$1000 Conga Drum - Inside Skin On Skin 

There are no bad congas just bad conga players. You never forget your first. Mine was a 1972 Lp conga, when they were made in Palisaides New York. Tumbadora was next followed by a quinto. Then later a wood Salsa model quinto by Lp. Then my last was a cherry colored, mahogany quinto made by Gon Bops. When the day came that my playing was over my beautiful wife repurposed my Gon bop quinto into a lamp stand which 25 years later sits next to her piano. Fun memories.

Hi, this is Jay’s daughter, Cara :-)What a great video, glad I found it!

Love them.i had a friend in the 80 that had them.he told me he use to import mutes skins from Peru. I did put one on my tambora.im dominican drumer....

Jay Bereck used to have a place in Downtown Brooklyn on Smith st. when I was just a kid before he moved to Atlantic ave, which is the location I believe you took the pictures in . Had I known then what I know now about the quality of these Congas ,I would have owned a pair of these amazing instruments . The truth is I play for my own pleasure , and used to play at church with the worship team many years ago .

Im` very glad to see this !!! I have exactly these 4 congas as a set, authentic "Skin On Skin", same sizes, same wood, same hardware !!! Beautiful drums !!!

As a woodworker and a percussionist I love drum building. There is so much talent and skill in it. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for your video. Jay made a set of 4 like yours in 1980s for me. Traveled from Malibu to Yuma to a beautiful tropical island now in the Philippines! Treasures!

nice story with Skin on Skin. There are one or two similarities with the owner of Moperc. Michel was a construction worker and I believe his father was a steel worker. Michel still makes Moperc drums by hand. The staves are not steam bent, but instead they are cut to shape, and Moperc drums are heavier than most other drums.

they sound amazing

Loved the analogy of the "price of a dental crown".

I actually have one of these. Pretty sure a relative actual founded the company, really nice drum.

the inside metal part of the drum is call an " alma" ( soul in Spanish ) 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Bro.... You had a lot of hair. Lol. Jay makes amazing drums for sure. Some of the best out there!!

Good idea to make reviews to different drums from different companies.

I took a few lessons from Tommy Lopez one of Eddie Palmieri's congueros at SOS in Flatbush AV in the 70's. Used to take Amtrak from Boston then hit The all night salsa clubs like Club Broadway till 5:30 am then hit White Castle burgers then slide with all that grease in me back to Amtrak.

Yo fabrico Tambores. Es un arte apasionante y difícil de realizar ;) Sobre todo si en tu región hay escasez de materiales ;) Saludos desde Arica Chile

I agree SOS drums are built like tanks. Those steel bands are about 1/8 inch thick so that if you drop it, will not split like a watermelon. And sound is great!

His oak drums were the loudest and the heaviest. They cut through horns without a mike.

I was fortunate to have Jay make me 7 cherry with stainless hdwr back when he was charging $275 a drum. I would send the deposit ($75) then save up to pay for the drum when finished then immediately order another drum. Although I was in California Im from Jersey and a cabinetmaker so we had many great conversations over the many years it took to save and get them that I cherish. I was also fortunate to be friends with the legendary Armando Peraza who played them when he would come over my house. He always complimented them and when we would meet up his first question was always " hey mine ju still got jur drums. day are co lector items , am i right?(this is me trying to imitate Armando.) He really loved them and when LP made the APeraza drum my phone rang and it was my teacher and mutual friend Jorge Bermuedz asking hey man Armando wants to know what kind of wood your drums are made of. I couldnt help but notice that when they made the AP drum (in the style of Valje) they were cherry. When I ordered my first drum from Jay I asked how long it would take he said something like I dont know mabey 6 months you ask again mabey never. Hanging with Armando and getting to know Jay are the greatest memories of my life. Great video and thanks for honoring Jay, he was one of the finest craftsman I ever knew. I would just add that if Patato was the Jackie Robinson of the conga Armando was the Yogi Berra.

Very fine, well informwed!

Now I need to repair LP Classic with warped slats due to folks not tuning it evenly. Left them at the club cuz they were heavy with lots of stairs to climb especially after playing till 2:30 every night.

Hello Kalani, I appreciate your clear, fun video of useful information. Yes, I prefer mule (Cali RIP at JCR in Bronx used to be my source) and just started trying American Buffalo that I use for my making my Native American Drums. Do you have any of your booklets available on Bata rhythms and Djembe ensemble parts. I bought one years ago and haven't been able to find a replacement. Thanks, Tony Redhouse.

I was in Brooklyn in the early 1980's and went to the Skin on Skin shop.At that time,some of the drums were having a problem with Steve separation.If you find some to buy now watch out for signs of that just in case.

Can I use a normal price cowskin for my Gon Bop Quinto -Conga?

Beautiful!!!! Awesome Vid!

How come there’s no link in the description for Skin on Skin?

No no Gon BOPS our the best congas make best sound had my for over 30 years

You're good. I want Mopercs... The Rumbero series are sweet... Oh, and keep the thick skin

I have a pair of Jay Bereck's congas. 10" made in 1999 and a 11" made in 1994. What are they worth? Also signed on both by Jay as well.

Great video. I have a set of 3 oak drums from Jay from the 80's. My teacher, Bobby Torres, used these for recording. Unfortunately I need to sell them. Do you have any advice on how I can connect with someone who would appreciate them?

que altura tienen los tambores conga??

goood idea we love you cip it up

Interesting that for Conga drums that even for top of the line drums they do no work to the inside of the drum. There are not a lot of musical instruments where having random pressed out glue globs on the inside would be a desirable thing. Hard to imagine Wynton Marsalis wanting a trumpet with dried glue on the inside. It is nice how beautiful most congas are on the outside but... In terms of durability I dont think it is very common for even low end stave drums to fall apart so I am not so sure that is so incredibly important. Anyone out there have them fall apart with regular use? I have some higher end bongos and those are turned and finished on the inside. In my opinion they sound much better than the ones that are just unfinished staves like the congas. Here is the thing though - those are more of a straight through barely tapered design so the sound does not get trapped in them and the heads do not ring. I took a tumba conga and sanded the inside with some tools I rigged up (a lot of work- probably the main reason why no one does it). The sound of that drum with a synthetic head was more ringy but for the real cow skin heads there was little ring and the sound of the note of the drum was much much easier to pick out when tuning with some other instrument like a marimba setting on a keyboard. See other discussions below on ringing conga heads. In contrast Djembes if made from a section of a log have to be carved out, and the standard wisdom is that the good ones have spiral carving to help with the sound. If you look at Sageman Djembes they are turned smooth on a lathe on the inside except for the bottom of the main bowl which is made as rough a cob to kill the ring - I assume. I don't own one and although not made in Africa the totally traditional way they sound good. I am curious if the plastic Remo "Tumbano" straight cylinder conga like drums ring much. I am guessing they don't unless the sound is bouncing back up off the floor.

I bought a set of 4 w Bongos LP's but I played at many weddings and the condensation just killed my sound and I always was re-tuning them. I went with Evans skins which stay tuned but lose the incredible sound of real skins.

How would you go about selling your Skin on Skin conga drums to get the best price?

Do you know what cause the ring of the drums? Not ring from the head tuning, but the inherent ring of the wood. It's very frustrating for me to tune all three of my conga drums - no matter how nice of a tone it get, there is still an underlying ring. Sometimes it's fine because the ring tone works with the tone of the head. But that becomes difficult to get all three of my drums to sound great - it seems that each of my drums has its "Goldie Locks" tuning zone where it's sounds best due to the natural ring.

change the heads to either Moperc cow skin, or ManitoPercusion natural stear skin

Thats ritym got a name? Thankyou

My question is what type of skins should I buy to replace my lp skins because I dont like them. I have a set of 1970s lp classic fiberglass congas....no synthetics

Really enjoyed your video. As an owner of Skin On Skins I too can attest to their superior quality, construction and sound, without a doubt, some of the best congas ever made. I would like to invite you and your audience to visit my Facebook forum "Vintage Conga Drums" where you can view literally hundreds of images of these, and many other, wonderful Classic and Vintage drums. "facebook.com/groups/657966647623440/ By the way, Michael Pluznick and Cara Bereck, Jay Bereck's daughter, are also members. Thank you.

Sounds Good!

What about solid wood congas?

MINT congas!

Thanks for the video. Would you consider selling them? I'm not trying to be funny, I will pay a lot more than 1000 each!!!

wow, you had hair!

You used to have hair!?!?! :O

Like

why did your skin break...

Really funny to see myself in rhis video working on a drum at skin on skin all those years ago.. Do you have any more pictures?? Pm me if you do?? Alan tellas on facebook...

I disagree. check out these handmade congas: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P9-WneGbp4s.html