Matador hembra possibly out of round

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Matador hembra possibly out of round

Postby Doc Washboard » Sun Mar 29, 2015 11:25 pm

I've posted before about the hembra on my 2007 set of Matador wood bongos. I just can't seem to get it into tune, and it has always been like that. There's a janky dissonant ring to the drum, and, in order to get all four lugs to the same pitch, one pair of lugs has to be tuned substantially tighter than the other pair.

I finally got irked enough with this to do some measuring. It seems that the drum may be out of round by about one-sixteenth of an inch. (Granted, I'm only a fallible human, and my measurements might be off, but going through the process a couple of times led to similar results.)

I've detuned these drums after playing about 98% of the time, so I'm guessing that they came this way. That being said, is there anything to be done, or must I live with it?

Any help in dealing with this issue would be appreciated.
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Re: Matador hembra possibly out of round

Postby Barryabko » Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:24 am

I assume that you've checked the bearing edge on a flat surface? I would also run my fingers along the bearing edge to check for discontinuities. Maybe rotating the head to new position might help if it has some irregularities.
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Re: Matador hembra possibly out of round

Postby jorge » Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:27 pm

One sixteenth of an inch out of round will have negligible effect on the sound of your drum. Rule that out as a cause of the bad sound, something else is causing your problem. One of the best sounding quintos I ever heard or played was very oval shaped, probably more than a half inch out of round. Bongo hembra sound is determined by many factors including skin species (eg, cow, calf, mule, water buffalo, goat), how much it has been played and broken in, density, thickness, stiffness/flexibility, age and tuning of the skin, height of the rim when mounting, evenness or unevenness of the skin thickness, diameter of hembra, unevenness of tension in the lugs, small partial tears in the side of the skin that are not easily visible, flatness of the plane of the bearing edge, too much grease under the skin at the bearing edge, shape of the bearing edge and other factors. The sound has a lot to do with your technique as well, a really good bongosero can make almost any bongo sound good and you can learn to bring out the sound you want to a large degree.
First, I would find a really good bongosero and ask him to play your bongos and tell you what he thinks. If that is not feasible, you can experiment with small pieces of duct tape or silicone putty on the bottom surface of the skin to see if you can dampen the ring. Often the ring you hear is not audible over a band and makes no difference in the sound the audience hears. The quality of the projected sound at a distance is the important issue. If that doesn't work, take the skin off (mark exactly its orientation so you can put it back on the same way) and examine it and describe it to us. The skin could just need to be played more to break it in, not sure how much you have played it since 2007. If there is something obvious wrong with it, you may be able to fix it easily. If not, putting a new skin on it is the tried and true way, if not the cheapest way, to improve the sound. There have been many threads on replacing bongo skins, skin types, sources of skins etc.
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Re: Matador hembra possibly out of round

Postby Doc Washboard » Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:40 pm

That's a lot to try out! Thanks!
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Re: Matador hembra possibly out of round

Postby blavonski » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:32 pm

What's up Doc?

I assume that if this is the same skin on Your Hembra from 2007 and you're having the same issues with it, then either you haven't played the Bongo enough to thoroughly break it in, or it isn't tuned high enough to maintain a even fundamental, or the skin is way too thin for it. And of course, possibly all the above.
I experimented with my MEINL Marathon Bongo Hembra overtones a couple of years ago by removing,( with 60 grit Paper on 1/2" thick glass plate), about 3mm from the bearing edge. Only the middle part of the edge was removed, but it was flat and not connical as before. The result was that the drum tone was more centered with fewer overtones and it made me happy. :P

The reasons for this is of course Physical; for when there is more surface for the drum skin to contact while vibrating, this contact shortens the wave length, therefore allowing for less dissonance that can result in the unpleasant veriaty of overtones. Important :!: , before I remounted the Hembra skin, I soaked the inside of it with water for about 30min or less so that it would easily take to the new bearing edge surface.

If you feel adventurous give it a shot or have a wood worker do it for you.

Blavonski
Good Vibrations,
Mr. Blavonski
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Re: Matador hembra possibly out of round

Postby Mike » Tue Mar 31, 2015 1:31 am

Even if what Blavonski suggests could be an option: I would not mess around with sanding the bearing edge
unless you know very well what you are doing, DocWashboard. And I seriously wonder if a Matador bongó is
worth all that effort. Besides sanding is irreversible...
The point is rather that Matador bongos usually have factory hembra skins which are way too thin.
Applying a little oil on the playing surfacemight help to some extent, just let it dry in a warm surrounding and
wipe off any remnants after some hours.
Otherwise mounting a nice thick cowskin can help tremendously to improve the sound.
My recommendation: look for Manito´s skins, you can even get them pre-mounted and they are plain awesome.
So this one might do the trick:
http://www.manitopercussion.com/product ... kin/-skin/

You can even choose the thickness of the skin, just make sure you opt for ´thick´ then.

Hope that helps. Good luck!
Peace & drum
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