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OK, so here's what happened awhile back:

I had a year-old set of no-name bongos that worked great, but kept dropping its tuning on rainy days. So one day, not realizing this could happen, I tuned my bongos and jammed; well, when the weather changed the head on the macho snapped, like it was being pulled way too tight. Thankfully I was able to find a cheap CP pair (and yes, I know, that's not much better than a no-name brand lol), but I haven't dared to tune it since. THis de-tuning or lowering of pitch happens with my congas too, so you KNOW I haven't messed with them either

So, I have a couple questions 4u about bongo tuning, and also how to prevent something like that from happening again.

1. How high is too high?
I have a friend who plays djembe and bongos, and he tunes his macho crazy-high. It's got an amazing sound, but apparently my old bongos weren't up to being tuned like that. So, how do you guys tune your machos? Is there a specific note you like to reach, or a certain level of ringing, a certain distance between the rim and the top of the head, etc? Also how high do you tune the hembra?

2. How often do you (manually) de-tune the drums?
I'm thinking if I had de-tuned after jamming that day I would have saved a bit of trouble and some money. Do you guys like to de-tune the drums often, or do you prefer to only do that when you know you'll be packing them up for an extended period of time?

3. What the heck happened?
LOL I'm not kidding here - why do my drums go out of tune when it's raining outside and re-tune when it's sunny? I live in Florida, with a very humid climate, and I'm guessing it has something to do with rawhide "breathing"? I really have no idea. btw I wish u could hear the congas during a thunderstorm - they almost sound like pleneras!

Thanks in advance

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I tune the macho pretty high so I even detune a synthetic head because of the stress on the shell and lugs. Get a nice wrench, that might help!

Thanks! I'll keep those ideas in mind. I suppose if I de-tune each time I'm done playing the changing humidity won't matter in terms of the heads breaking. I should probably do that with my congas too.

ALL drums that use natural skins & are tuned high, should be de tuned to lower the tension. In humid conditions the skin is not as strong and if it begins to dry out it shrinks, but the skin is not yet dry & strong as usual. We have all spent time & money as a result of such mistakes. Recent use of plastic heads may solve this problem but they will now sound like plastic ! The Macho head of bongos & quintos / congas should still be de tuned even if plastic as to lessen the tension on the drum & its tuning hard wares. Care & feeding of Drums is often over looked.