who says all thailand made stuff is crap?...Lol

[b0ng0]

Saludos mi gente,
The other night I was asked to sit in for a rehearsal to replace the timbalero who couldn't make it for practice. I noticed the bongosero playing a pair of LP generation ii bongos, during the break I approached him and asked about them, they have traditional hardware and he had mounted what I think was cow & mule on it, WOW the sound was great! Probably just as good as my Mopercs, nice old school sound with good projection. I was able to play them and was very impressed, so impressed I'm looking to get a bargain set off of ebay,mount some heads & make them my 2nd workhorse set..
Anyone else have an experience like this? I know charlie "yambu" did quite some time ago..

[Mike]

Well, skins make a hell of a difference with bongos anyway IMHO.

[b0ng0]

Cuco: tienes toda la razon, I just need a bongo that does the job at the gig, so I play & get paid. Never once has someone asked me, "oh is that a Moperc,sos, matthew,etc", nobody cares that's why, as long as it sounds good and does the job,its all good. Ademas si llego a un guiso con un bongo que me costo $500, me va dar miedo tocarlo.
You said the truth in that statement cuco, I guess this is why dandy, paoli, jimmy delgado,etc.. don't mind playing mass produced, its availble and does the job.

[Chupacabra]

I don't think anyone here would argue this fact. Definitely not me. I have seen countless times how skilled players can make anything sound good. That includes chairs, butt cheeks, beer bellies, dashboards, cheap drums, table tops, you name it.

Several years ago I bought myself a really nice djembe, one of those nice ones from Drumskulls. I could not get a decent sound out of it to save my life and I began to think it was defective. I still played it but not as often as the cheaper one I already had that still sounded bad but I was less ashamed to sound bad with a cheaper drum because I could always blame it on the drum. I brought the nice djembe to a workshop one day that was being held by a couple of guys from Senegal (can't remember their names right now) and they looked at my djembe and asked if they could try it out and of course I gladly agreed. The sounds they got out of that drum as they took turns on it just rocked my world! They knew where the sweet spot was within the first three strokes and made magic for at least 10 or 15 minutes while everyone just watched in amazement. After thanking me very graciously they handed me back the djembe.

Minutes later, they started the session and I had my super duper djembe in front of me and I think you know the rest of the story. My playing and sound could not even be considered "feeble". I tried hitting harder, softer, hitting different spots and still could not get it to sing like those guys did. I killed my hands so bad that I couldn't even play anything after a couple of hours.

Years later, I still have that djembe and have finally learned to make it sing. It only started about a year ago and slowly my sound has become better and more consistent. And this is just practising alone in my basement playing doubles, triplets, paradiddle, and a bunch of other rudiments. Sometimes I start to think I am Mamady Keita or Famoudou Konate and that quickly comes crashing down when my hands start to get sore and shakey all over again! Then I go back to the basics and play slower, softer and concentrating on using the techniques that I have been taught by numerous teachers, who all keep saying the same thing... practise, practise, practise! And concentrate on your technique!

[Psych1]

I have said many times here that my $30 hock-shop Meinl with good heads sounds as good as my expensive bongos - so I certainly agree with that point.

But the "Heavies" play the Thailand bongos because of endorsement deals. They used to gig with one but play something very different at home. Now the endorsement deals specify what you can play at home too. That is how I got a few of my "Collector" bongos.

[RitmoBoricua]

In my experience a $600 or $700 hand-made bongo does not necessarily sound any better than an LP professional bongo.
If you shell-out the big bucks for the expensive artisan bongo that's your business but do not tell me that you bought it
because it sounds better, because then I got news for you. You could have bought a bongo for half the price that sounds
as good as the artisan bongo. At the end of the day to play all you need is a good quality professional grade bongo and
of course a good player.

[bongosnotbombs]

Who the heck sells a $600 or $700 bongo, besides Volcano?

I tell you what though, it's true, you can get a good sound from an LP drum, but I have not come across the LP bongo that has anywhere near the sound or sensitivity of my Skin on Skin bongo. No LP Giovanni or whatever even comes close. And to top it off those LP bongos are heavy. I know, I play them all the time, LP congas too, and it always feels good to come home to my own drums. Not only do they sound better they feel better and they look better. There isn't an LP drum on earth that has the bass of my vintage Valje tumba that fills out the bottom part of a rumba so well, and if you guys think different, well maybe you need to clean out your ears and listen.

[onile]

Who the heck sells a $600 or $700 bongo, besides Volcano?

I tell you what though, it's true, you can get a good sound from an LP drum, but I have not come across the LP bongo that has anywhere near the sound or sensitivity of my Skin on Skin bongo. No LP Giovanni or whatever even comes close. And to top it off those LP bongos are heavy. I know, I play them all the time, LP congas too, and it always feels good to come home to my own drums. Not only do they sound better they feel better and they look better. There isn't an LP drum on earth that has the bass of my vintage Valje tumba that fills out the bottom part of a rumba so well, and if you guys think different, well maybe you need to clean out your ears and listen.

Whew! I think I need a cigarette after that................

[RitmoBoricua]

There isn't an LP drum on earth that has the bass of my vintage Valje tumba that fills out the bottom part of a rumba so well, and if you guys think different, well maybe you need to clean out your ears and listen.

I remember exchanging emails with a very well known and respected percussion legend and talking about LP conga drums.
He told me that at the old "La Tierra" recording studio in NYC back in the hey day of Fania records they had a set of LP conga
drums that were used for a lot of them legendary recordings. The one thing I remember very well is that he said them drums were
just so good and the "bass" they came out of them was incredible, he totally loved them. The statements made by this percussion
legend in those emails cleared a lot of stuff for me besides my ears.......

It got to be the player not the drums:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aBuFXnICHY

Kid only if I did not know better...............

[bongosnotbombs]

Nah, you have got it wrong it's the player AND the drums, otherwise we would all be playing Aspires.

[RitmoBoricua]

no doubt good drums and good players......

[RitmoBoricua]

Very True La Tierra had a set of LP congas and a set of Leedy timbales with bells in there back room tuned and ready for many of the recordings this was a must to use.

He also metioned the set was of the short kind (28").

[Mr. Conga]

Well, i wanted to start this tread about a week ago, just didnt make time for it,
I am really glad bongo started the tred.

I do agree you dont need the most expensive drums to sound good, some have the best and are just playing pattie cake on the tambores...lol!

I have seen gringos with Junior Tirados, yet they make a shame out of the music by trying to play. In the other hand i have seen some gringos who are dedicated to latin music, and the many rythms, respect the music love it, and can play prettie good....and actually have more knowledge of the caribe rythms, more then some latinos.

I have also played with whaever was at hand in little gigs, like a bbq, and the percussionist just started playing and i had to grab whatever kind of bongos they had, lp, curve rims, old ass cow skins yellowed, and dirt stained...and i made music with them, i felt like i made them sound better then some top notch bongos i have played, because the skins were so old, and cured, but the hembra would have improved if changed, to a fresh thick cow skin.

If someone dosnt have the $600 dollars for a hand made boutique bongo, then with some $200 matadors, that have good working traditional harware, and changing to a goog thick hembra, and a thin goat, or mule macho skin, you can sound top notch if you are a good musician. One of my teachers i meet, at a Sam Ash, he passed the percussion section real fast, tuned some bongos high som matadors, and made them sound like SOS bongos, but were matadors right ou the box, he tuned them up really high on the macho, hembra a little, and with proper technic they souded like top professional bongos, i wanted a loud bongo, but the loud one was the player.

There is a misconception about Lps' here, they think they are crap, most, and are all made with thailand rubber wood, some say, and is false.

Some like the valje's , Dandies, and Giovannies, are made with the best American wood, shiped to thailand, and put together by great drum artesans, that get paid pennies, on the dollar.

When i bought my Lp fisrt bongo i called Lp, twice, and talked to them for like 3o minutes, my concern was this topic, the tread, are they crap Thailand bongos, that look really nice, the sound..Does Giovannie play a diferent higher standard made bongo, and the one they sell with his name, lower quality?...the answer is no, Dandy, Giovannie get the exact same bongo you get in the box.

And show you the sound capabilities, if played properly, what you could achive, but many expect the bongo to do the palying for them...get frustratedm cause they dont sound like Dandy...lol! ....

I made shure my lp Gio's were first generation, and made with American top grade ash wood, it took a little long for them to track one in the warahouse, because they dont make them any more, they were limited edition, American ash, therei different hardwares chrome and gold, and they just box them, they cant change hardwares...there were chrome silver ash wood gIOS, IN DIFFERENT stores, and locations, i wanted one from the box, not a sales floor one.

And mine is American ash, sounded, good, outa the box, once tuned, and i eventually changed the heads, to Pan Con Queso skins, and now they sound more traditional, i also order traditional hardware for them, which for shure will improve them, if i mount new heads.......THE ONLY THING I WOULD REALLY WANT LP TO MPROVE, IS THEIR CENTER BLOCK....is tooo wide to big, your legs are not confortable after an hour of playing.

ALso they should go back to traditional hardware....although now i would only buy used vintage american wood Lp's...because of how the oldschool players were srewed up, with the sponsoring issues, i only support old lp now...nothing direct from them.

Lp Giovannies, are loud, because one of the traits ash has. they are top quality constructed, shells are great, they are like tank.
The sound capabilities are endless....

so they are not crap

[RitmoBoricua]

Yeah Mr. Conga ash is a pretty good hardwood for congas and bongos. I have never had any issues with LP drums over the years. I was in the Navy and I took my drums with me in my travels and they always performed as expected. I have even seen one player that after we practiced would throw his Matador congas and I mean hard in the back of his truck time after time. The Matadors never fell apart and they always sounded good. They looked like hell of course but they did their job as well as any other drum. That told me something and then again I have seen the best of the best playing on LP's and always sounded good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MOFoGyS ... _embedded#!

[RitmoBoricua]

Those that buy hand crafted instruments are just to say I have a hand crafted instrument , which in reality they do not mead to play .Conversational Pieces Only

...and then what handcrafted really means. The so called handcrafted drums are made with the aid of machines too.
The stuff made in overseas is as hancrafted as any other. The people making this drums whether in Thailand, Colombia,
U.S. etc are using their hands and machines to make this drums. I think the term "handcrafted" can be very deceiving.
Perhaps "artisan made drum" would be a more appropriate term for this so called "handcrafted" drums.

This thing of what drum sounds better than the other is very subjective. I can honestly say all my drums sound good,
they may produce slightly different sounds but they all sound good and ready to be played. I just do not buy that
the artisan drum sounds any better than any LP, Pearl, or Toca, Gon Bops, Meinl of similar quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gvhne2 ... ture=email