Do skins have shelf life?

[Kaban]

I just got a Matador Skin, via Ebay -$35, for my conga, see tread - Matador (fiberglass) conga project, but it feels, and sounds really dry. I just put it on last night, and the sound is not what I remember my Matador sounding like. Could it be that it's really old; it was dusty, and a bit dirty, but base on the fact there was hardly any streach marks, I though they be better. Do skins have a shelf life?

Thanks,
Jesse

[RitmoBoricua]

Your matador head is probably really dry by now. You mya want apply some palm oil to restore oils
in the head. Also a hand lotion may do the trick too.

[Kaban]

Thanks RitmoBoricua, I will try the hand lotion tonight when I get home. I hope it does the trick.

[jorge]

I have had 20 and 30 year old skins on drums that sounded fine, and have put skins on that have been laying around (at reasonable temp/humidity) for over 10 years, with no problems. It sounds like you got a skin that was already mounted and put it on your drum yesterday, right?
There are many possible reasons why the new skin doesn't sound like the old one did. Skins vary a lot by thickness, stiffness, density, evenness, and other factors that affect the sound, and the new skin may be very different from the old one. A very dry skin may have more overtones but a crisper sounding slap than an oily skin or one that has been treated with palm oil (manteca de corojo). I don't recommend putting hand lotion on your drumhead, use manteca de corojo or shea butter if you want to put more oils back into the skin.
But before putting anything on it, there are a few things to check. You can do this yourself or find someone that knows how to put skins on drums to help you. New mounted skins often don't fit well on the bearing edge. Tap lightly on the skin at the bearing edge with a clave or stick or something and go around the whole perimeter of the skin, listening if it is a solid clunk like it is hitting the drum, or if it sounds hollow like the skin is not in direct contact with the bearing edge in some places. This will tell you if the skin fits the bearing edge well or not. If it sounds the same and solid all the way around, the skin fits well enough. Tune the drum up and down a few times, play it, and give it a few days for the skin to settle in. You can put some manteca de corojo on and let it sit overnight before wiping it off, if the skin is really dry.

If the skin does not solidly contact the bearing edge all the way around, I recommend removing the skin, putting about a half inch of water inside it, and leaving it to soak for about a half hour or an hour, until it is softened a bit, but not completely pliable and soft. Then dump out the water, dry the inside with a paper towel, put a very thin layer of grease (I use waterproof bicycle bearing grease) or candle wax on the contact area of the bearing edge of the drum, and carefully remount the skin. Hand tighten the lugs until they are all even all around. Then use your wrench and very carefully tighten the lugs one or two turns until the skin is just barely starting to tighten. You want the skin to be flat across the surface, but not stretched at all. It is very easy to rip a skin when it is wet. Let it dry a few days, tightening each lug about 1 turn each day as it dries. It should be thoroughly dried before you tune it up. Tune it up not too high at first, play it for an hour or two, and tune it down. Do that for a few days and see how it sounds. Keep us posted on how it goes.

[congamyk]

Thanks RitmoBoricua, I will try the hand lotion tonight when I get home. I hope it does the trick.

"ummm..hah....hah-hah"

[Kaban]

ummm..hah....hah-hah