by Thomas Altmann » Mon May 17, 2010 10:02 am
Hi Cuco,
I think Bongobilly was asking for drum heads for LP's (see headline).
Calf or goat is the traditional thing. It takes some extra care as you explained correctly.
If you were going to mount plastic heads, I would not recommend REMO Ambassadors, at least not for the macho. Use Diplomats, if not on both drums, then on the macho. You may choose to put an Ambassador or, if you love that bassy, boomy sound on the low timbal, any two-ply head on the hembra. I use regular white coated heads, and I sand them just lightly with extra fine sand paper before mounting. Most new timbales today come with uncoated heads, though.
I'm sorry to confess that on the Leedys that I had bought from you, I took off the animal skins. The macho was just finished. I couldn't tune it up anymore. First of all, the rim was out of round, which - I hope - was caused in the transport, and the drum itself isn't perfectly round anymore, either. In addition, in the older days the drums tended to be wider, so the skins were less floating than today. Now, if the skin hoop is attached closer to the drum shell, when you tune the drum, you actually stretch more the part of the head down below the edge than the playing surface.
I always detuned them after playing, needless to say.
I then considered to put new goat skins on both of the drums. But I finally decided to go back to plastic (Diplomats). The reason is, I want to save the threads of the tuning bolts and nuts. These are old vintage drums, and I don't want to hang on to Ebay for expensive spare parts for the rest of my days. The new problem is now that the rims are much higher than on any regular timbales you can buy today. I have to adapt my rimshot technique and, more importantly; press rolls or indefinite bounce strokes like used for traditional style abanicos, don't work out that well at an angle when you strike from a higher wrist level.
I love these timbales, but I'm a player, not a collector. If I want to save them and play them for a long time, I rather make use of the possibilities of "modern" inventions. I can always go back to hides if I wanted to; but for practicing and playing I'm going to stick to plastic for a while.
Greetings,
Thomas