LP Giovanni Hidalgo Compact Congas and Bongos

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matched the volume achieved by their
full-size cousins. Their only slight
shortfall is bass tone. With full-size
congas, you get deep and resonant
bass tones, played with the palm
of the hands, thanks to their
cigar shape and 28"-32" height.
With the Compact series this is
simply not possible, but that
shouldn’t prevent you from
using these fi ne-sounding
instruments for practice or
even studio use. I used one
on a session recently and the
producer, engineer and studio
owner (not to mention a well-
known drummer) all loved its
sound. The Compact Congas are
mutable for quieter practice and I
found they sounded and felt best when
mounted on a conventional snare stand,
the heavier the better to stop the drum
moving about too much.
Eastern and exotic
The newest addition to Giovanni’s
Compact series is a rather fine set of
bongos, constructed from the same
aluminium alloy as the congas. They
consist of a full-size 7¼" macho and an
8
5
/ 8 " hembra (both with six tuning lugs)
and feature synthetic heads both in one
lightweight unit. They can be played with
hands or sticks, and sound wonderful
with either. The macho cuts beautifully
when played by hand, while with sticks it
sounds exotic and somewhat Middle
Eastern in fl avour.
The hembra contrasts really well
with its deeper tuning range and goes
low enough to be really effective. The
Compact Bongos can be mounted
on most bongo stand bases with an
included mounting post and this is best,
as playing them on your lap is tricky
when you start to really lay into them –
and when you hear them you will surely
want to do just that!
KEY FEATURES
G
iovanni Hidalgo has taken the art of
playing congas to new heights with
his unique technique and highly
melodic approach. Born into a musical
family in Puerto Rico, he has played with a
stellar list of artists, including Tito Puente,
Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana and even
Paul Simon and Mickey Hart. He has
taught at the Berklee College of Music
and, with a couple of teaching videos
out, seems keen to share his wealth of
percussive knowledge with the world.
With this in mind, LP have been keen
to be associated with Giovanni, and the
marriage has created a staggering array
of hand drum lines that bear Hidalgo’s
name. There are already two sets of
full-size signature congas, a set of bongos
and a djembe on the market, and now,
a line of compact congas and bongos.
The Giovanni Compact Conga was
introduced first and featured an 11"
head providing the diameter and feel
of a quinto. This was a big success for
LP; so much so that they have added
an 11¾" conga and, more recently, a set
of Compact Bongos too.
Ta
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To look at these drums you think, ‘Fine’.
There’s full-size conga, quinto and bongo
heads that sit high and proud of a
LP
Giovanni Hidalgo
Compact Congas
& Bongos
From £99 | Giovanni Hidalgo’s new hand drums are full of
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ESSENTIALS
PRICES
LP Compact
Conga £195
Quinto £148
Bongos £249
Conga Mounting
System £99
CONTACT
Arbiter Group Ltd
Atlantic House
Stirling Way
Borehamwood
WD6 2BT
Telephone
020 8207 7860
Fax
020 8953 9204
Website
www.lpmusic.com
comfort-curve style full-size rim and
then… gulp! Nothing else! What on earth
are you going to hope to hear from a
conga with nothing even resembling a
drum to be seen? The answer is that you
get considerably more than you expect…
I must admit that I was astonished with
the sound of these drums, and I’m sure
this is to do with the lightweight but full
mass of the special aluminium alloy rims,
coupled with the replaceable synthetic
heads, which are made by Evans. The
rims have a removable bearing edge
that the head rests on and is independent
from the rim – I’m sure this is one of
the integral factors in getting such
an impressive sound from such an
unassuming instrument. The rims can be
disassembled via Allen key-operated lug
holes on the underside of the rims. The
drums are also tuned from underneath
the rims via conventional size tuning
lugs with a standard drum key.
The 11" quinto has nine tuning lugs
and the 11¾" conga has 12, which results
in a surprisingly wide tuning range. When
tuning, I mounted them on LP’s Compact
Conga Mounting System which enables
you to securely mount one or two congas
from any cymbal stand and even tilt the
stand to allow you to position two congas
anywhere around your drum kit or
percussion rig. I positioned them above
my own set of Natal fi breglasscongas
in order to make a direct comparison;
if you do the same, just make sure that
you tighten all the bolts suffi ciently. Their
collapsible design means you will get an
unpleasant squeak when you strike them
if they are at all loose.
So, how do they sound? Surprisingly
authentic in fact. The conga and quinto
blend beautifully with superb slap sounds
and resonant, warm open tones. When
comparing them with my full-size set, I
was amazed by how similar they sound,
not just in tone, but in volume too, which
is what really impressed me. They almost
LP’s unique Conga Mounting
System allows you to mount the
congas from any cymbal stand and
position them around your kit.
RHY130.gear_lp 104RHY130.gear_lp 104 8/9/06 06:51:528/9/06 06:51:52