Meinl Professional Conga

[congamyk]

I don't think someone in England should buy drums from another country.
Why pay additional taxes and shipping? You can find good deals on great drums in England!

As far as traditional rims verses comfort rims - there is no tone difference at all. It's mostly aesthetics and tradition.
The most popular pro lines (because of price and availability) like LP, Toca, Pearl, Bauer, Gon Bops, etc. sell far more drums with comfort curve rims than the do traditional rim.

One of the most traditional cats in this music - Changuito - plays LP comfort curves as do/did many of the other traditional Cuban pros like Patato, Anga, Gio, etc.



Edited By congamyk on 1198180634

[masterdj]

What do you guys think about Meinl Pro Series? I had some advice from Marco on this forum about the heads.

Are there a lot of working professionals who use Meinl pro line?

The most cheapest LP Classic conga i can find is 315 pounds and its in Thomann Germany.

Spending 650 pounds on 2 drums is out of my budget at the moment.

I still dont know what to do!! I have already lost 50 Euros for sending my Luis Conte drums back!

[Congadelica]

Ok Masterdj.
Ill break it down for you in addition to your £450 bought from US firstly the Customes and exice get you for 20% , when they have finnished with you is that good old VAT in at 17.5% as far as I am aware so 37.5% on top of 450is going to be top end of your budjet . However if you bought the pro menil with intention of a head change to bring the drums alive and have them sing those sweet musical tones , well myfriend the chioice is yours the blue or the red you decide .

Im just trying to help here bro..........
Then when you decided you take a nice pic and post those mamas for us all to see .
The Tomasito Cruz DVD was a very wise move too.
Were do you intend to take your new skill once honed , Im just being nosey mate . allways looking for new ideas . Id love to do some work with DJ etc...... dont shoot me down for saying that guys , but Ive been into Dance music big time for over 20 years now , it kinda in me blood . I also want to get involved in some rumba , I have a good frien who comes around at times and we have a ball with bongos clave bell and 5 congas between us .
Ok Im sure your more confused by nw bro , but id sleep on it over xmas , get the turkey out the way, spnd some time on here swatting .
Then let yourself loose on some kick ass conga !!!!1


Marco

[masterdj]

Hi Marco,

Thanks for your message. I know you are trying to help. I am not going to order anything from US. We are looking to add 350 dolars on top of the all cost.

I am a new player, buying a new set and changing the heads is a big job for me.

I found LP Matodor Wood conga and tumba inside the EU and they are reasonably priced. It would cost me 420 pounds including delivery. They are dark brown color whic i really like.

LP Matador vs Meinl Pro

Which one would you go?

I will post another topic, please leave your comment.

Thanks......

[congamyk]

Meinl Pro are far better than Matadors.

[umannyt]

As far as traditional rims verses comfort rims - there is no tone difference at all. It's mostly aesthetics and tradition.
The most popular pro lines (because of price and availability) like LP, Toca, Pearl, Bauer, Gon Bops, etc. sell far more drums with comfort curve rims than the do traditional rim.

One of the most traditional cats in this music - Changuito - plays LP comfort curves as do/did many of the other traditional Cuban pros like Patato, Anga, Gio, etc.

Mike,

Just to reiterate/qualify my previous remarks:

Re: traditional vs. comfort rims, I didn't make any reference to the difference in tone but rather to the greater chance of ringing due to the hallow area beneath comfort rims which can act as additional sound chambers.

Re: far more drums being sold with comfort rims than do traditional rims, I don't dispute this. You hit the nail on the head as to why this is (partly) so when you mentioned that it's "because of price and availability". Congas with comfort rims are associated with generally-more-affordable mass-produced congas, whereas traditional rims are associated with the most expensive, handcrafted congas.

Another major factor as to why the most popular pro lines sell far more drums (which mostly come with comfort rims only) is better marketing and advertising. Note that nothing here ever denotes that congas with comfort rims necessarily sound just as good or better than congas with traditional rims just because congas with comfort rims outsell congas with traditional rims.

Re: Changuito, Anga, Patato, Gio (Hidalgo), etc. playing congas with comfort rims, it's a no-brainer as to the main reason why: paid endorsement and not personal preference.

Many of us know that the late Patato was an LP endorser and that Gio is very much still being paid big dollars to endorse LP congas which happen to come with comfort rims only.

I'm not sure about Changuito being an LP endorser or not. But, one thing I do know is that his videos (at least the ones that I've seen and have) are produced by LP.

And, as far as Anga is concerned, the copy of his instructional DVD that I have shows a picture of him with a top-of-the-line Toca drum with a comfort rim (of course). This comes as no surprise 'cause, as many of us know, Toca is owned by the same company (was Kaman but is now Fender) that also owns LP.

Going back to the context under which I compared traditional vs. comfort rims, I was comparing specifically the Meinl Luis Contes vs. Meinl Professional Series only. I was trying to make a case that, despite their significant price difference, they're basically the same drums: They both use the same rubber wood and buffalo skin (although the Pros may have better skins, I don't know). The only difference between the 2 are: color and rims (traditional vs. comfort).

Since Luis Conte (per the Meinl website or catalog) specified that his signature line of congas should have traditional rims and that the most expensive handcrafted, boutique congas (almost exclusively) use traditional rims, then there was really no need for masterdj to have returned the Luis Contes in exchange for the more expensive Professional series.



Edited By umannyt on 1198206210

[congamyk]

Just to reiterate/qualify my previous remarks:

Re: traditional vs. comfort rims, I didn't make any reference to the difference in tone but rather to the greater chance of ringing due to the hallow area beneath comfort rims which can act as additional sound chambers.

I've never heard of this before.
This may be a valid point, have others heard of this?

Re: far more drums being sold with comfort rims than do traditional rims, I don't dispute this. You hit the nail on the head as to why this is (partly) so when you mentioned that it's "because of price and availability". Congas with comfort rims are associated with generally-more-affordable mass-produced congas, whereas traditional rims are associated with the most expensive, handcrafted congas.

I'm not sure I agree with this premise. I know others have said the comfort curves just "get stamped" so it keeps the cost down but can't tradional rims be made in the same way? The comfort curve feature has extra costs associated with it in other ways that might make it more expensive since it uses more materials to make and weighs more than a traditional rim. So why would these manufacturers take on more expense in an effort to keep the drum "more affordable"?

If there's an increase in
(1) design cost
(2) more material used to make the much larger comfort curve
(3) the additional costs to apply a stainless finish to the comfort curve hardware
(4) increased shipping costs due to the extra weight

Look at Tocas traditional line congas, they are less expensive with the traditional rim than the same drum with comfort curve rims... marketing? I'm not convinced.

Another major factor as to why the most popular pro lines sell far more drums (which mostly come with comfort rims only) is better marketing and advertising. Note that nothing here ever denotes that congas with comfort rims necessarily sound just as good or better than congas with traditional rims just because congas with comfort rims outsell congas with traditional rims.

Again you claim a difference in tone. I haven't played every conga in the world. I'd like to hear other opinions about this since I haven't played a lot of the more expensive drums touted on this forum.

Re: Changuito, Anga, Patato, Gio (Hidalgo), etc. playing congas with comfort rims, it's a no-brainer as to the main reason why: paid endorsement and not personal preference.

I disagree completely.... a no brainer?

Couldn't these players use LP's and other drum lines they endorse with traditional rims if they wanted to? Anga used an old set of Tocas in his underground video and that had NO endorsement at all. He could easily have used congas with traditional rims since Toca offers those but again, he didn't feel the need to. Gio and Changuito could have used LP traditional rim congas in all of their vids but chose not to.

I don't believe endorsement is an issue. There are many great players that don't have endorsement deals yet and they use the comfort curve. If you are correct, wouldn't all of these great players without endorsements all be using traditional rims? Especially when recording?

Again I go back to why would the manufacturers spend more $$ on the comfort curve rims on all of their pro models if it wasn't necessary and if it made the drums sound worse?

Many of us know that the late Patato was an LP endorser and that Gio is very much still being paid big dollars to endorse LP congas which happen to come with comfort rims only.

LP has drums that have traditional rims, he could use them on LP's if he wanted to. It's just not an issue. I've seen him use both comfort curve and traditional rims in his videos. If there was a distinct sound difference as you assert, I would think he would use the traditional exclusively, but he doesn't.

I guess we should take this discussion here
http://www.congaplace.com/cgi-bin....nal+rim



Edited By congamyk on 1198217469