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Percussion Production
Percussion Manufacturer Meinl
In the 70's Meinl began to manufacture congas and bongos in the country of Thailand. The decision to build a production facility in Thailand was revolutionary for the entire percussion market. This important step enabled Meinl to become the first percussion manufacturer to offer professional instruments at an affordable price, thereby making them available to a broader customer base. This pioneering effort has changed the international market entirely and showed other manufacturers a new way. Thailand is a logical manufacturing base for percussion instruments due to the fact that the Hevea brasiliensis, which was indigenous to Brazil and later transported by way of England to Asia, has been commercially grown in Southeast Asia during the last century on plantation farms for the production of Latex.
The traditional plantation of rubber wood (Hevea brasiliensis Muell.-Arg.) meets all ecological requirements. In a natural evolution, new trees are planted and the older ones, which have ceased to provide latex, are harvested. In this way, plenty of raw material is available and the valuable rain forest eco-system is preserved. In addition to rubber wood (Hevea brasiliensis Muell.-Arg.), we also utilize the following woods which also meet all the CITES-regulations set in the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora". These woods are harvested from environmentally controlled forests or from industrial wood plantations.
Red Wood (Xylia xylocarpa (Roxb.) (Taub)
American White Ash (Fraxinus americana L.)
Khasia Pine (Pinus khasya Royle)
Rose Wood (Pterocarpus macrocarpus Kurz)
Fiberglass:
For almost twenty years Meinl has utilized fiberglass in their manufacturing facilities due to its outstanding characteristics. Meinl is presently considered a "pioneer" in the field of using fiberglass for the production of traditional hand percussion instrument, such as fiberglass guiros, or shekers. Many of these instruments were originally made from very fragile materials and therefore have limited professional use. Meinl early improved those instruments and is now able to benefit from the early experiences with fiberglass material. Fiberglass is a synthetic material which is fibrous in consistency and consists of a variety of different compounds. In order to manufacture musical instruments from fiberglass,a considerable amount of work must be done by hand. Professional results require extremely skilled labor. Raw fiberglass mats are very weak and flexible. The production requires that these mats be laminated into sheets of varying thicknesses layer by layer using a special resin. The molded fiberglass instrument is then air dried without the use of heat. In this way a basic compound is transformed into a fine musical instrument.
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