Quinto advice

[G.Laurent]

Hi
I'm up-grading to a new Quinto, and I'd love any advice and thoughts about which one to buy. I prefer a very dry slap.
I could spend up to 500$ but I'd much rather have a great sounding drum than a prestige brand name.

Thanks

G

[Mike]

Check out the vintage market for Gon Bops and Raúl.
These are the best driest quinto opportunities that might come along,
except you have got the chance to lay your hands on some Cuban drums.

Depending on where you are located, I can only highly recommend a new quinto
by Reiche Trommelbau in Germany, outstanding craftmanship and an ultra dry sound.
I was blown away when I checked out a quinto with REMO Fiberskyn, but of course
the natural cow skins with Reiche congas are top-notch too.
Plus they are very affordable for us in Europe!
http://www.reiche-trommelbau.de/

[bongosnotbombs]

What kind of music will you be playing with this quinto?

[G.Laurent]

Mostly I'll be playing Folkloric / Rumba, and Probably use it more for recording than performance.

Thanks again


G

[Omelenko1]

I have a SONOC quinto that sings. I have never had a quinto that sounds so good. I don't know where you reside, but I know that in Havana you can find them very cheap, as long as you pay in American dollars (fulas), probably in the neighborhood of $60 to $80 dollars. Make sure is made of Caoba wood, the best rumberos in the world use them, Tata, Los Muñequitos, Yoruba Andabo, Papines, Anga had some.
Here are photos of mine.

Dario

[vasikgreif]

Anyone would have more advice on folkloric quinto? I'm going to buy one, the problem is usually shipping to Czech republic. I'm thinking about Isla requinto too... Any opinions? Thanks

[pavloconga]

The best sounding quintos I have heard are Gon Bops or Raul.
I own a set of 3 Gon Gops. People are always asking me to sell the quinto to them. The quinto has a very special tonality.
Someone once even offered me $1000 USD for the quinto alone (good examples seem hard to find here in Australia) but I will not sell!
Pavlo

[bongosnotbombs]

Dang, $1000 for that Gon Bops quinto? I can get 4 Gon Bops just like that here for $1000. Myabe I should start exporting them to Australia

I wrote an article on quinto's a while back, I think I posted it before, but what the heck, I'll put it in this thread too as it's on topic.
http://rumbainstruments.blogspot.com/20 ... uinto.html

The little drum in rumba is the quinto. It is the highest pitched drum for rhythms like Guaguanco , Rumba Columbia, Guarapachangeo and Yambu. For Guaguanco , Rumba Columbia and Yambu it is the main improvising drum, responding to the dancers movements, the singer and the other drums. Frequently during the montuno of a song the lead singer may cry "Quinto!!!", which is a signal for the coro to stop and for the quinto player to really let loose and play a solo. Guarapachangeo is kind of a different story with all the cajons and multiple drums being played sometimes.

There can be some confusion regarding this drum, mainly in the terms quinto and requinto. When we look at big manufacturers like LP we see the quinto and the requinto in their catalogs. However when we look at this album by Grupo Afro-Cubano and look at the quinto player, we see what Lp would call a requinto. To Grupo Afro-Cubano it is the quinto, and they credit Giraldo Rodrigues with playing it.

LP is mainly referring to the requinto as a size of drum, their smallest. While in rumba the names for the drums mainly refer to their role or position in the ensemble. I've also heard the quinto referred to as "a fifth", assuming the fifth drum. I don't know how accurate that really is, but if you have claves, palito, tres dos, salidor then quinto, that makes five. Also quintet means five, thus quinto???

So why requinto? I'm assuming LP adopted the name for size purposes again. An LP quinto is not really different enough in size from the conga and tumba be an authentic sounding quinto for rumba. You need something smaller, with a different shape to sound like that. Listen to an old Los Munequitos album and hear how high pitched the quinto is. Look at the examples in this blog and see how small the "quintos" are.
From Wikipedia:

The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument. Thus, there are requinto guitars, drums and other instruments.


It doesn't look like Jesus Alfonso needs a smaller version of his quinto here does it? An 11" LP quinto just isn't going to compare with Jesus's drum there, so they've got to have a requinto. We also have Nolan Warden saying:

The words quinto, conga, and tumbadora are now used as a practicality among performers and retailers to indicate size. Quinto, the smaller drum, traditionally refers to the lead part in rumba......

Some manufacturers now produce requintos (extra small) and/or supertumbas (largest). It should not be inferred, however, that drums with these names were ever used together in a traditional ensemble. ~(Warden pg.2)


You never see Jesus Alfonso Mira credited with playing the "requinto", he plays quinto, he is a quintocero. You also never hear the gallo call out "requinto!" when he wants to hear the solo, it's always "quinto!". As Nolan Warden says, you really don't hear the word requinto used referring to a traditional rumba ensemble at all, unless your referring to drums that have been sized along the newer LP "standards". This old Gon Bops ad doesn't use the word requinto, even though their "Super Quinto" size is what we might think of as requinto nowadays. Actually super is the name of the line, along with the Voodoo, and International lines, which also feature the 9 3/4" size. What's even more confusing is the new DW Gon Bops feature a "super quinto" as well, but it is a size in their California series, it's a smaller quinto, what others call a requinto, however DW Gon Bops call it a super quinto, perhaps in reference to the older Gon Bops.

The only rhythm that I have actually learned that calls for a drum part with the name of requinto is a Comparsa taught to me by Sandy Perez. In that rhythm the quinto is still the main improvising drum with the highest pitch, and the requinto drum plays a repeating rhythm and is described as being the 3rd highest pitched drum.

I've also heard that the music Plena from Puerto Rico uses a drum called a requinto. However I know so little about that music, that all I am going to do is mention it and post this little image I found describing what a requinto is in Plena. I assume it's accurate. There is also this from Wikipedia.

The requinto drum is used in the Puerto Rican folk genre plena, wherein it is a small conical hand drum that improvises over the other drum rhythms.

I myself have 3 quintos, or 2 small quintos or "requintos", and a quinto. My largest quinto is by Resolution drums and is 10 1/2". I use this drum as a cachimbo for folkloric rhythms like Bembe, Palo, Makuta, etc. It is a fantastic little drum, but it is not quite the right size to get that high, high pitch that your really want for an authentic sounding rumba. I mean, I can and I have used it for rumba, and it works fine, but I was after a different sound. In folkloric rhythms it works great, because in that music the cachimbo, or high drum typically plays a recurring rhythm that forms a melody with the other drums. The larger size makes a pitch that is closer to the middle and low drums and makes the rhythm more melodious. In most folkloric rhythms the low drum is the improvisor. In contrast, a rumba quinto is so high pitched it occupies it's own realm in the music, along with the other drums and the voices.

The other two quintos (requintos) are 9 3/4" by Isla Percussions and a 9 3/4" California series Gon Bops. They both have the high, high sound you can hear in rumba recordings from Cuba.

I'm assuming the LP sized quinto is intended for a Salsa or Latin Jazz 3 drum set up, as it's range would be more compatible with a conga and tumba. However, many of the guys I play with use that size as part of their rumba set and that is perfectly fine and acceptable.

Then there's the Guarapachangeo. It's not unusual to see the quinto player for that rhythm to be playing a quinto cajon between his knees, a quinto to his right and then requinto or smaller quinto to the right of that. Not only that, but it's entirely possible for the quinto player to be playing very conservatively while the big bass cajon's are going off all over the place.

So what can I say? Confusing isn't it? A quinto really isn't a quinto, a requinto is a quinto, unless of course you have a quinto and a requinto, but then you have a quinto and a smaller quinto. Oh, and a fifth isn't a bottle, it's a drum.

[buckoh]

So, if I buy a quinto in Havana, how do I get it back to the states? Buckoh

[Jerry Bembe]

Most people ship from Havana to another island like the Bahamas (or anyother country without an embargo) then ship it to the US from there. This is the backdoor method.

[danno]

If you're buying in Havana, just check it as baggage... take a bag with you or find a cardboard box while you're there...

dan