by COL66 » Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:39 am
Hi guys, so I had the chance to go and meet Hector "El Piernas" Rocha, the founder of HR, and the maker of my drums. Like many have posted before, his shop is in a very modest home in Cali, Colombia. When I arrived, he was there with his son. I told him I had a set of his congas and I asked about the wax paper. His son confirmed that it is a layer of paper coated with a thin layer of fiber glass. The son was in the process of telling me about why the use it, etc. All that I was able to get was that they can only put that paper on if the congas are 3 years old or older. The son was cool and explaining to me about the paper, meanwhile his dad was aggressively pushing for me to buy a new set of congas. It was a bizarre experience!! I took a long trip to meet the legend himself, and the legend turned out to be one of the pushiest salesmen I have ever met. He demanded that I write down my contact info, and said that I should leave a deposit so that they could start working on a set of new congas for me. I had no intention of buying a new set of congas. In fact, I was only in the market for a set of new skins. Anyways, the drums are incredible, but my experience meeting HR wasn't very cool.