congaplace.com

Hello Mike,
I see you like a more low tone in your drums,those skins loke real nice,i visited the site and i think i'm going to order too.I prefer a more pitch sound,i hope those skins handle the tension,what do you think?
THanks for sharing the video

Yes, those skins can handle higher tension without a doubt.
The reason why the drums are in low pitch is only that I do not want to crank up freshly mounted skins.

Ok ,I see,you do well ,those babies need nice care.I'm Going to order one skin for my mini pearl requinto,just to see how it sounds.Thanks for your answer!!

Mike wrote:The original skins are pretty amazing, despite being water buffalo. After careful tuning,
the congas produce a surprisingly focused sound with some ring due to the water buffalo,
but not too much, nice open tones.
And the conga is slappable like nothing, and that at a size of almost 12" (11.9").
Most congas I have played on are usually undersized (i.e. less than 11.75" diameter of
playing surface), but not this heavy monster. The tumba is really 12.5" and yields an earthy punch.

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So this is a gorgeous set that does not leave anything to wish for
- except maybe or rather definitely new (cow) skins one day.
For the time being, these oak barrels kick a** !

Mike i would put on verry thick skins ,that's what my friend had on them .
The can take the stress and you get an incredible loud conga set with clear defined tones ! (that's howe i like my conga's )

But entirely up to you afcourse !!!

skinslapper wrote:Mike i would put on verry thick skins ,that's what my friend had on them .
The can take the stress and you get an incredible loud conga set with clear defined tones ! (that's howe i like my conga's )

Actually I did put on thick skins and I am very happy with their sound.
Loud? Yes, or rather round, fully resonant tones, especially when I
do not tune them overly high.
Those Woodcrafts are simply miraculous

BTW an early Saturday morning question
directed to down under: Abakua, have you gotten your set yet?

Been a while!
Finances been going elsewhere, so these were on hold for me, paid off the last installment on them last week.
Got to tune them up and give them a good work out today. Man, they sing, no effort required to get the sound out of them, big projection and warm tones.
Will get better pics in the next few days.

Germans and Cubans getting to know each other:

NICE!!!!!

Very nice, hardware looks beefy enough to handle anything u give it!!!

ABAKUA wrote:Germans and Cubans getting to know each other:

Quite a showoff, if not a beauty contest
Seriously, that is a very cool convention.
I am glad you could figure the cash issues out, Marcelo,
and big, heart-felt congrats on that awesome Meinl conga set!
THe hardware is simply awesome.


FWIW, here is my contribution to German-French friendship
A perfect rumba trio with the Delaporte superquinto-
Have just had fun plaing a little guagancó with my son.

Thanks Mike! Nice collection there also. They look very nice in the natural oak colour.

So I spent a few hours over the last 2 days giving mine a little love and attention, they had been sitting in the darkness of a dusty warehouse all this time so I dusted them down, took the heads off, lugs/sideplates disassembled etc etc cleaned up all the hardware, the bands and side plates were a little tarnished, all mostly superficial though. They came up quite nicely.
Sun came out late this afternoon, (we are in winter) i took some pics in the backyard, if its sunny and warm on the weekend, I will coat the heads up with manteca de corojo (west african palm nut butter) and leave them in the sun all day before wiping them down.

Bands as they looked before clean up:


After clean up:


Lugs cleaned up, all old grease/oil removed, thread cleaned and polished:



Soaking up some sunlight after years of living in darkness.

Nice cleaning job, the hardware has come out fine,
like a knight´s shining armor.
And very nice pics too.
The black rubber protection of the sideplates still leads
me to the conclusion that your Woodcraft is exactly from the same period
as my 1998 model. At least I contacted a Meinl sales rep who remembered
that in the earlier 80s earlier Woodcraft models there was no black rubber
under the sideplates.
But anyway, those babies are plain awesome. The skins of yours look
better than the original skins on mine by the way.

Nice German eye candy!!!!!!

Very sturdy looking hardware.

I've been searching for a pair to match my bongos, they are from the same series..