Cuero de Bisonte

[caballoballo]

My friend Conguero has just purchase a new set of Black Matador Congas 11.75" & 12.5". Those water bisont heads are not worth a cent. They are so inferior,sound like sh!t,look like sh!t ect ect. He was even joking about how he has to continue tunning to keep them at least sounding decent. You need a hammer to get some sound out of those skins,I mean the Congas are not bad but those skins don't do the job. Once I said to him about using a blade to get rid of them & to keep the metal hoop to be use on a future skin installation.

I wonder why those cheap companies do not get aware that they are shooting themselves on the foot with a product that diminish their already in question quality.



Edited By caballoballo on 1192021488

[ralph]

such is the law of the land...i remember a while ago somebody recommending I use bison skin for a conga, because of its beautiful texture and sound...i'm glad i didn't bother to heed such advice...cheap companies use cheap materials because its cheap...profit margin's increase and everyone is happy except the serious drummer...

[OLSONGO]

I recommend that before you purchase the drum, request a drum head change; or a discount . Then may be this companies will start getting the picture.

Paz Olsongo

[korman]

Actually those cheap heads are water buffalo, not bison. Those are completely different animals!
Americans have been calling their praerie bison "buffalo", thus creating this confusion. I think that bison hide would be quite difficult to get, because in wild you can't hunt them and they're rarely kept in ranches. I think it would be thicker than cowhide. In contrast, water buffalo is abundant in Asia, so they simply use what they have.

I think that bad quality of heads might have just as much to do with the processing as with quality of hide itself, because those cheap skins are usually cut too thin and processed with all kinds of chemicals, leaving them very dry.

It would be an interesting experiment to obtain and mount water buffalo rawhide on a drum. It might turn out more similar to cowhide than to cheap processed heads.