Manufacturers, brands, skins, maintenance, stands, sticks, michrophones and other accessories for congueros can be discussed into this forum ...... leave your experience or express your doubts!
The answer to what grit to use when sanding your mule skin is: the roughest you can find!
I got 50 grit from my local hardware store and used an electric sander. I don't think it took very much down.
But as I mentioned the amount of swelling that occurred [and corresponding shrinking] when it was really soaked was incredible. This time I didn't soak it as long which made it a bit stiffer and harder to work.
So I tried and succeeded in putting the already cut-down, slightly sanded, skin back on last night. This time will let it dry for a few days or a week before trying to really tension it. I also put shea butter on the bearing edge. I took a picture of the thread/spiderweb method I spoke about above in case anyone is interested ...works great for me.
It sounded great ...until one of the tension rods snapped
So new ones on order and the original thinner cow goes back on. I may try thinner mule someday, but for now I've tortured the poor thing enough I think.
that sucks... I was hoping you would tell me that the mule brightened the tone of the bop and all is good...
You're probably lucky a tension rod broke and the drum didn't crack or go out of round -- it's an easy fix. I put a set of mule skins onto a friends maple mopercs (which are build like tanks) and recalled how much tension we needed to put on the heads to bring them up. lots of 'snap crackle and pop' sounds as the head moved over the bearing edge, and I really had to pull on the wrench.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana