Almas

[burke]

A couple months back I bought a set of Mariano's on Ebay - love em they sound great (to me).

Anyhow, the man I bought them from had refurbished them. I asked abou skins and he said he'd put on "... Almas which only the highest end drums
{Skin on Skin, Juniors, JCR and Ritmo]..."

I searched the congaplace site for Almas and didn't find anything. Are they high end? And waht are they? I've looked at mule online and it seems darker than mine.

Was thinking about putting mule on but don't want to replace a graet skin with a slightly better one.

[deadhead]

Havn't ever heard the name before, but I'm no expert. You should however be able to tell if the head is good quality tho. First off, what color is the skin? is it translucent or solid? If its translucent, is it slightly, or completely see through? The excess skin where it is folded around the flesh hoop will be a good indication of the thickness of the skin. If you can put a pic up here, I'm sure someone can tell you what you have.

[Omelenko]

ALMAS are inner steel rings inside the conga ,on the inner head to prevent the conga from going out of round. Gon Bops never had "almas" neither Valje or wood LPs. Junior, Skin on Skin, Timba, JCR have "almas" on the inner top.
Gonzalo Vergara was the pioneer in putting "almas" on tumbadoras back in heyday Havana.

Repica tu tambo', Dario

[burke]

Whoops - that was me being dense!

I'd asked about the skins and assumed the reply was about the skins.

He did indeed put "almas" inside the drums. He later mentioned that they were good skins but didn't elaborate.

I sent him an email asking if he recalls what he used, but if he doesn't I'll post a pic.

If i deside to re-skin I'll ask Isaac for advise of course, but given I have a quinto and conga, and given the marianos hardware and shell is a tad lightweight and that I'm partial to higher tuned drums - I'm guessing I'll want a somewhat thinner skin.

[burke]

I got a response and now have my answer:

"The skins I stretched on there are North American
Steer hide. ... As I said I prefer Steer but
some people like mule. Also the only dependable place
to get mule is through Issac, he sales them on ebay. "

Given that answer, I think I have high quality skin and won't mess with it.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it"!

[AlexV]

Burke funny story at your expense
It's funny I just got off the phone with Mario at Isla. He told me someone at congaplace was saying that they had bought alma skins. he went on to tell me that he(you) had bought skins from Isla and been helped by his wife Almaz. he got a kick out of that. honest mistake but funny. anyway you have some killer skins on your drums no need to change. i just ordered one myself for my drum renovation project!

[burke]

AlexV,

I hope Almaz did not think I was calling her an " inner steel ring inside the conga" !!!

[Bacalao]

Alexv,
whats the going price for skins from Isla? Thank you in advance.

[AlexV]

Burke . this reminds me of when you tell one person one thing and by the time it comes around back to you the names and story is different. anyway how do those drums sound? i'm anxious to get mine mounted so i can start playing!

bacalao- they are 40 bucks for a 18" piece. he actually has them cut into squares instead of discs saying that it's much easier to mount. i'll let you know by next week how that works out.

[deadhead]

Wow $40 is a good price! Isaac charges $67 for his 18" mule. All other steers I've found on the internet have been around $70.

[AlexV]

deadhead, ususally if you go to the source thats the avg price. i called stern tanning first yesterday before calling mario at isla and the price at stern for an 18" piece is $36. Mario explained it to me that since steer are much bigger and you can get more skin thus they're cheaper. Mules are smaller animals and produce less useable skin hence much higher prices. also the steer are in texas, mules come from venezuela or colombia. i tried calling Bill Confer to get a price but got his answering machine. i was hoping to get a price there too so i could let everyone here know how much. as far as mule vs steer in the sound dept, that i'm not sure about but i'll know shortly and let people know what i think after i've broken the steer in.

[burke]

Hey AlexV,

I think they sound fantastic ... but I've always owned crap.

My last were a nasty toca player and a not to bad 3rd hand Classic.

What I can say if that a friend with a lot of nice drums (Moperc's, classics and others) thought they were the nicest sounding light weight drums he'd heard. At the time the skins weren't broken in and I think they've gotten better.

I did a little latin/jazz gig and we taped some rehersals - they sounded very fine to my ear (even if the guy playing them didn't).

[pcastag]

I bought a side from bill for a little over 100.00 it's enough to do about 6-8 drums and a set of bongos. I've got some pics of the skins if anybody is interested.
PC

[Bacalao]

PCASTAG,

I would like to see a photo of the hide and once they were mounted on the drum if possible.


AlexV,

The reason I asked about the price for a hide from Isla, is that I've ordered from Stern tanning before and it took 4 weeks and 2 days to receive the package. As a matter of fact, I'm currently waiting on an order for another skin from Stern and it looks like he seems to be aiming for consistency with my previous order. I think that with only a $4 dollar difference in price and quality being the same, I'm going to place an order with Isla Perc. I will say that Sterns skins were A+, but the wait to mount a new skin has me climbing the walls.

Do you have any feedback with your experience with Isla as far as quality and time from order to your door? Thanks in advance.



Edited By Bacalao on 1176339001