Mounting Your Own Heads - I'm feeling courageous

[120decibels]

Call me courageous or stupid, I am considering an experiment in mounting flat skin heads on congas. Has anyone done this? Any advice? Does anyone want to talk me out of this?

I guess the more important question is: Outside of an interesting experiment, what are the pros and cons of mounting your own heads?


Thanks,

Zach

[JohnnyConga]

feeling brave huh?..smile...well it'S not an easy task and you might need an extra pair of hands if you haven't done it before. You will need a pair of plyers,also. First take the skin and soak it in luke warm water for about 2 hours to 3 so the skin is wet and flexible,then beat out some of the water against the side of the tub. when the skin is ready you will need to 'overlap" the skin around the metal hoop,this is where the pliers come in by gently pulling the skin thru the inner hoop and outer ring hoop,this is where the other pair of hands come in if u never did this before.Actually place the skin on the head of the drum then place the inner hoop on top,then take the outer hoop and put that on top and pull the skin thru between them all the way around,using the pliers. Once the skin is protruding thru the inner and outer hoops,start to put the hooks(keys) on and put the nuts on them.once they are on then take a razor and cut the protruding skin just above the outer rim as close to it as possible. this is not easy to explain without being there to show you,it can be done. then once that is done and u have trimmed the skin tighten the lugs a little bit more and then let the drum sit for about 24 hours before u tune it up,to give it time to totally dry. I hope you get this. also make sure there are no "rolls" in the skin all way around and that the skin is even all way round. the difference of putting on your skin by yourself is the satisfaction that YOU did it! and that it may be a bit cheaper than buying already pre-mounted heads. Hope this helps...At your Service....JC JOHNNY CONGA...

[Laurent Lamy]

Setting a new conga head





Dip the head into water for ~ 24h.

A bit of cleaning with grease, it is perfect

Get the soft head out of water (it can be 2mm thicker).

Drill holes with a awl. ~ 12 holes.

Place the rim on the outside side of the head.

Join the two sides with a string.

Be sure that the rim is well centered.

Be careful not to stretch the string too much.

Adjust the head and the outside rim

A good trick to help the screw's adjustment on every side.

After cutting the string, bring the rim down. Place all screw, don't tight too much.

Place all screw, don't tight too much.

Cut the surplus head.

Bring the rim down not more than ~ 1cm.

Let it dry.

Tune up.
:0

[120decibels]

Thanks for the advice!

In addition to your suggestions, I found a good description on the rhythmweb website:

http://rhythmweb.com/head.htm

I may just give this a shot. It's not all that different from tucking a calf snare drum head, which I dabbled with when I was studying classical percussion.

Thanks again!

Zach

[120decibels]

Does anyone have any recommendations as to where I get the skin to mount my own head?

I know that some of the conga companies, namely Meinl and Timba, will sell flat skins. However, I am looking for some nice, thick mule or mule-like skins for my drums. I need some experienced advice.

My grandfather is a cattle rancher, but I don't know that I want to shave the skin too! :p

Thanks,

Zach

[120decibels]

Folks,

First, anyone who suggested that this forum was dead ought to look at the volume of posts lately. WE'RE ALIVE AND KICKIN BABY!!!!!!

I finally took the initiative and got some cowhide for my drums. I ended up getting it from a guy here in DC who makes and sells Djembes and other African Drums. I'll give him a plug:

Baile's African Drum Works

I got some nice thick cowhide. I put one on my LP Classic Quinto (replacing the old Water Buffalo head) and I'm waiting for it to dry. Once it's dry and I've tuned it up, I'll get back to you with the final results. However, even the low tone that I can get out of the head right now has fewer overtones and more of that "classic" conga sound.

Johnny,

Sam helped me do this first head. We did almost exactly what you've posted here.

Zach

[120decibels]

Hello all,

The new skins are dry on my quinto and tumba now. They sound about 100 times better than they did with the water buffalo heads that were on them before.

They also blend really nicely with my Gon Bops requinto.

I highly reccomend getting some good cowhide or mule and replacing the water buffalo skins if you have them.

Zach

[CongaCaja]

hey zach,

I'm looking to try this head mounting myself for the first time. I got a flat mule skin from Isaac of JCR/Funky Tradition and I'm going to replace the water buffalo that came on my quinto.

I have read the instructions at rhythmweb.com, but I was wondering if you tried the awl-hole-string trick that Lawrence posted. Apparently, he puts holes around the outer edge of the skin and puts string thrrough the holes.

Then he used the string to help pull the skin around the hoop/ring and under the outer rim. Seem like a good idea. Did you try it?

hasta pronto...

cjk

[yoni]

Hi CongaCaja!

I haven't tried the awl-string method, sounds time-consuming, but have mounted more than a few flat heads in the way Johnny Conga described and it works just fine for me. When the head is mounted and still wet, you can use pliers to pull up the protruding edges before you trim them. Check to see that there are no folds along the underside of the inner hoop, the pliers help in pulling these folds out, pulling from the protruding edge. When all looks neat and even, you can trim the excess skin as Johnny described and tighten the nuts maybe one turn before letting it dry. Make sure the outer rim is not much lower than the drum head itself, that will give you more lee-way in tightening for years to come.

It's pretty easy, much easier than mounting a djembe or other head where all that string is involved...
If it doesn't look right at first try, you can always re-mount it more evenly easily, providing you don't trim the excess first.

Have fun!
yoni



Edited By yoni on 1109194650

[CongaCaja]

hello yoni. thanks for the reply and experiences. I am glad to hear that this worked well for you.

This should be an interesting project for my weekend.

cjk

[CongaTick]

CingaCaja,

Had only one experience on re-heading (an old GonBop conga) and found it tricky but certainly do-able with patience. I used pliers, but found that a second set of pliers wielded by my willing wife to be VERY helpful. If you can -- and I advise you do -- get an extra set of hands to help position and hold things in place as you feed/pull the skin through the gap between mounting ring and rim. A willing and patient additonal set of hands will be invaluable!

[yoni]

CingaCaja,

I used pliers, but found that a second set of pliers wielded by my willing wife to be VERY helpful. If you can -- and I advise you do -- get an extra set of hands to help position and hold things in place as you feed/pull the skin through the gap between mounting ring and rim. A willing and patient additonal set of hands will be invaluable!

The BEST advice, that I forgot to mention!



Edited By yoni on 1109321023

[franc]

i have mounted many congas and bongos skins,also x-ray films on bongos. i have done it by myself without any help. of course it does take me more time doing so. i have to agree with johnny and lamy.for me i don't let the skin get to soak. i make certain that is soft enough to handle. there are been cases that when the skin when is soaked more time that it has will tear. all the skins i have mounted has been with out any fault. ''glad to say''!!! i only have used plyers . i make certain that the skin be streched evenly on the inside ring when mounting. that is where the plyers comes handy. no skin over skin over the ring!! never tight when the skin is still wet. that outer rim should be at least 1/4 to 1/2 below the head. let dry and tune. i usually mount one lug then the next and so on. also cut the excess . even to the head. remember that when tuning the skin when dry the excess skin will lower it self. so it won't intefere with your hand when palying. my best !! aché to all of you guys, franc

[Supa Coopa]

You can save yourself a lot of money doing your own heads and you gain valuable independence. Now there's a website that explains for free with photos of "tucking your own heads" at http://www.volcanopercussion.com :;):

[Mike]

Well, mounting one´s own congahead is great ... like a sort of initiation apart from the fiddlin´work it actually is, the only thing that I found annoying recently is that you can´t really predict how thick the MOUNTED head is - in contrast to the thickness to the flat head I purchased the mounted skin is about 1.5 mm THICKER!
I´m just wondering if that´s normal? Or did I catch a low quality skin? (The sound is OK, no even good, but for a quinto, the head is a bit too thick now -> difficulties with open tones/slaps)

Help+ info greatly appreciated!