The Naked Eye

[caballoballo]

Amigos, how many times have your eyes have play a trick on you ? As I have been trying to get the Hembra rim on the Dandy (at least 1/8" thick ) to a lower level so it be more comfortable to play ,the color tonality on the skin turned into a shape that make the shell look like out of round. I took the skin off and measure the shell, draw around with a pencil, even draw around and measure the rim , no failure the measures are perfect. Then a friend came by and we took it apart again,measure it just to make sure, same result measurements were ok .WTF was our question. We concluded It was the color shape on the stretch skin since was not uniform, make it look like it was out of round. So yesterday I weted the skin like Mike told me in order to accomodate the skin better, is looking fine. in a post in thebongogroup I suggested Dandy Rodriguez to make sure LP mount that hembra skin at least 3/8" down otherwise it is a strugle to get the rim to a low level been the skin so thick. But the very best thing about is that Lp is mounting better skins at least on the Dandy. He told me the next order from Lp factory will have the rim lower. One good thing proven is that the beech wood can take the tension . One last thing, I did not wanted to change the skin because the sound is the old school we all look from the Hembra. Other than that the Dandy is a fine Bongo with a well defined sound.

[Mike]

Caballoballo,
It is good to hear that the bongó now works fine for you!
Your words "old school sound" is mouthwatering indeed
And yes, the eyes can be deceived quite easily the way you mention it.
I had a similar experience during my Gon Bops resto, the cow skin I mounted
on the tumba had some color deviations, so that the shell appeared to be out of round with
an uneven seating of the skin. Actually the tumba shell WAS a bit out of round BEFORE I
epoxied the shell, but luckily enough I could fixed that and now all is well.

Congrats again to your Dandy set! Enjoy it as much as you can
BTW my vintage LP bongó is bringing a fat smile onto my face everytime I play it,
such a good hembra punch and crisp macho

[caballoballo]

Hola Mike, Yes indeed the eyes did play trick on me. At the peak of the ordeal I was thinking about returning the Bongó to Musician friend but the bad thing about is that is no longer in stock at least until August 20. As I was talking to Julito a while ago he was told by one of the online retailers that the Dandy is a limited production and that most of them will only receive about 5 of them.

I know your vintage Lp is aging as the finest wine thus having a beautiful sound. I still don't know why did I trade one I had from the early 80s. That one was made of mahogany. But you know sometimes we made the wrong decision on the wrong time.

Guess what it is hurricane season and we have a tropical storm on the way already, it is suppose to get here on Monday, then on Thursday is hurricane bill passing north of the Island. But My Bongos shall be place in the safest corner of the house.

[vinnieL]

Interesting info. What is the web address to the bongo group? I would like to check it out.

[RitmoBoricua]

You may want to go ahead and custom mount you another head. Not a bad idea to have (2) hembra heads
for the Dandy specially since you are a gigging musician. I tried a spare 9" 'fiberskyn with the LP logo on
mine Dandy but I did not liked the sound. I think I have a spare flesh hoop for a 9" hembra and here later
this summer or early fall I may order me some mule to mount. It just going to take some time before the
original head gets broken-in and stretches down. IMHO is better to mount another head and not forced down
the original head too much, and let time and gravity take it's normal course.

[caballoballo]

Vinniel it is call thebongogroup. You need to register first even to read the messages, otherwise the forum is restricted only to members.

Ritmo, yes I thought about changing the skin but the factory one has a good sound which I like. I have never try to mount an hembra skin. The macho I have mount many but those are thin,an hembra skin has to be at least 1/8" thick to have a solid sound without ringing. It is not going to be easy to mount. While I was making my mine I called my friend from Timbas del valle which is the only one I trust mounting thick hembra skins or any other work on my Bongos. He said no problem but I decided to give the factory skin some more time to settle. Fyberskin I won't even try it, I know in advance the tone is not what I look for. Mule skin is good but is not going to make much difference, I prefer cow skin which is available down here an does not cost as much . In the pass I tryed mule on the macho, 1 lasted about 3 gigs and another no more than five. There is a place in Bayamon where I can get ready mount skins made by Tambores barranquilla or 3A percussion,both of them from Colombia. As a matter of facts I have a ready mount macho head waiting for the Lp head to rip.

Do not worry about ripping an Hembra skin, those will last forever unless you hit it with a hammer.

[Tonio]

Hola Caballo,
eyes are not that accurate even with 20/20 vision
I am totally with about the fyber-plastic heads, no thank you !! Funny thing is Dandy uses fyberskins-but as we know itdoesn't matter what he uses, since it will sound good

T

[caballoballo]

Saludos Tonio, yes, to me fyberskin is good to have as a replacement skin in the case of a broken natural skin on the Bongó Macho, it is easy to mount and also to tunne.Some times I think about going back and install them on my bongos macho because natural skins do not last too long no matter if it is Cow,mule,steer ect. The new tucket fyberskin cost about $40 but will last longer,also I do not like the look.