Mounting Troubles

[deadhead]

Well it worked, I got some longer hooks at Lowes and was able to pull the skin further down. Once I got the skin pulled down far enough I was able to swap the hooks out for the real lugs 1 at a time. I can't wait until its done drying, the quinto is sounding better everyday, and its been really rainy here, can't wait to hear it when the weather is better. My conga teacher was blown away at my lesson earlier today, infact we did very little drumming and more talking about skins. Props to JCR and Isaac for the mules. And thanks for the mounting tip caballoballo!

[GuruPimpi]

There must be a joy in ya house deadhead!!! :laugh:
Congratulations! Enjoy!

[taikonoatama]

I was going to post this on another thread in answer to deadhead's question on re-mounting the original skin on his Gon Bops because it was sitting too low, but I'm posting here instead.

Here's my take:

(Disclaimer - I've never worked with comfort curves)

It's ideally done without separating the skin from the the crown. The reason is that there's not a lot of extra skin to work when you separate the skin and crown and re-mount it and it can be difficult (but not impossible) to line everything up so there's enough skin above the rim all around for you to cut off evenly.

Mark the skin, rim and shell (in some unseen place with a waterproof Sharpie pen or something) so you can line them all up the way they were after you remove the skin and crown. Immerse the skin and crown (rightside up - not upside down) in water up to a depth of perhaps 1/4" below the flat part of the head, which should remain dry - this helps it retain its shape and line up more easily with the shell, especially if the head is out-of-round at all. After it soaks until it's nicely pliant (varies a lot depending on skin type and thickness - but say 6-8 hours), put it back on the shell (lining it up with the marks you made) and attach the lugs very loosely. Using some needle-nosed pliers, pull the skin up a little at a time as you work your way around the drum until you get it to the the desired height and it's even all around. Tighten the lugs so they're basically firm but don't stretch the skin too much. Cut off the excess skin as usual. Dry for at least 3 days, maybe 5 depending on your weather.

All of the above being said, it's sometimes next to impossible to do it like this, keeping the skin and crown together. Some cases where it might not work:
- If it's a really thick skin (too much drag around the flesh hoop and hardware)
- If it's a really old skin that has sort of fused with the flesh hoop
- If there's very little space between the skin and the shell, after the skin soaks and expands it can be really hard to pull through as there's just too much drag

It won't hurt to try, though. If you find you cannot pull the skin up higher you can either just leave it on to re-dry, or go to a level 2 re-mount, where you actually soak the whole skin and crown and separate them and start from scratch. This is do-able, but can be very challenging in its way, as there's not much extra skin to work with - definitely recruit an extra pair of hands. And use Olsongo's fishing line wrapping technique.

~Taiko



Edited By taikonoatama on 1177112194

[deadhead]

Thanks for your advise taiko, will give it a try after work tonight.