Jam block on a gajate bracket?

[TheBandlehars]

I'm playing a a conga duet in a school concert tomorrow entitled "Congastuck" by J.B. Smith. It calls for an odd setup of 4 congas shared by the 2 players seated across from each other and then each player has their own foot operated cowbell. We only had access to one gajate bracket (the mount used for cowbells and blocks to be played with a pedal) so I bought one yesterday and I also picked up the red LP jam block. I set it all up just to be very disappointed with the sound. The felt side of the beater is really soft sounding, and the the plastic side is way to clicky. What are some solutions to getting a sound more like hitting the block with a stick?

[fishbulb]

Sticks are made out of wood, so get a wooden beater?

I don't know what else to tell you.

[TheBandlehars]

I thought about that, but even my carbosticks create the same stick sound. I think part of it might be the angle of attack, instead of the pedal contacting the block straight on it needs to hit at an angle more like a stick. I'm just not sure how to go about that.

[super_kick08]

Use like tape around the plastic side. Thats what i used. I couldnt get much either.

[Panopticon]

I ran into this problem too...make it so that the pedal hits the very top lip of the jam block where the stick would hit.

[TheBandlehars]

I found a satisfactory solution! Set it up so that the plastic beater hits fairly low on the block (closer to the clamp). I don't know why that sounds so much more like a stick on the edge than when the pedal is set up to strike the edge but it works. I'll see if I can post a picture or something so you can see what I mean.

[eatsleepandblink]

I don't know the name of the duet, but a couple of guys i know played one that calls for the exact same setup, for a concert for perc. ensemble. If it was the same piece, it's really really cool and have fun, if not....well have fun anyways! and good luck.

[TheBandlehars]

Tonight was my concert and it was... eh. We hadn't put alot of time into preparing it because we are both involved in several other music groups and we never had time during school to put it together. We ended up just spending about 2 hours on it right after school today and performed it as best we could. It wasn't perfect, not even close. But I do feel ok about the performance because the composer of the piece was there and said we did a fine job on it. I'll see about getting a video up soon.