Moperc Custom Cubano Series Congas - Any feedback?

[Tonio]

Derbeno, thanks for the info. Kinda steep, but I might be able to check them out.

OZ,, my avatar is a Isla quinto with a branding . Thanks for the video.

BNB, just as I thought thanks for the info.


T

[umannyt]

Derbeno,

Great looking Mopercs! Neatly made!

[umannyt]

ozrivera,

Your Mopercs sound great!

They seem to confirm my thesis that with many top-of-the-line congas, as long as you have top mule or steer skins on them, the sound should all be very good.

The different woods used on them should account for relatively minor differences in tone. And in the end, assuming other things being more or less equal (such as player skill) the tone you're looking for from certain congas is really a matter of hearing preference.

Splitting hair, perhaps?



Edited By umannyt on 1201221058

[Derbeno]

Derbeno,

Great looking Mopercs! Neatly made!

Hey Manny,

They are not mine. I spotted them on the local CL and posted for all to see. He is also offering shipping should any of our board members be interested. Just sharing, I don't know who the owner is

[umannyt]

They are not mine. I spotted them on the local CL and posted for all to see. He is also offering shipping should any of our board members be interested. Just sharing, I don't know who the owner is

Derbeno,

They're still great looking and neatly made! :;):

And thanks for sharing the pic,

[BMac]

Earlier, Tonio asks:
"what the heck is a magical lagoon tone? Open slaps ring like the rapture??
The high overtones are tunable.
Man who is this guy?"

I'm BMac, a conga hobbyist. I love my Mopercs. I authored the description you read, but I didn't post it on this website. Heck, I don''t remember where I posted it. Consider it directed more toward passion for my new drum and toward colorful writing than toward concise descriptions of congas, their constructions, and their sounds.

But I do want to dive into the subject of overtone tuning. It exists. It is not commonly discussed. In overtone tuning, one first tone matches the primary lower notes above each lug as a first pass. And then, as a second stage in tuning, one listens to higher notes. It takes a trained ear to hear and isolate the different frequencies in a single open tone on a conga head. When two frequencies that are almost matched combine, their combined volume oscillates at a frequency that is the difference between the two. Physicists call that difference frequency the beat frequency. It occurs when two acoustic resonators interact but are slightly out of match. That's right, you hear their combination as an average that gets louder and quieter. If you can concentrate on the higher notes, you can hear the overtones slightly vary in volume. When you truly match the overtones, the volume fluctuations subside and you hear only a smoothly decaying volume. I used to carry around swizzle-stick mallets to isolate open tones over the lugs, and rapidly alternately strike above different lugs to generate a two-lug mixed-frequency open tone sound, then listen for a beat frequency in the overtones of the decaying sound. As the skins of my drums aged, they lost some of their musical quality ... especially the cracked conga was affected. It would just no longer achieve much less hold overtone tuning.

As you may have concluded by now, when I wrote the description you read, I was still wrapped up in hyper-technical tuning methods. I don't think that way anymore. This doesn't mean overtone tuning doesn't exist ... it just means I know longer try to count the angels that dance on the head of a pin. When I wrote that description, I was moving from an old set of drums (one was badly cracked and warped) with old stretched buffalo skins to better drums and skins. I was often over tightening the drums to make my slaps sound more crisp. I'd like to think my technique has improved, and in any event, I play better skins on better drums now. I don't spend long tuning and I play them looser now. I no longer listen for the beat frequency. I do, however, think of tuning as a two-stage process ... first tune the lower resonance, then tune the higher (overtone) resonance. I no longer carry around special tuning mallets. Thus, I still tune the overtones, but in a much more casual way.

A kid taught me overtone tuning in a park one day. His drums sounded fantastic over my old drums. I asked him how he did it ... and he told me all about overtone tuning. He said his teacher taught him. I don't know the name of his teacher. I don't even know the kid's name. He was maybe 18 or 19 years old ... dunno ... but as they say, "out of the mouths of babes."

Back to Mopercs and their skins:
I've got two Mopercs now, a quinto and a conga. I've replaced the head of the quinto with an improved sample of steer hide. The conga on the other hand ... that came with such a nice piece ... I don't see how I could improve upon it, even in view of several flat steer hide pieces I have that are absolutely gorgeous and premium. Despite that I found a better sample than what came on the quinto, I'm sticking to Salsa Club Series Mopercs for my premium conga needs ... I want a matching tumba one day!

Cheers
BMac