Re: Most versatile Djembe,conga or doumbek??

> I haven't played a fishkin head, but my impression is that *when they
> sound right* they sound incredible. But apparently, they are very
> sensitive to temp and humidity, and a lot of the time, they sound awful.
>
> Can anyone comment on this?

Yes, that's very true.  I wouldn't say "awful", but they don't really sound
like doumbeks.  I used to live in a place with air conditioning, and that
helps a whole lot.  The drum sounds totally different, a lot crisper and
tighter.  Now that I don't have air conditioning, I use mostly
synthetic-headed drums, and that works for me.  What people usually do is
get a heating pad, and you just warm the drum up on that.  I don't have the
time now to warm a drum up for 5 minutes every time I play though.  : )

In general, for the doumbek, natural skin heads are pretty sensitive... the
drum sounds totally different from day to day, depending on the weather.

I haven't found the fishskin headed drums to necessarily have "more" bass
than other doumbeks, but I would say it is "tighter".  it is more focused,
and quite pleasant.

MB