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Finally, after almost two months waiting since I placed the order, my new friends have arrived from DW. A conga and a tumba in mahogany finish. Now the journey begins! Lots to learn, but I am so looking forward to it.

They arrived very nicely packed, and included a stand for each drum. Heads are de-tuned as they should be for shipment. No issues whatsoever. I'll try to post some pictures later today.

Congratulations! Gon Bops Tumbao Pros are a great buy, if I may say so myself! One of the best buys, and IMO the best buys, in its class! You get Gon Bops CA's (which I have) sleek, hybrid traditional crown and DW's widely-known reputation for excellent quality.

And coming in mahogany color, they should look expensive and great!

Do post some pictures.

I'm gonna try posting pics. These things are just awesome. I've had a basement full of teenagers jammin' all afternoon.

The hardware is one of the reasons why I selected the Tumbao Pro - I had already gotten Tumbao Pro bongos for my son and was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the hardware, as well as the fit and finish of the rest of the instrument. These congas do not disappoint in any way. They sound great; and should only sound better as we practice and study the tradition.

Nice pictures, as expected!

Frankly, in mahogany color, one would be hard-pressed to distinguish Tumbao Pros (Rubber Wood, Thai or Siam Oak) from the CA Series (North American Oak) also in mahogany color even from a relatively short distance--unless one gets close and examines the wood grain.

And those minimalist Gon Bops cradle stands are just perfect for those congas.

I personally use black Meinl Steely II stands. IMO, their feet (being bent) are more stable, have built-in retractable spikes (for carpeted floors) and they're more easily and quickly disassembled.

I can appreciate where a stand with retractable spikes would be necessary. I've had my bongos (for which I use the Pearl heavy-duty stand) walk away from me while I was playing, so I had to keep dragging them back!

But to have these nice Gon Bops stands provided with the drums as part of the price, makes for an even better value. I didn't know they were included, and was expecting to drop another $100 or so on stands and now I don't have to do that right away.

I do want to get some padded bags to use during transport. Do you have any suggestions?

I have a set of 3 myself. I've had them for about a year and a half now and I love them. I changed the heads to mule skins about a year back after reading this site, and it was my first time. I spoke with Cali at JCR and he made me feel comfortable enough to do it myself, and they sound great. If you get a chance you may want to change the heads eventhough the factory heads were pretty good. I wish I could have saved the heads but I needed the ring to mount the mule skins.

Beautiful! I would love to hear them with mule heads. I plan to leave my stock heads on for the time being because after waiting so long to save the money and then wait for them to come in, I just want to play them for a good long while. When the time comes to change them, I'll just do it...we already changed the head on my son's macho when the original skin split. For that we used x-ray film, because he was able to get some the same day from the radiologist down the road. Working with a soaked skin would be a lot easier than working with x-ray film.

alabubba wrote:But to have these nice Gon Bops stands provided with the drums as part of the price, makes for an even better value. I didn't know they were included, and was expecting to drop another $100 or so on stands and now I don't have to do that right away.

I do want to get some padded bags to use during transport. Do you have any suggestions?

Re: Gon Bops stands provided with the drums as part of the price making for an even better value, I couldn't agree with you more. Hey, if they also came with my CA Series congas, I wouldn't have bought my Meinl stands.

Re: padded bags, I personally use Gators (about $60 each) primarily because they come with wheels which make transporting congas (the CA Series being quite heavy) a lot easier. The downside is that the padding is a little too thin for my preference.

But then again, I use my Gators mostly for local gigs only and only when I know that I'm the only who'll be handling my congas. For longer trips and greater protection (especially if I suspect that other people will be handling my drums), I rely on my alternative Humes & Berg wheeled hard cases.

An LP bag model has wheels too, but they're significantly more expensive than the Gators (and typical of LP too). They seem to have thicker padding and be built more heavy-duty. Besides, I'm a little picky in that I prefer the brand of my bags to match that of my instruments, if I can help it, or if not at least neutral.

Kaces bags have wheels too. But, I haven't seen and examined one locally, so I can't make a fair judgment. This is also the reason why I didn't buy them. I didn't want to buy them blind.

IMO, the best soft case is Humes & Berg. They come either in the more economical Galaxy series or the upgraded (more heavy-duty and also more expensive) Tuxedo series. Unfortunately, neither of them comes with wheels. This is why I opted against them.

Pearl, Meinl and Beato make nice conga bags, too. But, none of them come with wheels.

Then again, you have Gon Bops own padded bags which, I believe, are also reasonably-priced. But, again, they don't come with wheels.

Hope these help,

Manny T wrote:Hope these help

Helps a great deal. Now if I can just make a decision...

Bag suggestion: You should make sure your tumba can fit in whatever bag you buy. My wife trying to be supportive baught me some LP conga bags with wheels for $120 online from Guitar Center. I'm sure she ment well, but I would not have baught them for myself. They are good bags but expensive, and the Gon Bop Tumba did not fit in the bag. So, I went to my local Guitar Center in Rockville, MD who always take good care of me and purchased a bag with wheels for about $40, and it had plenty of room for the tumba.

Loman wrote:So, I went to my local Guitar Center in Rockville, MD who always take good care of me and purchased a bag with wheels for about $40, and it had plenty of room for the tumba.

That would be a very good deal, especially if the padding were reasonably thick and the construction was up to par. I haven't seen that kind of price on-line, though. And with gasoline as high as it is, it isn't going to be worth it to go someplace like Atlanta or Nashville to find a music store that would carry that kind of item in inventory. The local stores, even if I was lucky enough to find one bag, would not have a variety of bags to compare. I appreciate the thoughtful responses on this forum, and will eventually probably toss a coin to choose between either the Gator or the Kaces bag.

Loman wrote:I changed the heads to mule skins about a year back after reading this site, and it was my first time. I spoke with Cali at JCR and he made me feel comfortable enough to do it myself, and they sound great. If you get a chance you may want to change the heads eventhough the factory heads were pretty good.

A foolish question, if you don't mind answering one. On a scale of 1 -10, how would you rate your satisfaction before, and then after, changing to mule?

Thanks!

[/img][/img]Hey all --- I am trying to attach a photo of my Cal Series of the same color. Lets see if this works.
KK

Beautiful! And they look like they have lots of company! I need more! I won't even get to play tonight because my son took mine to a jam session

Actually, I'm glad he's having fun! The sacrifices that we make for our kids...