congaplace.com

Some musicians suggest loosening the bongo heads after playing. Some suggest never loosening the heads or only slightly after playing. Any opinions out there? Thanks!

I think you just stated both opinions....

and look what the search engine found

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=detuning+bongos

Thanks! But this syestem won't let me get to that link. What do you think?

Natural rawhide bongo heads I make sure I
untune them, specially the macho. They
will rip apart in a heartbeat.

Good morning CloudedB,
I'm not a professional player and I own both natural rawhide and synthetic heads on various sets of bongos I own. In my opinion whether natural or synthetic I tune and detune both types of heads. The primary reason, it keeps me fresh in applying the proper tuning techniques to achieve the proper pitch I seek and secondly it relieves the stress on the shell's body, especially if the bongo is made of wood. Fiberglass bodies could probably take the prolonged stress but wood could develop tiny fissures over time leading to a possible crack or warping into an egg-like shape in the shell itself if not detuned on a regular basis. Others bongoceros and congueros for that matter have claimed that synthetic head detuning is not necessary at all, but speaking strickly for myself and from a maintenance viewpoint I'd like to keep the drums free of possible future defects. Peace brother.

Jorge.

Thanks everyone for your opinions! Please keep them comming. Looks like I'll detune both Macho (synthedic) and Hambra (natural) after playing.