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Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:02 am**

following your reviews and two positive handfull of reviewers ron, need a budget set for the house, ordered a 10-11 set for now red wine color.

cant wait till they come in to try them !

Edited By whitemanplay on 1158109535

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:02 am**

has any one tried the schalloch' symbals or ''platillo'' are they of great sound?? thank you, my best to all, franc :cool:

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:27 am**

I know that feeling. A friend bought based on my suggestion a set of their top of the line Bongos. We changed the macho heads for a Fyberskin and the hembra head for thick Cow hide. The result sound =comparable or better than most of the mass produce stuff. Their sturdy construction include heavy hardware rims and bottom hoops,3/8 lugs and the most important,not too expensive. Enjoy

Edited By caballoballo on 1158146987

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:09 pm**

You know, I agree with you Caballoballo on that Schalloch instruments seem to be of very good quality, from a virtually unknown brand... I have a friend that bought 3 Schalloch congas (2 tumbas, 1 conga), with eight 3/8" tuning rods/drum. They had a nice fat shape, tuned very easily and most important, great sound.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:28 pm**

¡Llévatela suave mis hermanos!
¡Espero que todo este bien con toditos ustedes!

One of my students bought a Schalloch conga a few years ago. I wasn't sure about his purchase until it arrived. He brought it over for me to see it, and I gotta say, it was a well built drum. The craftsmanship was like the Classic Congas of LP, and yeah, there were more lugs than I was used to seeing on a drum that size. The sound was very surprising too!

Sonaba cabrona' esa conga! It sounded really great!

Enjoy your set!

Suave!
Onile!

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:15 pm**

Maelo,Onile, saludos a ambos. Yes those Bongos & Congas are really well built . I can talk about the Bongó
because everytime we get together at his place for rehearsal ,that is the Bongó I have to use,it is a heavy SOB they may have an El Piernas as a model. You take a close look at the hardware and the Wood and you don't see any flaws,everything is the way a quality instrument should be. Talking about other stuff,there was a set of 1998 Meiln 20 anniversary Bongos at e-bay,very cheap,the seller claim the playing surface is 6 3/4" on the macho & 8" on the hembra,those to me are the regular measures but looking on the net for that model I found one but with the free ride modification and chrome harware,the one I am talking about has the traditional wooden block and the hardware is black . Any clue on that ?

Edited By caballoballo on 1158171565

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:52 pm**

Hey Caballoballo... I happen to have an old pair of Meinl Bongos, Live Sound Series with the wooden center block and traditional chrome hardware. They're about 10 years old and I actually chose these bongos over LPs...and have to tell you I will never regret making that decision. I tell you I was won over by it's color (a dark red fade), craftsmanship and I have to tell you that through time, I find them to be sounding better! I also have a pair of German made Woodcrafts, made of Sessile Oak. Very heavy, but great sound and projection-very loud! Only difference- these have the Free Ride hardware, heavy and takes a little used to. But the sound-whew!!!

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:16 pm**

Congratulations! Our drummers wife made a video of our band one night. We did a gig where I hauled all six of my budget congas and used them all one time or another during the gig. The sounds in the mix were very pleasant from the shallochs and the sonors I bought as a second set. I'm sure you will enjoy them. Treat the heads with some shea butter or lanolin for even better tone (just some on your hands then rub and play). Mine stay in the practice studio so they don't get damaged, but they come out for some gigs, if the set requires. I prefer them for some numbers over the sonors, and vice versa...so I susually use some combination of the two sets.

Have fun with the money you saved! :;):

God bless!

-Ron

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2006 2:12 pm**

The Schalloch company is based in a little guitar & percussion store in my home town (Hamburg). The owners are friends of mine for years. When I wanted to buy me a new set of congas back in 1986, I was in doubt whether to chose Cuban congas or Skin-on-Skin. They showed me their prototype conga, body (hand-)manufactured in the Black Forest, and it would beat both the Sonoc and the Skin-on-Skin (for what I wanted to hear). I ordered a triple set of congas from them that I expanded to a set of four a couple of years later. They are custom-made of maple staves, Sonor crowns and Danish PJ sideplates, skins selected by myself. I am playing these drums to this day, and they have gone through, and proved in, any possible situation. Everybody loved them. I never since have had problems with lack of volume and injured hands. The sound character is what I would call balanced.

They don't have a "soul" or "alma" inside. I suggested they should put that iron ring in, but they didn't do it until Sergio Boré (from Brazil) repeated the advice. (Often in Germany, you have to have come from the Americas to be listened to.) At the same time they started using their own black hardware and beach or oak (!) bodies. They became the heaviest drums on the market.

At one point - I don't remember when - the Black Forest guys decided to end the cooperation with the Schalloch people, who are clearly business-oriented, and surely more than a living community of private woodworkers. So Schalloch started using more or less the same business as every other company, importing the bodies from Far East and mounting their own hardware and skins. Consequently, the drums started sounding like any other drum, like the LPs, Meinls or whatever, the only difference being that the skins were usually too thin. Today, even the skins look standard. The name plate looks the same, though.

On the quality level of the instruments on the photo, you usually take the least expensive out of the product range, and you can definitely play them, no question. If Schalloch is cheaper than other brands, even in America, it shows their competitiveness. Good for them. As far as I'm concerned, I am glad I have chosen their first prototype line for my concert class congas.

Just to share some info on this "virtually unknown" company that I happen to be acquainted with. Enjoy your new Schallochs.

Greetings,

Thomas

Posted: **Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:23 am**

Thomas, that was interesting story! Now we know more about this "unknown brand".

Just one question ... what is the Black Forest?

Posted: **Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:45 pm**

Thats a well known forest in Germany.

The Black Forest (German Schwarzwald) is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 meters (4,898 feet). The name Black Forest comes from the general dark color of the numerous coniferous trees that grow in this region

Posted: **Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:28 pm**

There you got the answer. Thanks - TA

Edited By Thomas Altmann on 1158337804

Posted: **Sun Sep 17, 2006 3:19 am**

well I got them in today, I have to say they look great the heads are a little on the thin side but what ya want for the cost. The heads are not really too thin in my opinion I kinda likes them a little on the thin side gives a little more variety in sounds and its different to me. I tuned them up and ran through a practice midi :-)

I hit the record button so's yalls can hear them a little here ya go to me they sounded pretty good in the recording.
Schalloch Congas whitemanplay recording

Edited By whitemanplay on 1158463400

Posted: **Tue Sep 26, 2006 4:39 am**

I realized with last recording that I did you cant really hear them well to tell the sound of my new drums, so I did a solo job with a little ambience you can hear the congas better I think they sound great myself please let me know what you think of the tone.
Thanks!
http://www.geocities.com/unitedmight/index.html

Edited By whitemanplay on 1159245643

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