Yup folks - a BIG bite...
But this time - Marta was the one who got bitten...
She got a call from a friend of mine whether she's selling her practice congas (LP - CP series wood) to a percussion beginner who wants to play with a DJ.
She managed to get a good deal out of the sale, so we started to look for new congas for practice...
We went to all the music instrument shops here - some Chinese noname congas (300euro), some CP (330euro) - nothing tasty, and worth spending money for. You'll get practice congas, but You'll never use them on stage because they just don't sound that good...
So, we went to the only SONOR dealer - I remember they had a pair of SONOR Latino congas for sale, but with a "nice" price of 530euro.
She tested them for 3 minutes, and asked whether she could tune them. The seller (a friend and a former band mate) naturally agreed, and Marta started tuning.
You should have seen the look on her face when she tuned them and played them for 5 minutes.
I can recognize that look - that "My God these sound great" look...The friend said "I think we can make some sort of a discount", since they had 2 small dings in the lacquer - and about 10 minutes later we walked out of there with a pair of SONOR Latino wood congas for 425euro...
And a HH484, that I can pay for in the next 30 days (my friend is great, what can I say)...Actually, we spent 200euro from the "drum gear money", and the rest from the sale of the congas... With some extra gigs, I'll still manage to reinvest those funds for hihat and snare stands, in the next 2-3 months...
A GREAT happy-end. And a great investment.
We compared them to the MEINL Marathon set she uses now (the same as the Luis Conte model, different rims), and you can immediately feel the sound is more focused, brighter, with a more graceful note in it...
Sorry for the bad pictures - they were taken quickly...
Here are pictures from the SONOR site:
I'll never forget Marta's comment in the shop - "everything is so professional about these SONOR congas".
She's right, you know...
Cheers guys... The SONOR family is spreading in the family...
