The Best Looking Congas Ever!

[pcastag]

I've seen some funky looking SOS's especially the oak drums. I bought the cherry specifically because it was a more stable wood. My buddies went a bit out of round.
PC

[congamyk]

NO conga lasts forever - ALL WOOD EVENTUALLY WARPS and/or BREAKS.
There are plenty of drums with almas that are warped and worthless.

Moperc builds some of the best looking & sounding congas endorsed by some of the best players in the world.

[OLSONGO]

Mopercs...nice shape, some interesting lathe details, but I just don't dig the ginsu knives as side plates, way too much metal adds weight and not a complementing shape at all. Rolando sure has those heads way down as someone said " the condom look "

Paz
Olsongo

[Uber Jalemon]

I just don't dig the ginsu knives as side plates

The ginsu knife are for the Salsa Club serie only

my heart beat for the Custom Cubanos

[deadhead]

I agree, the dagger style plates are a bit too flashy for my taste, though props to moperc for trying something different. The Cubano models are gorgeous.

[Omelenko1]

Speaking of gorgeous, look at these Junior Tirado's. Made by a one man operation in a small Brooklyn basement. Ash and Honduran Mahogany, following the old Cuban Vergara style, with almas in each and every conga. Made to last a lifetime with proper care.

[Psych1]

How do I go about installing an alma on one of my old, but still round after 40 years, Gon Bops? What kind and size of metal? Exactly where and how do you place and attach it?

[deadhead]

Speaking of gorgeous, look at these Juniot Tirado's. Made by a one man operation in a small Brooklyn basement. Ash and Honduran Mahogany, following the old Cuban Vergara style, with almas in each and every conga. Made to last a lifetime with proper care.

Junior Tirado Ash Congas.jpg

Indeed they are Dario, thanks for the eye candy!

[ABAKUA]

Can we see a pic of the 4 darker model behind?

[ABAKUA]

[pcastag]

A buddy of mine has a set of the original honduran mahogany mopercs, probably the best sounding drums I've ever played on which include SOS, valjes. gon bops and caoba sonocs. (actually the caoba sonoc quinto was absolutely incredible sounding) I'd love to hear some of the sol mahogany drums, i heard they sound fabulous.
PC

[BMac]

Yeah, I know ... we're off-topic on this alma thing ... but ... I think y'all are hung up on this out of nostalgia. There is nothing wrong with that ... but I've seen plenty of pictures of unseated almas that were clearly just extra junk stuck inside the drums. Recently, my Moperc Salsa Club Series quinto slipped off my shoulder, it banged on its bearing edge onto the deck of the hanging bridge I was crossing, bounced up and off the bridge and was barely saved from falling into the river below by snagging one of the side ropes on the bridge and dangled just long enough for me to grab it. That drum is fine and it is a tank and it is beautiful.

Almas and outer bands are all needless elements of the past. Buy if you want 'em ... but they aren't needed.

My Moperc quinto went out of round in the first year I got it because it had an unevenly thick piece of hide on it and I fretted around with it by applying uneven tensions, by tuning it up too tight (untuning it perhaps I should say), and by leaving it tight for long periods of time. I started treating it right. I got it a nice even steerhide skin. I loosen it up to finger tightness when not playing, and I keep it in a bag. The damn thing got round as round after a few months of proper treatment. It was quite an ugly egg shape and now it is just as round as round can be. Even so, I rotate the skin and the hardware relative to eachother and to the shell once a year or so.

I like the look of those blade plates on the Salsa Club Series Mopercs. The maker, Michel Oulet, believes they give better contact/coupling to the shell and contribute to the loudness of the drums. The Salsa Club Series also have a bigger hardware diameter relative to the shell whereas his more traditional lines have tighter hardware. This is me typing here without consulting Oulet though ... but my eyes see the difference. The bigger hardware diameters give brighter dynamics for playing with a band whereas the tighter hardware (more traditional), closer to the shell, gives more simple tones to cooperate with other congas. So I choose my Mopercs when I want to play with non-conga musicians or when I want to try to be top-dog around other conga players. On the other hand, when I want to cooperate with other conga players, I choose my "cooperation drums," which are more traditional.

There is no one-size fits-all in congas.

I see a lot on these forums about keeping your skins shallow when you mount them, but wider hardware creates a deeper mounting as soon as you pull tension ... so the depth you choose in forming your new skin is tied to your drum choice. Traditional tight hardware let's you mount your skin shallow ... wider hardware calls for a deeper mounting, so even if you mount a skin shallow on a wide hardware drum, you'll just overstretch the edges as soon as you put some tension on the drum ... even after the skin is dry. So that's another difference between the Moperc Salsa Club Series congas and more traditional drums. You can expect to see a relatively deeply pulled skin on a Salsa Club Series Moperc.

And yes, Mopercs are heavy. I've come to prefer the heavier feel when I play. Ok, so it's a pain to move them, but once I'm playing I like the solid feel of the drum. I feel like my hand pressure goes into the head and not into moving the drum around when I play and I like that. For you physicists, consider that momentum transfer is most complete between a target and a projectile when the two are of similar mass. Well my Mopercs weigh more than other drums, and they define a stable base while the skins get all the momentum of my strikes. Nothing is left to the chance in the motion of the drum ... it's just you and your reliable conga and your technique in every strike when you play a Moperc.

Like 'em or not, Mopercs are superb drums, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

But hey, let's talk about almas again when my Mopercs are twenty years old and still round as round.

Meanwhile, let's get back on topic ... my Mopercs are the best looking congas ...cause I say so. Done.

Cheers,
BMac

[pcastag]

That's my personal opinion, of wich we are all entitled to. I have played the above mentioned congas and they are extremely heavy. A conga that sells close to $1,000 should have an "alma" that will safeguard it forever.

I've seen out of round SOS's with almas. I've also seen some nice old valjes, gon bops and LPS without Almas that are perfectly round. I really think how you treat and tune your drum and the exposure your drums are subjected to (extreme change in temperature) have a lot to do with drums goig out of round. On that note, i liked my SOS's, but I did have jay fix a gon bop of mine and put an Alma in it- end result, went right back out of round, although not to the extrememthat it had previously. It really looked like an egg!

Interesting note as well, I had an old tacked head drum that had a wooden alma in it.

PC

[buckoh]

I've got to disagree about not needing almas and steel bands. I just redid a Gon Bop 10.75 International Series, oak w/wood band around the middle, that I had originally purchased in 1975. It was very out of round and had major splits. I had Matthew make me some bands and I glued the splits. I'm quite sure that the splits(not glue joints) would have reopened without the bands. I used Titebond III. I made the alma out of one of those stupid real estate signs that I found, and glued it in with Goop with small pan head screws holding it while the glue dries. Still round. Buckoh

[Firebrand]

ALthough I do love the wood look, I personally play with Fiberglass Patato congas. More volume, sharper, crispier...I'm a child of the modern conga sound, what can I say That, and I fell in love with the Patato conga sound when I played the prototype (owned by my first conga teacher, Freddy Moreno, of Carolina...R.I.P.) I could NEVER approximate the slaps, cuts, loudness, and just fun playing that I could from playing THAT prototype from any other wood congas. So I set out to recreate the exact gear: Patato Fiberglass Congas with synthetic heads (no Evans...they dampen the sound with that dumb Tri-Dot thing in the middle).

I was speaking with one of my teachers in PR, La Mole, and he has a set of Pearl Bobby Allende Fiberglasses ALWAYS tuned to the high pitches. Told me he hasn't detuned them since 1997 or something like that (that was this summer that I studied with him). He had Remo Calfskin Skyndeeps or Fiberskyns on them. As a working conguero, that sold me. No need to detune...louder projection, crispier sound, more durability...that's what I need when I'm performing. The only time I'd see the need for Wood Congas and Real Skin is when someone wants to get a real Earthy, dull sound associated with Folkloric music, and last time I checked, I wasn't a full time member of Los Papines, Munequitos De Matanzas or Los Majaderos

For my bata set, that's another story...there's an element of spirituality involved in which I'm not willing to sacrifice tone or ease of setting up for having it be fiberglass.

But, for my performing needs, I want something that's loud, durable, heads that last long and that are not affected by weather, and a material that won't warp from not detuning. Fiberglass does it for me.

Best of all, I got my 3 LP Patato for $650.00....a minimal investment...and I've traveled with those babies everywhere (Puerto Rico, NYC, Western MA, Connecticut, Vermont, etc.)

Chalk it up to me being a 30 year old "youngin" with no respect for tradition...but it just seems like the smarter, more efficient choice.