CONGA CONCERNS
More than Meets the Eye
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As
with any other type of drum, you must always keep an eye on the
condition of your conga drumhead to maintain a good sound. Whether
it's made of skin or synthetic material, each head has its own life
span, the length of which depends on a number of factors, including
how often you play, how you store your gear, and how you tune the
head. Look for tell-tale signs of wear, such as when the color of
the head becomes pale, the sound of t he drum sounds muted, or you
find that you must over-tighten the head to recapture a playable
sound. |
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couple common-sense techniques can extend the life of a head made of animal
skin. Since it is an organic material, it will dry up over time and retain
sweat and dirt from your hands. This will deaden the sound of a conga.
By cleaning the skin with half-and-half you can remove grime and enliven
the tone. Follow that by rubbing a light application of baby oil into
the head to slow down the drying process. |
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| Animal
skin conga heads are sensitive to changes in temperature - heat tightens
the head and cold loosens it. Heads on small congas, such as quintos,
are particularly affected by heat. So be sure to loosen the tension on
the drumhead before you throw your quinto into the trunk of your car on
a hot day. In fact, it's a good idea to loosen the head tension on smaller
congas when they aren't being played. |
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| If
you've taken exhaustive care of your conga, yet are unable to tune it
after changing the head, the problem may be the skin itself. A skin head
won't tune properly unless it has a consistent thickness. The thin side
will buckle more easily than the thick side, throwing off the mechanics
of the hardware. So it's always a good idea to sand the back of a new
skin to make it as even as possible before mounting it onto the drum. |
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| While
it's important to maintain and change heads, it's even more vital to tune
the drum evenly. "Often beginners will tune the tension rods closest
to them when the head begins losing its sound," says Akbar Moghaddam,
the master craftsman behind Sol Percussion congas. "When you pull
one side down more than the other side, the mechanical systems go off
balance. One side of the head is lopsided." |
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| Continuing
to tune an old head will eventually impact the shell. When tension on
the tuning systems is uneven, the side plates that secure the tension
rods to the shell begin to pull up, which can damage the shell material.
"The first thing it does is create a crack right where the bolt goes
through the shell," Moghaddam says. "On a fiberglass drum, it
starts pulling the top of the side plate in toward the body and creates
a little dent at the top of the plate." The net result is that you
end up with and egg-shaped drum that can't be tuned, even after installing
a new head. |
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| The
tuning system on most congas is fairly elementary, and east to understand.
It employs moving parts made of metal, which is susceptible to rust, so
be sure to keep it dry. It's also a good idea to take it a step further,
and occasionally apply a thin coat of Vaseline to the tension rods to
help them smoothly thread through the lug nits and protect them from humidity. |
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conga is a machine that works on the principle of tension, therefore it's
most subject to damage wherever tension is applied to the shell. "Some
congas might have a big metal plate on the outside [of the lug] but a
very smallwasher on the inside," Moghaddam says. "If that washer
is too small, it can actually bite into the shell from the inside, especially
if you have conga made of soft wood, like mahogany or cedar. So take a
look inside and check your washers. If they are too small, replace them
with larger ones." |
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