congaplace.com

I thought all matador were 30 inches tall. I have one that is 28 inches tall. Can someone shed some light

Matador Fiberglass are 28"
http://lpmusic.com/Product_Showcase/Con ... ongas.html
Matador Wood are 30"
http://lpmusic.com/Product_Showcase/Con ... ongas.html

My understanding is that old skool matadors were 28 inches tall. They were originally banded as a part of CP (Cosmic Percussion) and when they started branding them As a part of LP (Latin percussion) they changed the height to 30 inches. My first conga was a 28 inch wood matador quinto by CP. Looked just like the wine red versions you find today that are 30 inches.

Sakantu.
Thank you.The conga is wood, and wine color! Any idea when they went from cp matador to lp matador? Can anyone tell me more about " Old Skool" matadors? ie head sizes etc.

head sizes were same as any LP conga. 11, 11 3/4 and 12 1/2. As for when they made the switch from CP to LP...hmmm no clue. maybe late 80's early 90's?? inside your conga should be a number written on the staves... thats usually the date it was made. what year do you have?

Well, there has been some info & discussion here:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5394&hilit=matador+cp+fiberglass

and viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4439&hilit=matador+cp+fiberglass+id respectively.
I also once owned such a 28" fiberglass Matador, but it turned out to be uncomfortable for me
when playing it seated as I am 6 feet and almost 3" tall.

BTW my wooden Matador that I still own is not precisely 30" tall, it is only 29.5" - and it was built in the early nieties.
So there might have been some deviation also with mass-produced drums after all.

Mike,
Are you saying El Greco process made a diff in sound and color of your head? BTW I have not gotten around to doing anything to my cp matador. Plans are new head and restoration. I am in need of some conga lugs but don't want to pay $ 3.00 bucks per. Any body out there have a cheaper source for the " Super Nuts " as LP calls them?
rack56

Rack 56,

I have upgraded my hardware with threaded rod coupling nuts (or also called rod coupling nuts) to replace regular narrow stock nuts on the tuning hooks. These come as Zinc plated steel hardware that can be purchased at hardware stores. I have purchased these this past week for less than $2 for a bag of 3 at Home Depot and around $2.50 for 2 at Menards. The quality varies for these parts and the supply is sometimes rather limited due to lack of great demand and construction is down.



I have found that some of these need to be cleaned up by running a tap through the coupling nut to clean out any burs or imperfections. Also I have used a die to cleanup old threaded hardware of damage to the threads. I have found that some hardware is 5/16"-18 and others are 5/16"-24 (the second number is the # of threads per inch). I can only find 5/16"-18 rod couplings so I will try to re-thread these to 5/16"-24. I will let you know soon if I am successful or ruin the rod coupling nut.

When using a tap or die, you need to firmly secure your hardware that is being worked on and use oil to lubricate the cutting tap or die. Also if you get stuck, easily back off the tap or die oil and either back it out altogether and clean the cutting edge or simply backing it off and re-cutting will work. DO NOT FORCE A TAP OR DIE AND USE OIL OR YOU WILL BREAK THE TAP OR DIE INSIDE OR AROUND YOUR HARDWARE!

I hope this helps.

Keep it fun!

Jerry

Yes, broken taps are bad news, as they are specially hardened steel and you will soon find out that your drill bits will not even faze them. You will want to go about a half turn at a time at most and then back off 3/4 to a full turn.