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Posted: **Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:53 pm**

I have some new toca limited Edition conga's with bison heads coming my way next week. I was wondering what you guys think about the correct way to seat a new head on a new conga. Should you evenly tighten the head just a little bit tighter than your playing conditions. Then let this sit over night for the head to seat correctly. Or is their more to this process? Just wanted what you guys with the longer relationship with your conga's think. I would hate to mess these up right out of the gate.

Posted: **Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:14 pm**

Place the new head flush with the rim, let sit over night; I recomment to place in the sun for a couple of hours so that part of the head that wraps around the hoop is totally dry, you don't want to tighten and have it rip right there. This way you will have plenty og life on your head. Only one thing some comapnies give you a short lug and not enough to play with.

Paz OLSONGO

Posted: **Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:54 pm**

IMHO, I would not waste time trying to make those congas sound any good with the factory heads,every body here know the lack of quality of them. Instead I would buy some Fyberskin heads and solve the problem at once. Yes,you have to spend over $100 but you will have no complain on the sound.

Edited By caballoballo on 1154879712

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:59 am**

Thank you guys. I've already been thinking about placing some remo fyberskins on the conga's. I just need to be sure about seating the stock heads. I could place the stock heads on eBay. But they might be worth more to me as a back up heads.

Do you have to seat the fyberskin heads like you would with heads for drum sets? My experience runs more with drums but I'm doing a lot more with percussion lately. Plus I see more of a future with conga's for myself. It's been a great journey & a nice pathway to many things.

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:21 pm**

MC77,

IMHO the best setup for a conga and quinto is Nuskyn on quinto and Fyberskyn on conga, you get good loud slaps/ opens on Quinto and a rounder sound on the Conga.
My other advice is- protect them at all times (especially Fyberskyns) as they are laminated and dings on the edge will start to open up.
Also be careful to tighten them up evenly and progressively,a quarter of a turn with a spanner after finger tightness, going round the drum, not opposites as I believe you do with drums. I have trashed a fyberskyn by not taking care.
The great thing with synthetics is that you dont have to detune or retune.
Hope that helps.

Diceman
You are taking the right journey brother.

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:31 pm**

Thank you Diceman, this does help. Your correct about the tuning & seating the drum head (for the drum set/kit) c/o going in the order of the opposite ends with small turns.

Why is the conga different when using a synth head like you would tune a snare or tom tom? You would think that the conga head would not seat flush with the edge of the conga. Is it because the conga does not have cut bearing edges like you would do on a snare or tom? I'm sure the small turns with tuning the conga is the greater importance during these process.

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:53 pm**

mc77 wrote:I have some new toca limited Edition conga's with bison heads coming my way next week. I was wondering what you guys think about the correct way to seat a new head on a new conga. Should you evenly tighten the head just a little bit tighter than your playing conditions. Then let this sit over night for the head to seat correctly. Or is their more to this process? Just wanted what you guys with the longer relationship with your conga's think. I would hate to mess these up right out of the gate.

Hey MC77,

If I read you correctly, you are getting brand new drums that come with bison heads. Maybe I am wrong, but it sounds like what you mean by "seating the heads" is "breaking them in" which has nothing to do with replacing the heads. The short answer is just play them, play them and play them. The heads need to be acclimated to being tuned and de-tuned. The wooden shells need to be "played in" as well. There are a lot of posts about how bad stock heads are from many of the large drum companies like LP, Toca, Minel and so forth. My experience is that their skins tend to be inconsistent in quality. The sound of any drum is subjective according to the player's own taste. Also, the kind of music you are playing has a lot to do with how you want your drums to sound. Playing with bands and having to cut through a lot of other instruments is different than playing folkloric type music. However, my personal opinion is that one should play the drums for awhile before considering changing the heads. If you are a new player and just learning, let better drummers play your drums to help you hear what your drums are capable of sounding like. The same drums can sound a lot different under the hands of a seasoned player.

In general I tend to not like the drums from those large companies. I had two sets of Minels and a set of Toca Traditionals. I have sold the Minels and was looking to unload the Tocas also get the cash for a set of custom made drums. Well, as it turns out since I have been playing the Tocas a lot more, I have desided to keep them. They have been sounding better and better with use and age! They will be my back up drums after my custom drums arrive.

My two cents,
Facundo

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:51 pm**

Thanks for the reply Facundo, The seating of the head I'm talking about is partly about breaking them in. But more important the fitting the head to the conga shell rim correctly for the best sound & to add extra life spand to the head. I know with drum heads for the drum set you can kill the life spand & tone with not seating the head correctly, & I'm not talking about the breaking in the head. I understand the drum will need time & room to breath c/o breaking them in. I would hate to shape the new heads that come with the conga's then try to sell them, knowing that I was going to use something else. But most likely I will kept them & try both type of heads.

I'm sure when I receive my new conga, that the heads will not be seated or tighten down to the fact of messing with the seating of the head (I hope not). Plus I already know that I will like to try a different head than the stock head. I wish toca or midwest percussion where I'm getting these from had the option of placing remo synth heads on them. I had remo tubano's for 6 years or so & I'm use to more of the synth type of head. Now I'm doing more percussion stuff & it's time to upgrade..

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:20 am**

Here's the best way to seat the skins. the skins were not set on the congas, but rather a mold, so they do not adhere well to the shell like a tucked skin would. Take the skin completely off the drum, turn it over and put abbout 2-3 inches of water in the skin. Let it sit for 2-3 hours, not too long, but long enough to give it some elasticity without losing its shape. Wax the rim of the shell where it will come it contact with the skin, this will help seat the skin to the drum. Put the skin back on the drum, tighten slightly and let dry. Voila!! It won't be as good as a nice tucked cow or mule skin, but it will definitely help to seat the skin on the drum naturalyy.
PC

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:27 am**

Thank you pcastag, can you do this process more than one time? Like if you took some heads off one set of conga's to place them on another conga? Or even to refit the head on the same conga?
I'm sure it would not be like a new head shape to the new conga, for the first time. But can this be done or is it a waste of time? I guess another way of saying this would be "can a old conga head be reshaped & the sound & life of the head snap back. Or would the head become dead to have life on another drum? In the context if the head already has some life to the head to begin with?

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:56 pm**

I second the advice to re-soak the skin before seating it. Recently, I put an old but serviceable cowhide tumbadora skin on a different tumbadora (both Skin on Skin), which had a slightly different rounding to the edge. I did not bother to re-soak the skin as pcastag suggested, and as I have done on other drums in the past. Within a week the skin ripped along the rim edge, where it had conformed to the slightly different shape. I had not tuned it up high, just played it low as a tumbador. In the past, I have had good success with switching skins to different drums by re-soaking and carefully mounting with minimal tension, as if you were mounting a new wet skin. While it is wet, you can very carefully tune it up a quarter turn per lug, to just barely seat it. If it is clear, and starts to turn opaque as you tighten it, you are tightening it too much, back it off a little. A little waterproof grease (I use Phil Wood bicycle grease) between the rim and the skin helps both with seating process and with tuning after the skin is dry. You need to let it dry thoroughly (ie, a week or even more if it is very humid) before tuning it up to playing pitch. You learn this by experience, sometimes expensive experience, so if you know someone near you who has experience mounting skins, ask them to help you the first time you do it.

Posted: **Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:38 am**

I have to agree with the soaking of the head. I've done that for my congas many times with many heads and have never had a problem.

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