My new Isla bata drums in MAHOGANY!

Just received the Iya for my Isla bata set the other day. What can I say? These drums are awesome. The Honduran Mahogany is just the most beautiful wood. It has great depth and a wonderful color. But looks don't mean anything when it comes to musical instruments. These bata sound incredible. The tones are so clear and clean and the slaps crisp and sharp....well except for the enu on the iya, it needs fardela for sure. My new iya is bigger than my old Isla Iya , it's a  13" head and needs the fardela to control the thinner skin and give the iya the solid thump it's supposed to have.

The mahogany wood is lighter than my old Isla bata set, which I sold to a great guy and excellent musician in Manchester, England.

 I'm not sure if I'm going to rope these like my old bata, the mahogany is sooo nice. I am going to make a chaworo (bells) for the iya though. Actually I already have 2 nice big bells for it I received as a gift from my mom for my last birthday. I'm not sure why she had them or where she got them, but they are going to be great for the chaworo. They sound awesome.

This is the first set of bata that Isla has made in mahogany and also the first set of Isla mahogany bata in the USA. I'm going to be keeping these for a long time. The only reason I sold  my old set was to make room for this set. No way do I need two sets of bata! I'm glad my old set went to an excellent new home.

Anyways, it's been a while since I had or played any bata. Guess it's time to get the study group back together for some toque practice. Ki-la, ki-la, ki-la....