meinl luis conte congas

[mkv]

hey,

i couldnt find anything about these congas in here, and im thinkin about buying some. so i would like to know if any of you guys have tried them, and what you think about them.

thanks
mikkel

[rebongo]

I think that that Luis Conte conga is a very good drum, with a good price. Good construction, warm sound without overtones, traditional rim. I play Meinl Woodcraft, but when I compared Woodcraft with Luis Conte, the difference was very little!

[glj]

I have a Louis Conte conga & tumba. I'm a relatively new player, but i think these drums sound awesome. I recently installed a thick cow skin from Moperc on the conga, and it now sounds amazing.

In comparison to my Matador fiberglass set, I still prefer the warm tones of my LC's.

If you search there is info on LC's in this forum.

[kubaszek82]

I've bought them about year ago (quinto and conga).
They are ok, but i'm concerned about skin - i don't like the sound of them...
Thats why I've ordered skin from cow.
I'll write if there will be any positive reaction
I hope so...

[Coco]

Meinl skins are terrible. I have never come across worse. Even the cow ones.They are usually way too thin for an Afro-Cuban instrument for a start...and they usually have welts in them as well.

[Congadelica]

I changed the skins on my Marathon serious meinl same drum with ssr rims which are a little ringy but tolereable , from what i have read the traditional rims are cool ,no ringing.
I put a mule skin from JCR on my conga , and north American steer on the Tumba and quinto .
I now have a great sounding set of Tumbadoras .
The thai factory skins are a million miles away from sounding anything like my upgrade . I have compared with many other congas and they cut it fine .

HTH

Marco

[Mike]

Meinl skins are terrible. I have never come across worse. Even the cow ones.They are usually way too thin for an Afro-Cuban instrument for a start...and they usually have welts in them as well.

Coco,
When talking about present-day Meinl skins, you may be right,
but if you check out older Meinl models like the Meinl Live Sound
congas that they don´t produce any longer, well, they actually have got thick skins, almost 5mm
of thick cow which sounds great in Afro-Cuban context.
Check this out : viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3229&hilit=meinl+woodcraft
Marco aka Congadelica seems to have done a terrific job on his Meinls with a skin upgrade.

Or take a look at some pics of my 12" Meinl Live Sound conga here:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4126

One thing I do not like that much though is the fact that most skins are bleached to a snowy white.

Furthermore, if you have caught a conga skin with welts then this should not be of course.

Other than that, Meinl skins are not TOO bad. Of course any real upgrade (mule or unbleached cow)
would make any conga sound better..

[kubaszek82]

Hello!
Well I've mounted very thick skin on my LC congas, and...EXTRAORDINARY!!!
Now I feel that I have a Congas! The sound is so deep and that melody...uuuu:)
My advice: If you have Meinl LC change the skin!!!