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Hey. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to coat entirely or at least 5-6'' inches from the bottom and top of the inside of my congas with some weatherproof indoor/outdoor polyeurathane construction adhesive. I have wood congas and I live in humid climate. I wanted to get some fiberglass congas but I played some sonor ones yesturday and I don't really like the sound of them. Ringy, some overtones...and they had raw hide heads. There aren't many congas around so I will just have to go by my assumption that most fiberglass congas have a ring to them, or more prevailant overtones than wood congas. So since I no longer am interested in fiberglass, I would like to protect my wood congas . I have a hairline crack on the bottom of my quinto and on the top of my conga. I already used this adhesive to fix them. I've used this polyeurathane adhesive for various other tasks around the house and it is amazing. Would it be a good idea to coat the inside or some of the inside with this stuff to prolon gthe life o my congas? Will this hurt resale? What are the cons, other than adding weight. It will affect the sound right?

Thanks for your time.

i wouldn't do it. Real quick and in general, the thing that takes the biggest toll on things built of wood is changing conditions. expansion and contraction. Humidity isn't bad per se unless preceded by dry conditions. and the quicker the transition, the worse it will be. Meanwhile, are you going to coat your wooden furniture with that glue

Years ago I read that one of the jobs that musical instrument case do is to protect instruments from extreme changes in conditions. Like if you are coming inside a heated space from a winters cold, to leave your instrument in your case and let it come to the new condition gradually. Think about a more delicate violin, they have cases for their cases.

I see. However, wouldn't coating the inside minimize the expansion and contraction thus doing the job I intend for it to do? That's really what I'm asking I guess. I do play shows in the winter so there is alot of transitioning from the cold to the hot stage anyways...

As for coating my furniture, if it woudl help it to last longer and is in a place not visible than I probably would. Remember , I want to coat the inside, not the outside of my drum.

Thanks for your time.

If you coat the inside of the drum with something hard like polyurethane it will change the sound. The drum can still expand and contract from changes in heat, thermal expansion. I only know of one company that seals the inside of their drums and that is Volcano. None of the others seem to do it for whatever reason, even those companies from humid places like Cuba or New York. One of the members here rubs the inside of his drums with olive oil as a form of maintenance.

You would have to completely seal the drum and that would only take care of the moisture level and do nothing about temperature.

Gon Bops fiberglassed their drums but that used the glass mat matrix to physically hold the drum together. As far as I can tell it works. My two fiberglass drums lived in a friends garage studio that was not constantly heated or cooled for a couple of years. He'd turn on the heat or the AC only when we were in there to play. They sat right next to his Gon Bops and some of his cracked and split during that time. The glue by itself would probably not have that kind of strength.

This would be one place that padded bags have the advantage over hard cases, as the padding acts as insulation.

I agree with all above coments. One thing worth mentioning though not all Fibreglass Congas sound ringy , anyone here will tell you that the LP `s sound real good with nice Skins . no ringy tones on the LP `s I have played infact Id have a set in a heartbeat if i had spare money.
PS dont ruin your wooden Congas by sealing inside, If it aint broke don't try to fix .
Marco