DRUMMER CAFE

I have a cajon like one here: http://www.cajondg.com/cajon_yaqui_eng.htm
Very happy with it. There is a model on there with mechanism to disengage the strings, though I haven't played or seen it.

Fat Congas, I  played their Bajo cajon, loved the build quality, sound was good but not for me. I haven't seen the flamenco cajon that has two sides one with strings and another without, so that might be your ticket. Oh, I also played Fat Congas little cajon, you know tappered, square ones. It sounded great, loved it. Don't own it , yet.  

Schlagwerk was on my radar from day one of my search for cajon, all I hear is good things, but very hard to find, only one dealer in US and prices are ...  , it might be cheaper to buy in UK and have it shipped here. I had a site with good prices that shipped to US but can't seem to locate it.  I realy want their Yambu cajon to play with congas....  

Hope this helps.
And on a little side note. You probably don't want to put labels like, "fanatics" or "gurus" if you want alot of people to respond.  Before I went to answer, I was like... hm, "I like to play my cajon... am I a fanatic?, nah", "Guru?... I know I am not a guru...", you know what I am saying.  I don't mean to speak for all but I am sure alot of guys here would probably go through same thought process... It's almost like if I respond to this thread I proclaim myself a "cajon guru" ... which I am not... anyway just IMHO...

cheers

I've got a friend here in Boulder who is now making cajons and has a bit of a small inventory built up. They do not look "home-made" or built in a garage in any way. He's taken dimensions from several of the best cajons including Fat's and used the eye of an expert wood craftsman to put together some really quality instruments. I'm really impressed, and just got one of his quintos - the kind with screws around the edge for raspy high end stuff.
It'll be a week, but I could probably post a pic or two.

In the mean-time, you can IM me for his address, or phone #.

Dave

the main differences IMHO in cajons is quality of construction ofcourse but also, and it's huge  , is the quality of ply-wood.  One of the guys here bought a Meinl cajon, and honestly it's not good, compared to my DG it's like playing on the log.  The playing surface on my cajon is 2mm (less then 2/8" I think)  but it has 5! plys of wood not filler, non of that luan stuff, so the result is very responsive yet stiff playing surface, in other words awesome  

You can't just buy that kind of plywood in your hardware store, well not around here anyway, the closest I found was craft store aircraft ply-wood that only came in 12" width and even that wasn't as good since it was only 3 ply and I think it was 1/8", can't remember for sure.  Anyway just something to keep in mind.   Fat Congas cajons had great ply-wood on them, so obviously that stuff is out there.

Windhorse, I am curious what your friend is using on his drums.  Please don't take it as an attak or anything I am not trying to knock his drums, since I don't know anything about them.

cheers

I made my own cajon with the assistance of a Peruvian friend.  The neat thing is that he was a student of Alex Acuna, so it became quite an educational experience.

I'm the proud owner of Valter Percussion cajon-congas. I have the quinto and tumba and am looking to buy the conga size also. They are light weight, have great tone, are very easy to play and project. I also have Pearl Elite cajon tubes which are also good but are much heavier than the Valter drums.

Here's the Valter website: http://www.valterpercussion.com/. Check out the youtube video clips to hear how good they sound.

I bought the set in August. They sound great but they are very heavy. I also don't care so much for the tuning. The smallest one is tuned at about the same pitch as my smallest bongo and is MUCH bigger, so what's the point? (It does have a slightly "wooden" sound which is good.) I thought the nesting, Russian doll-type, concept was good but it puts a lot of stress on the stops in the big tube and on the feet of the small tube.

As I posted above, the Pearls made me appreciate the Valter cajón congas much more. They are much lighter, don't have to be played so hard to get volume, I have found more different sounds on them and they have a much deeper bass. I only wish they nested for transport.

I will probably sell the Pearls and add the "conga" sized cajón-conga to my Valter set.

To answer your main question, the Pearls do sound great however, just the Valters sound better and are more playable.