Ask an Expert: Archive

Q: Please describe the difference in quality, sound and care of congas made from single construction wood, tongue & groove pieced wood or fiberglass. In a dry climate, is it worth investing in humidity controlled cases for wood congas, or are fiberglass congas a worthy alternative?
Vicki Smith

A: 1. Wood congas typically produce a warmer tone, with a bit less high harmonic content. Based on the wood type, that difference can be dramatic (in the case of a very dark sounding wood like mahogany) or somewhat less dramatic (in the case of a brighter sounding wood like maple). I have had the good fortune of hearing congas made from many woods, including maple, oak, siam oak (rubberwood), mahogany, purpleheart, lacewood and others. The type of wood has a great deal to do with the sound of a conga. Fiberglass drums, for the most part, all possess some degree of extra high end "ring". This ring can be controlled to some extent by carefully choosing the heads to put on these drums, but in general, it is not a sound I am attracted to personally.

2. In terms of shear volume, most fiberglass drums are a bit louder than their wood counterparts. In certain kinds of music, especially where some, but maybe not all instruments are amplified, this volume advantage can save a lot of wear and tear on a conga players hands! This reality makes them a good choice for some musical environments. If a situation finds ALL instruments amplified, this is a non-issue and sound quality should be the primary consideration in my opinion!

3. Fiberglass drums are generally more durable than wood drums. The material is simply stronger and can take hits better than wood. That being said, wood is still a quite durable material. I have certainly seen and played plenty of wood shelled congas that were fairly beat up but still sounded GREAT!!

4. In consideration of climate, I think the most important consideration might be related to drums manufactured by "bending" the slats to form the shape versus those built by "cutting" the wood to the general shape of the drum in the early stages of construction. I believe most drums are manufactured using the "bending" process to achieve the shape of the drum. This places the wood under a certain amount of stress as those slats are then under some pressure once glued. As time goes by, they simply want to return to their original shape! This results in either cracks in the shell or drums that go out of round. Either can destroy the sound properties of a drum. Another issue here is how wide each of the slats is. It seems that the wider the slat used to form the shell, the more stress that slat will be under once bent and shaped in the manufacturing process.

5. Further consideration of climate would suggest that room humidifiers might be useful during the periods of the year that would be driest. Living in Toronto, this occurs in the winter for me as my house is heated by radiated heat which tends to dry the air out dramatically! As to whether a humidity controlled case would solve this issue in Arizona, I don't know. I don't know much about those types of cases.

6. Any drum constructed of a solid shell poses obvious problems for extra dry environments. This is true of congas, djembes, and many other types of drums coming from humid climates to dry climates! I also imagine there would be a tremendous amount of wood "waste" to make a solid shell conga. I am sure that it woudl be very labour intensive and probably end up being quite expensive, too. At the end of the day, my experience with drums with this type of shell is that most of them end up cracking. It is just a matter of how soon it will happen and how bad the crack will be!

In conclusion, your own experiences with wood shelled drums and natural skins in your local climate will have to help guide you through this decision. For me, I would opt for a drum made of your favorite sounding wood. I simply prefer the sound of wood congas over fiberglass. Then I would try to keep it away from direct heat sources in a room with a humidifier during the driest times of the year.

Good Luck. I hope this gives you some useful information to think about.

Ray Dillard