White Vs. Tan skins on the drums

[Mr.Grumpy]

How come the (stock) skins on cheeper drums are white and the (stock)skins on more costly drums are tan or brown? I know that goat skins almost always come out whiteish no mater what color the goat was. Why do (stock) conga skins come in diferent colors? I assume that they are all made from the same water buffalos.

[Thebreeze]

Grumpy....The white skins you see have gone through some type of bleaching process that in my opinion drys them out and leaves them with virtually no elasticity. Some people believe that you can get better pops from them and they look nice when on a solid color set of congas, but I would prefer the natural skins any day.

[Gallichio]

This was a gift to me that came on my congas from Mr.Thomas Alexander of Volcano Percussion. Very rare due to the oil content in the steer hide. Only a small percentage of heads are like this. They sound wonderful. Volcano percussion does not normally sell these heads. I am lucky and happy to have them.



Edited By Gallichio on 1203800902

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... _skins.jpg

[Mr.Grumpy]

This was a gift to me that came on my congas from Mr.Thomas Alexander of Volcano Percussion. Very rare due to the oil content in the steer hide. Only a small percentage of heads are like this. They sound wonderful. Volcano percussion does not normally sell these heads. I am lucky and happy to have them.

Why is this skin a "gift"? Is it because there is more oil in it than a howly cow would have? IS that what makes it so dark? It looks like thers is a bubble in it on the bottom left. Is that what it is? Is that because of the oils too?

[Garvin]

check out this baby...

[Gallichio]

Mr. Grumpy,
I don't know about a howly cow. :laugh: It was a gift because I paid for regular steer hide and received these heads. No bubbles on these heads. They are very easy on the hands, smooth, easy to play and have a high natural oil content. A regular good quality head would run about $60.00 or $65.00 or more. These heads if you can get them would be around $80.00 or $90.00 each or more. I am not a head expert but I have played on a lot of heads and I can say I really like these heads.



Edited By Gallichio on 1204141724

[AlexV]

This brown baby sounds really nice , completely changed the sound of my lp...thank goodness!

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[Thebreeze]

I put a head on one of my Valjes and it is probably the same type of skin. I got mine from Mario at Isla. He told me that his skins were from Black Angus Cows/Steers. They are very stiff and thick when dry but I am really happy with the Valje 11" Conga. It really sounds great with beautiful pops. After playing on a friend's Isla Congas with these type of heads I just had to have some so that's how I got mine.

[bongosnotbombs]

yeah breeze, your right there, that Valje of yours does have an incredible sound.
That drum and skin are a good combo for sure.

[Thebreeze]

Thanks BNBs...I decided to share my Valje with everyone so all can see the head I got from Mario at Isla.
p.s...My Gon Bops oak Conga was crying to get into the picture so I took one with him as well. lol.

[Congadelica]

Hey Breeze , those babies look great in the Frisco Sunshine . Id love to own a set like that great looking congas .

[Thebreeze]

Thanks very much Congadelica. As soon as my hand heals from a recent Carpal Tunnel Syndrom I will get out and start playing again. For the time being I can only look at them and play ultra soft Boleros. LOL

[AlexV]

yep Mario hooked it up with the nice steer. the skin does feel dense in it's hardness. pretty thick and a mother to mount with those damn comfort curve rims! i broke a nice sweat lol. very much worth it though, the quinto sounds high but deep now. before it was so tinny with that buffalo skin. i tune it to conga and it sounds true. amazing what high quality skins can do for your sound. i need to call mario and order the other skin now.

[BMac]

That "gift" skin from TA of VP looks like the skins I got for the same "gift" price. I have skins like that on six congas now. With all due respect to skin suppliers, and all due respect to drum makers, these forums contain a lot of content forgetful that the market belongs as much to the buyers as the sellers ... indeed I feel empowerment leaning toward me as a buyer. How makers and merchants in drums and accessories became "holy cows" is beyond me, but I think that sentiment may actually be coming more from the buyer side than from the sellers. There is no merchant without a buyer and no buyer without a merchant. With few exceptions, most merchants/makers I've encountered have behaved according to that concept. That said, those skins are the best I've come across. My hands just want to touch those skins. But hey, all my congas have fresh mounted steer skins and I have a few flat pieces left for replacements. Some of you have seen me grind against a skin supplier here on other message threads. If I'm at risk of "NO SKINS FOR YOU!" by reminding the market that business exchanges occur on two-way streets ... then so be it. I'm ready. In a worst case scenario, I'll walk into a music store and buy skins for cash from merchants that don't know I'm the insolent BMac. And no, I ain't grinding against TA of VP ... he hooked me up. I wish I had the cash laying around to buy some of his drums ... they are beautiful.

A friend placed a call yesterday to Earth Shaking Music in Atlanta. They reportedly have twenty of those same skins in stock. They call them "moo skins." To my knowledge, they come from TA of VP. Why/how the skins go from Texas to Hawaii to Atlanta is beyond my knowledge. But it seems TA has the line on the best steerhides and ESM in Atlanta gets them in lots from him and sells them to you for the price mentioned above as a "gift." My friend is only likely to deplete that stock of twenty by two skins in the next couple of days. The last time I was in Atlanta, I depleted their stock by six myself and only left them a few. So if they have twenty now, they are replacing their stock and selling those skins on an ongoing basis. So go get them "gift" skins boys, it's Christmas in spring time!

Simply (but never briefly) put, I don't think you gotta be anybody special to get good skins. You just gotta be in the know ... and that's easy to achieve with websites like this one. It's a great time to be a beer drinker in the United States. When I started drinking beer in the early eighties, Michelob was the good stuff. Times have changed. Microbreweries have returned and are flourishing. It's a time of renaissance for beer drinkers. I only recently (about two years ago) dove into the quality drum skins market. I feel like I've arrived just as the party is getting good. I don't know if times have changed for skin buyers like times have changed for beer drinkers, but good skins are available without special connections and secret deals and outrageous expenses.

One thing left on my mind is whether there is currently an obsession left with ugly skins. Are ugly skins cool? When I've questioned the quality of scarred, gouged, and non-uniform skins, players have chimed in things like "hey man, you don't get it ... it's the sound man." Well I've recently switched all my conga skins to visually beautiful samples, and I'll be darned if they don't sound as good as they look. If I'm picking through skins, and I see uniformly thick, translucent, visually pleasing skins, I'm choosing those and passing on the skins with scars, gouges, and thickness fluctuations. But no doubt, somebody's gonna keep drinking that Michelob.

Cheers
BMac

[ABAKUA]

Mule skin on my main conga, sounds wicked: