Matthew Smith Cuban Style Bongo'

[Berimbau]

Long Live St. Mongo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Saludos,


Berimbau

[maSSivdrums]

Doctorumba,

Those are some of the sweetest looking Drums you have there. On that very first photo of this post with the 3 Congas and the Bongos sitting on them, what kind of wood is that? They must sound fabulous!

Keep on Poundin'... Aloha, maSSivdrums

[Doctorumba]

Aloha Massivo,

The congas and bongos are made out of walnut.Matthew also uses other woods including mahogany,oak,birch,ash and the exotic curly maple.Massivo, you also have those incredible Volcanos. Saludos, Dario

[ralph]

Ralph,

Matthew charged you $475 probably for a conga.My bongo was $375.Also he offers drums in different woods.A bongo in curly maple wood is going to cost more than one in mohagony or oak.Also chromed hardware is more than black oxide and 5 bands on a conga is more than four bands,6 lugs is more than 5 lugs.
In my opinion,I rather spend $475 on a conga from Matthew than $389 on an LP,Pearl or Toca.The difference in beauty,sound and craftsmanship is from day to night.With proper drum care (lubrication,detuning,etc) his drums will outlive any human. Rompe,que rompe tambo'. Dario

I misunderstood, he did make a conga for me...and a fine one at that!!!!!!!!!

Matthew Congas over any others any day of the week...

here is another thing for those that are interested, Matthew doesn't pressure you to pay it all at once, since the process in making the drum does take a couple of months...you can put like $100 down, and send in the rest in increments or all at once...its really not bad once you break it down...

[maSSivdrums]

Aloha Dario,

Walnut is beautiful! Rich in color, must also give a rich warm tone. I like.... You are very fortunate to own them.
Yes, Volcano's are incredible, but just to see what other craftsmans out there are doing to create their own masterpieces is just a delight to see.

Keep on Poundin'.... Aloha, maSSivdrums

[Sakuntu]

So how would you guys compare Ritmo drums to JCR drums? From looking at them, I'm assuming they are of the same caliber. What are some of the differences?

[ralph]

they look the same, but i've heard Ritmo drums are better...thats not to say that JCR drums are bad, its more like saying, Junior's are better than Ritmo drums...

[Bongorific]

I can vouch for Mathews Quality I hav a quito he made and it is an incredible drum..cuts like a knife. His bongo are $600 maybe more......but you'll really have a pro-sound.

[Thebreeze]

The only thing I would say is that if you are starting out, then you might not want to spend so much money on a set like this just in case you decide congas are not for you later on. A nice decent starter set would be something like LP Matadors, or similar and you can always upgrade later on. :O