toca traditional congas

[chilledbongo]

i know these are not top of the line, high priced drums.
but i wonder if anyone has tried them out and how they sound? they look very cool, i think. too cheap to be true?

http://www.x8drums.com/Toca-Traditional-Congas-Natural-p/3911-t.htm

[morty]

I owned the quinto and it is a FINE drum.
Beautiful and plays very, very well.
I never played the conga or tumba but I bet they're great!
I imagine them to play like Meinl Luis Conte Series except these Tocas look much better. The prices are very good too.

They also have this look but I don't like it, the natural is beautiful.





Edited By morty on 1202800614

[blango]

Great sounding drums, older ones are solid stave with traditional rims. very nice working mans tubs.

I like the sound and the construction more than LP's classics, for example.

Very good value on these.

Hope that helps,

Tony

[chilledbongo]

i agree these tocas look better than the meinl louis conte drums. i just don't dig the meinl's black powder coat hardware. yuck.

however, i have played the meinls and they sound awesome for the money. and i heard a great conguero last week making a full set of them with stock heads sound fantastic.

so i just wondered if these tocas were in the same ballpark. i havent seen them up close, only online. for 250, i was thinking of getting a toca tumba to go w my lp galaxie quinto and conga.

i know, they dont match at all. but im not in love with the galaxies, even though they cost more than twice these tocas.

[Sakuntu]

These drums have a great sound and look (traditional solid color with brushed nickel hardware0 i don;t like the copper hardware). These drums have a great bass tone. my only fault is that the collars on them can be a little lengthy imo.

[spdrswb]

Dear All,
Please let me have some questions.
I'm considering to get these, and I think I've read that they have a well tapered shell, in order to provide with a classic afro-cuban sound. On the other hand, I could not tell the difference at first sight, by the pictures. So:
- Is this true for this model? Does it really have a non-standard design?
- Do you hear a difference in timber, volumes/frequencies, lows/highs between a normal modern shell like the one of LP Classic, this model with a larger belly and/or narrower bottom, and possibly other shapes? What does a drop like shape give to the sonic character in your opinion?
Pls help the beginner;-) Thank you.

[BMac]

I thinks the Tocas have wider hardware than LP Classics. In the Tocas, the metal bands have bigger diameters (relative to the shells) and stand further out from the shells. You can carry a Toca by inserting your fingers deep into the space between the skin and the shell. With an LP classic, you can't get as much of your hand in the space, it's a tighter fit. I'm mentioning this carry method to clarify the distinction between the two types of hardware/shell arrangement ... wider versus tighter fitting hardware. I don't care how a conga is carried so long as she ain't dropped.

I believe, however, the sound is affected greatly. So the Tocas don't sound like the LP Classics. I'm not choosing one over the other as better. But there is a difference in the sound. The angle of the skin from the hardware to the bearing edge of the shell is affected. So the relationship of tension in the bolts to the surface tension in the skin is affected. The sound is affected.

I think the tighter fitting hardware on the LP Classics or any similar drum promotes pure and simple tones. I think such hardware is especially beneficial in the congas (segundo) and tumbas where I want to hear lower true tones. You can mount new skins really shallow on drums like these.

I think the wider hardware on the Tocas or any similar drum produces a more complex, mixed frequency, sound. I hear more highs. The wider hardware may be a better choice, according to your tastes, for quintos and requintos. Look at the LP Giovanni Palladium series, their hardware is wider than the LP Classics, relative to the shells. In that sense, this LP series is more like the Tocas than are the LP Classics.

I think it's a players choice. Of course there are likely many other differences in the various drums.

I played for a couple of hours in a park on Sunday with a friend. He played conga/quinto with wider hardware and did more improv and solos. I played tumba/conga with tighter fitting hardware and held the basic rhythms together while he jammed. Our sounds didn't conflict at all. Everything was clear and well heard. Single moms stopped and danced a bit while their kids sang eency-beency-spider with me while I played mambo rhythms. Hey there momma!

That's what I thinks!

Cheers

BMac



Edited By BMac on 1203444660