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Whoa! That is some great repair work! Bringing that drum back to life!

Thanx. It sounds great !
And after this one i'll fix the Quinto Witch is in a worse state than the conga


See the dent in the rim on the left side .
This rim has two dents like that .from 4 staves at the the top are small pieces broken of.

I've taken it apart again .Now i'll sand it and put the old hoops around the tub back .
I was not sure , but now i think it's nice to bring it back to its original state!

Just assembled and tryed it to see if it sounds good , and if its is worth to fix the quinto up as well!
This is a verry nice sounding drum.
So the quinto will be next.

My conga's finelly done .Now 4 the quinto ..!

Sweet job! I love seeing these old drums being saved from the landfill. Each drum has a history and story to tell if they could speak.

Something about the tone of old wood tells part of this story. I see this is a labor of love. No dollar value can replace this. Enjoy your work, drums and drumming.

Thanx Jerry

This is a verry nice sounding drum .
An i am extreemly pleased with it .

Just have to fix the quinto now !

I wonder if the name : Playa Azul is correct .

I 've seen pictures of my exactely the same conga and the brand mark sticker was : LA PlAYA .
Also if you google on la playa (with pictures ) you'll get some pictures of these drums !

On Playa Azul you get nothing !

But then again i;ve seen the picture in this thread with a : Playa azul mark in the rim so it must be correct .
Could there be also a la playa brand ?

I just got an 11" soft wood playa azul on ebay. It came with a super thick, and barely used skin. The skin appears to have a lot of fat in it. Sounds horribly dead. Tried mounting an old LP skin on it, and the sound was better. I'd still call the sound on the extreme sound of mellow. The body's resonance is not so loud in comparison to the direct sound of the hand on skin.

I'd like to try a better skin on it. Would it be right to assume that a thinner skin would liven up the drum? I'm interesed in the old school sound, and hear that Cubans used to use mule skin, but am worried that this drum combined with mule skin would have little resonance.

Jerry Bembe wrote:I am isolating the hardware from the shell to help the shell create a better tonr. The Del celios drums and PM Meniel Floatone were designed for this principal. Think of the conga body like a marimba key and that is part of the picture. I have been testing my congas for thier sympathetic resonance value and then tuning the congas in relation to this value with exceptional results. I have never heard my congas sound better.

Hi Jerry,

Beautiful restoration. Congratulations! It is wonderful that you are very pleased with the sonic results.

I agree with your philosophy about minimizing the negative effects of rigidly mounted metal hardware on a drum shell. As I am sure you already know, the "sound" of a conga is a composite of the drum head vibrating, as well as the air inside the shell and the shell material/hardware resonating in reaction to the initial impact on the head. Every material resonates differently in reaction to a source of vibration. A conga shell's inherent resonance will be damped (and minimized) when the metal lug plates and internal plates are pressed against the shell as they are tightened. Generally, the more metal to shell contact area the greater the degree of damping.

Adding the rubber gaskets as you have done has made the metal on wood damping less apparent and has increased the resonance of the shell. I would suggest to you, however, that the full sized rubber gaskets are also having a significant damping effect but the nature of the damping is different and, in your case, less offensive than without them. I believe that using rubber "O" rings or rubber washers (as small as possible but still able to properly deal with the dynamic torques involved) between the metal plates and the shell would provide even more resonance from the shell as there would be far less direct rubber to shell contact.

If you go that direction however, we must also factor in that the metal plates themselves will not be damped by the shell and they may ring excessively. Keeping the rubber gaskets you have now in place against the plates will minimize this issue.

This just my two cents.

Best,

Barry

P.S. There is no "right" or "wrong" when designing or modifying a musical instrument. Whatever materials or construction methods achieve the sound the musician is striving to attain is what is "right" for that person.

Here's a picture of a mini playa.