Re-skinning a few drums

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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby jorge » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:59 am

Why would you want to do that?
After you get the wet skin on the drum, before you cut it all around, you can use some clean pliers to grab the skin and stuff it down below the rim, working all the way around. Once you have loose skin around the flesh ring all the way around, gently tighten down the lugs by hand without a wrench, until the loose skin around the flesh ring is taken up, and repeat with the pliers. Keep doing this until you get the skin as low as you want it.
It is not hard, it just seems like the disadvantages would outweigh the advantages.
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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby ABAKUA » Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:51 am

Ebongo wrote:Hi ABAKUA, nice skin mounting. Do you have any tips or tricks to mount a skin so that the crown/rim is 2 inches below the bearing edge evenly all around, without stretching the skin too much?


Hi Ebongo, thanks for the compliment, however Id have to agree with Jorge about the skin being so low. However if thats how you like it then if you follow his steps you will achieve the result, its all in how much slack you give the skin to push the crown down to the height you like.

Here are some pics of a bongo I re-skinned recently. Same concept applied.
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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby Ebongo » Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:33 pm

Thanks jorge, and ABAKUA. I was thinking almost 2 inches (more about 1.5") for conga and tumba to lessen my touch with the metal. What are the disadvantages of a lower crown? I'm imagining your instructions, but should the extra skin be under the flesh-ring instead? Are you saying that the extra flesh should be in between the crown and the flesh-ring? Do you recommend lifting the crown without the lugs to put more flesh below the flesh-ring, or, is it better to attach the lugs first before stuffing extra flesh inside the crown?
I'm looking forward to doing my first skin change on my bongos and large tumba and hope to do it without stretching the flesh too much when making the crown more low.
Do you think it is better to pat dry the skin after soaking, or should it be slippery wet? One person on youtube said he put oil on the bearing edge so that the skin can move easily while drying to avoid "dipping" (where the skin becomes lower from the bearing edge after dry). If this is true, what type of oil is best?
Thanks for the details.
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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby jorge » Thu Oct 02, 2014 4:24 pm

The downsides of mounting the rim too low when the skin is new are 1) there is a lot more stress on the tuning lugs when the rim is low and the skin almost vertical at the flesh ring, causing your lugs and skin to wear out faster, 2) as the skin naturally stretches after a few years, it will have nowhere to go and 3) it allows you to develop bad technique and you will hurt yourself if you play anyone else's drum.

If you have good technique your hand should not contact the metal rim even if it is only a half inch down. Although I believe in ergonomics (changing the environment to fit the person), in this situation the solution to your problem is working on your technique, not changing the height of the rim. Dedicate ten minutes a day of your practice time to improving the way you hit your open tones, muff tones and closed slaps. Go for the prettiest sound, while keeping your wrist as neutral as possible at the time of contact, and your hand as flat (planar) as possible. Watch some of the masters play. Pedrito Martinez has one of the best hand techniques I have seen. Giovanni Hidalgo has outstanding hand technique as well, watch his tumbao in particular. Roman Diaz gets a really clean, pretty sound out of the drum. None of them come close to hitting their hands on the rims, which are less than an inch down on all of the drums.

Pedrito
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-3Tl8_prs

Giovanni (also watch Johnny Rodriguez bongo technique)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYDYipWfWpU

Roman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvqSfaGdL0U

This is hard at first but then becomes second nature and will greatly improve your ability to play for long periods without injury or pain. This has nothing to do with the so-called "comfort rims", that name and design are to sell drums to beginners who don't know how to hit a drum. Finding a good teacher would help a lot, where do you live?
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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby Ebongo » Thu Oct 02, 2014 6:30 pm

I agree for better technique with the crown near the bearing edge. I was thinking that it might be nicer to feel more skin and less metal whenever resting. But true, that bad habits can develop with lower crown. I don't like comfort rims. Traditional rims look nicer, and some say that the tuning is better. Can you recommend teachers and schools in the west part of Toronto and Mississauga (Ontario Canada)?

I think I will not put the crown low now, but this is the height i was considering: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=myEWFqljZj0
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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby jorge » Thu Oct 02, 2014 9:26 pm

That is still too low for the starting position. Those skins are old and have probably gone down an inch or more since they were mounted. I say mount them at most a half or 3/4 inch down when wet, they will be plenty low enough when the skins dry and you tune the drum a few times. After a few years they will probably be as low as is advisable, maybe even lower. Abakua nailed the rim height just right on the skins he mounted in the pics above in this thread. That is what works best in the beginning and over time.

I don't know any good teachers in the Toronto area, although I did play congas at Adelaide Hall and Dundas Square in Toronto in June accompanying my daughter singing at the North by Northeast Music Festival. Maybe someone else on the forum knows a good conga teacher in Toronto, or JC might chime in soon, he teaches on Skype.
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Re: Re-skinning a few drums

Postby ABAKUA » Fri Oct 03, 2014 3:14 am

Ebongo wrote:but this is the height i was considering: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=myEWFqljZj0


Thats Pacha on Timbal, funny guy, he was playing drums & timbal with Pedrito Calvo's band when I was over, and Rolando Salgado Palacio on congas (aka El Niño Mentira) (both have been members of Afro Cuban All Stars) I spent some time with Rolando during my trips to Havana, really nice guy. Ive played those Moperc drums, they are quite few years old and have done several international tours with Juan de Marcos' Afro Cuban All Stars, so its fairly safe to say those skins are quite stretched out and not originally mounted at the height you are observing. ;)
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