Skin supplier for Matthew Smith?

[Jerry Bembe]

I have experimented and tried a few different skins and heads. I find the skins on Matthew Smith's work to have the best sound and range of over all tonal range. I have 2 Matthew Smith and 3 Volcano (worked on by Smith) that are quite different but they both have amazing heads in common.

Does anyone here know who his supplier is?

I think the heads are Steer or Kip/Calf.

Thanks in advance.

[Bongobilly]

Bill Confer skin's. I brought some skin's from Matt a while back and they had B.C stamped on it. Almost all of my congas's have them now. You can by direct from Bill Confer for a fair price. Just look it up under skin supplier's.

[pcastag]

I'll second that about Bill, last time I bought a whole hide from him and got about 6 skins, it was about 120 total, that was a while ago though so I don't know if that price is still the same, he'll also cut rounds to your specs in terms of thickness for a nice price.
PC

[Jerry Bembe]

I appreciate this. I found Bill Confer's contact information from one of your posts and I see that both of you have previously posted about the quality of Bill's heads. I agree that they are among the best that I have had my hands on. I was going to guess Bill Confer or L&H. I have L&H skins on on a set of Bongos and a conga that are quite amazing as well.

"Hereford Bi-Products has been changed to Tejas Industries. Bill Confer is the fella ya need to talk too. They sell rawhide by the foot precut or will sell sides or circles. They have cow,calf,or slunk(unborn calf) The ph# is (806)363-7232 I hope this helps." (PC)

I have a few additional questions.

When cutting a side or whole hide, how is the evenness of the skin? Can you request a thickness range?

What thickness for the rounds in Steer, Cow, or Calf/Kip? I was thinking of for Requinto using Calf/Kip 1.5-2mm (4-5 oz.), Quinto using Calf/Kip 2mm (5 oz.), Conga using Steer or Calf/Kip 2mm (5 oz.), Tumba using Steer or Calf/Kip 2-2.5 mm (5-6 oz), and Super Tumba using Steer or Calf/Kip 2.5 mm (6 oz.).

For Bomba drum a thin goat skin .8-1.2 mm (2-3 oz.) is used?

Thanks again. Jerry