Raul congas - Brazilian Cedar 9.5, 10.5"

I was lucky to pick up this set of Brazilian congas yesterday.

They are Raul congas, the company that turned into Bauer percussion. They are some very nice sounding production drums - Brazilian Cedar and very well made.

The Shape of these Rauls are different than the modern Cedar Bauers, with a slightly more gon bops like shape.

The sound is dry, Mahogany like, but with interesting, subtle and distinct overtones. I love this wood. - very folkloric sounding.

They have an alma on the inside to prevent it from going out of round. The hardware is super beefy with very thick lugs that take a 16mm or a 5/8ths box wrench. The side plates, later with the rubber 'gasket', are very strong and disperse the load nice and evenly. All in all, these are some very nice drums.





The 'ears' on the crown are riveted on, most everyone else welds them, as i think should be done. ..odd, as all rest of the hardware is ideal. You can see the rivets starting to pull out, if just ever so slightly.



The 10.5 came with a very nice skin, but the requinto is getting a new hat.... which went on as easily as any skin in the past, due to the expanded part of the lug nuts (see pic). this feature is very clean, and works great. I wonder why more people dont use these nuts. They are 16mm, which is very nice. They are stronger, and i can take the drum out to play without all the wrench happy rumberos cranking the life out of it - not many people carry around a 16mm.





The alma was bondo'ed to the bearing edge.. unusual, but works well. Also, the alma was fixed to the shell without an outside band, just holes in the middle of each stave where the alma was pinned in with half of a rivet. Not the best of solutions, and kind of awkward, yet functional.



Im so lucky to have found these tubs. Im on the lookout for a conga and tumba to match, fyi.

Tony