wood, fitted with Toca's EasyPlay hoop and a Remo Mondo head to create this series. The Premiere Series has all the features needed to handle the elements of the road."
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However, when I hit the drums, I hear lots of overtones and virtually no bass. What can be the reason? The tension is equal on the head.
PLEASE, HELP!

Hi the first thing I would do is get rid of those Remo Mondo heads. Get some REAL skin on those drums.Second, tune your bass conga to G below middle C,start there. If u r trying to get a "palm bass" sound out of those Tocas,fuhgeddaboutit! Not with those heads. Tune your middle drum to Bflat(my tuning) and then the quinto tune to Middle C or higher. Experiment with those tunings. There is a song that goes "It's cheaper to keeper her",old blues tune, that's how I tune my congas. Hope this helps....At your Service....JC JOHNNY CONGA..

Hi,
I just got my Tumba. I have a set of Toca Premiere, been playing them about a year. I have the Remo Mondo heads, they look like skin, but I don't know if they are the Nu-skin or not. I love them. I have found once you find the pitch in the drum that has the less overtones you can keep them there and they will stay. I have detuned them and retuned them back and they seem to be pretty easy to deal with. I have some Matador Bongs with real skin heads by LP, I have to mess with tuning more, but I need to de tune them each time and haven't been. They fluctuate alot more. When I get them tuned they sound great but they are more fussy about temp and weather conditions. I want to try some real skin on my congas because of what Johnny has said. But I like the sound my congas get, the Bass tones are tough but the sound projects away from you more than you think. Johnny's comment when he said he tried them is they sound like trash cans. He didn't try mine obviously, he tried some at a store? Johnny, I have to admitt they do have a sharper ring than the wood, more like a timbale, but I like it. I don't have the experience that Johnny does, I am just a novice. So, I just want to give you some extra perspective. I want some wood congas down the road, but these are great. I have played them in all weather conditions and they do just what they say, they don't fluctuate. When I mic them for playing in the band they sound great in the mains and monitors, the board mix can take some of the ring out if needed, so I don't have to worry to much about having a tin can effect.

Happy drumming,
Congabebe