Detuning congas

[bongosnotbombs]

Well on the flip side, I'm sure there are guys here that have had the skins on the macho of their bongo rip because they didn't detune.

It's happened to me before, twice. Now I detune 2 full turns on the macho.

Then again pianos use metal wire, kit drums use those vinyl heads and guitars use nylon or metal strings.

I mean they have modernized, while we conga players stubbornly cling to the use of real skins from animals. I mean what instruments do that anymore? except congas and bongos??

and some of us have even kicked the skin habit and moved on. Not me though I'm still hooked on skin.

[Bachikaze]

Do piano players detune? Kit drummers? Guitar players ... etc. etc. nope.

Just us conga players and our delicate, fragile flowers.

Certified conga abuser

I detune my bass guitar every time I use it. I often detuned my surdos, which are basically like kit drums.

I completely detune my congas. I even did it when I used to play djembe, which was much more work. I detune all tunable drums.



Edited By Bachikaze on 1203237855

[blango]

I repair several sets of congas a month, most all have been over tightened and not detuned for many years - hence the repair work.

There is a lot of force going on here. enough to blow the threads off of a lug! thats thousands of pounds of force.

Yes, modern two ply congas will stand up to it, but solid stave congas, made by Junior, Jay, Matt, Tom, etc will all start to fall apart, or go out of round, in about 20 years if not detuned.

if thats not a big deal, and you like rebuilding tubs, cranck that puppy up and let it rip... for 20 years or so...

I would say it could lessen the life of your skins by about half, if its left cranked up.

Tony

[windhorse]

My teacher has a set of three gon bops. The Mahogony kind, one still has its original head. He doesn't detune.
The drums are perfectly round, and he has been playing them about 25 years.
We do tune to a relaxed folkloric low tension setting. We live in an arid environment, and we play the drums almost daily, so they aren't sitting around getting tweeked by whatever tensions are incurred by not playing. And we aren't letting any morons tune them wrongly.

My own hypothesis is that if the drum is first made correctly - it wouldn't go out of round on its own in 20 years, and the head was mounted correctly - there is even tension around the bearing the edge, and noone stupidly begins a big uneaven sequence of tightening as they tune the drum over the long haul, and the drum is tuned at a relatively mild tuning, and you don't let the drum get wet in the rain, or drop it into a lake or ocean, , or maybe live in an extremely moist environment, that constant detuning and tuning isn't necessary.

None of our over 15 or so group of players have ever detuned, and none of drums have suffered unrounding.

I'm not arguing however about Tony's point of the head losing some life that it might otherwise exhibit. Sounds feasible, and if I play the head 10 years instead of 20, well then to me it's worth it to have never gone through constant fiddling and fidgeting that would take away from my time with playing the drum.

Dave

[burke]

Hey BSB - must admit I've had machos rip on me to. However I had left them in the car on hot days.

I'm not saying don't detune - just saying I'm too lazy.

Still think there may be a mythbusters episode in it though...

to each his own

[buckoh]

I always detune. That's why I'm the last one to leave the club! Buck

[Mike]

There ain´t no myth to be exploded - it´s just that any wise conguero will detune a cranked up tumbadora...

[burke]

Thanks for calling me stupid ...nice

[Mike]

Hey Burke,
there was no insult intended, brother.
It´s only that I wondered if conga lugs and nuts are only made for a one-way movement ???
Well, when I was in Tanzania a couple of years ago I met some African drummers who liked they drums (paperthin skins on their ngomas) tuned high, they even cranked them up next to a fire, but after playing, they would splash some water on the drum to prevent any cracks in the skin and/or shell, especially on very dry and hot days. The hard work of creating these drum made the drummers very respectful. So that´s what I meant: Caring for your drum can´t be a bad thing - not only under extreme conditions.
You are certainly right about modern two-ply construction and also good sideplates etc. that can stand the pull and pressure. But what about the skins? Unless you don´t use synthetic skins, I still wonder about the congaheads though. And if in doubt, why not take some of the pressure away? This is just my personal opinion, of course.
Besides, I only detune a little always (1-max 1.5 turns).

Best wishes and sorry if I caused irritation.

Cheers
Mike



Edited By Mike on 1203398754

[burke]

No problem - must have been cranky when I hit send.