Gear4Music Congas and Bongos |
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A rotating banner on the Gear4Music website proclaims, “Congratulations, you have just found the best source for musical equipment and instruments in Europe!”. Wow! Talk about bold claims. If that may indeed be a wildly extravagant statement, then how about this far more modest one: “We want to make purchasing and owning these items easy for you, by providing great prices and excellent service”. That is a bit nearer the mark and, I would suggest, far more accurate. Gear4music supply instruments and equipment manufactured by various companies, but also have their own range of “budget” gear (4 music!), and it is their own brand congas and bongos that we will be looking at today. Ok, let’s establish from the start that yes, these are cheap instruments, but do not fall into the trap of dismissing them for that reason. Actually, for the money, these are in fact worthy instruments. Let’s find out why. |
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The set comes complete with a sturdy chrome stand, but the stand brackets on each drum were only held on with two 6mm bolts and the brackets were actually loose. Also, there was no way of tilting the drums while on the stand i.e there is no tilt adjustment on the drum stand bracket or on the stand itself, which is a serious omission because usually you would tilt the drum away from you to some degree. Playing congas when they are level is very uncomfortable indeed and may even damage your wrists. The drum hoops are matt black metal and seem solid enough and there are 5 chrome tuning lugs; each one bolted through the drum shell with three 6 mm diameter bolts through what appears to be black rubber backed metal brackets. I must admit the drumheads seem a little on the thin side and are tightened down over what appear to be slightly roughly finished bearing rims. I wonder if those rough rims might actually wear through the heads in time? Again, due to lack of documentation, I am not sure if the drumheads are real or synthetic. What I do know however is that they actually don’t sound too bad! Once I had taken the time to tighten up the heads somewhat (spanner not supplied) I found I could elicit all the necessary tones from muffled tone to slap and the resultant sounds were very acceptable, if slightly lacking in tonal quality compared to some of the more expensive congas I have tried recently. Also the volume perhaps seemed slightly lower than more expensive models.
The bongos are very similar
in that they are also very sturdy and have 12mm thick wooden shells Conclusion Ok, these instruments may not be the absolute apex, but it would seem churlish to be too harsh because at the price they are perfectly usable instruments, and absolutely fantastic value for money. Gear4music also seem to know where their market lies by actively encouraging schools and educational establishments to get trade accounts with them. The Gear4music website is totally geared to ecommerce, but you would be mistaken if you thought that they were web traders only, as you can also purchase in person at their shop in York. Buying instruments off the web can be fraught with hidden dangers of course, and I think most people would be far happier having seen and tried out a piece of kit before purchase. However, to their credit Gear4music do offer a 14 day “no quibble” money back guarantee, and a full 1 year warranty. They can also deliver within 2 days and would only charge another £8 for delivery if you bought both congas and bongos, which again seems very good value. Upbeats (Congas and
Bongos): Downbeats: Prices (correct as
of June 2006): Contact: Tel: +44 (0) 871 309 0800 Web Links: |
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The
conga set consists of 11” conga and 10” quinto. Both drums
are 29” in length. I am not sure what wood they are made of because
the website does not tell me and there is no documentation with the
instruments, but I suspect it could be oak. There has been no skimping
here though because it is very thick wood and the drums are very solid
and quite heavy. Skimping however is in evidence when you examine the
black rubber trim at the bottom of each drum, in that the trim is not
fixed that well having been glued on in a rather haphazard fashion,
making me suspect that it may well fall off unless fixed more securely.
The finish of the drum shells themselves though is very good, being
a “natural” look glossy sheen, only spoilt slightly by the
rather tacky and cheap looking “gear4music” badge. I would
leave it off folks, or get some classier ones made. 
with the same natural gloss finish, however, this time the hardware
is chrome. We have 4 tuning lugs per drum with neat black rubber feet
on the bottom of the lugs. There was also a tuning spanner and pouch
supplied with the bongos, which makes me wonder if the congas should
also have been supplied with one and it has gone awol? I have the same
reservations regarding the thickness of the heads and the roughness
of the bearing rims, but the sound produced is quite acceptable if again,
slightly tonally “dead” and perhaps lacking in volume. But
then again what do you expect for 20 quid including vat?