congaplace.com

Quite possibly....

Calling Dario....


Here are some of the Vergara line from former member on here Tony: http://congadr.blogspot.com/2008/03/vergara-congas.html

That ebay drum resembles my buddy James' Requena a lot more, than those Vergara photos, at least to me....
...I'm not saying it is a Requena though....may be, may be not...

BNB, that looks like a
requena. Are they known to be good drums? Buckoh

Well the Requena in the picture I posted belongs to a friend of mine and it
certainly has a unique and fantastic sound. It's a great drum and I'm glad he
has it.

There's a great picture of a Vergara on the Ray Barretto album Charanga Moderna. The history of Ray's Vergaras is well known.

Compare the photos and you'll clearly see major differences in the hardware between this ebay drum and a Vergara, specifically the crown loop shape (elongated vs. the wider, more modern-looking Vergara style), the side plate orientation (horizontal vs. vertical), and number of side plate bolts (2 vs. 4).




The ebay drum is Cuban, for sure, and possibly Requena - not that there's anything wrong with that.

The one is West Palm Beach on Ebay is a Candido Requena as well as the one in SF on the photo. Ray B's, on Charanga Moderna, were two Vergaras that Mongo sold him back when Mongo was with Puente and Ray played with Bonnemere's trio and occasionaly with Jose Curbelo. Mongo sold the Vergaras to Ray for $80 back around 1958. Ray one time told me "Coño, if I only had them now".

Candido Requena's congas and bongos came before Gonzalo Vergara's. Vergara made a more refined upscale product. Vergara used oak from wine barrels from Spain to make his congas, that's probably why they sounded sooo good, the wine cured the staves. Requena used Cedro for his congas. Vergara used Cuban Caoba for his one piece bongos, Requena mostly used Cedro for his bongos with a few exceptions where he used Coaba. I think Faustino in our forum, has a Caoba Requena bongo' (very rare). Requena sold his congas and bongos in Havana through Solis Music Store in La Habana Vieja. Vergara had a mill shop where he made the shells. The hardware for Vergara was made at a welding shop in Barrio Chino in La Habana, Requena made his own hardware.

Attached: Vergara conga with an old Valje requinto with Arsenio's band, Requena bongos and Mongo's Vergara bongos with painted Vergara congas.

Dario

For the historians in the forum, in the first photo above you see Arsenio playing Cascara on the Valje requinto, his brother Raul playing the Valje requinto, Orlando "Masacote" playing the Vergara conga. Behind Arsenio, you see Modesto Duran, tumbador and on the far left, with glasses, pianist Rene Touzet.
In Mongo's photo you see Mongo playing his Vergara ( the ones I now have) bongos, you see two Vergaras Mongo had painted, on bass you see Victor Venegas, on piano Rogers Grant and on sax I think is Pat Patrick. A bit of Latin music history, free of charge. MONGO LIVES!

Dario

Great posts, thanks Dario.

Omelenko1 wrote:Vergara used oak from wine barrels from Spain to make his congas, that's probably why they sounded sooo good, the wine cured the staves. Requena used Cedro for his congas.
Dario

Not to confuse things, but my Requena (assuming it is that) is made of oak. Not saying they aren't generally cedro, just that they might not have been made only with cedro.

James

Here a some other photos of likely Requena congas. Mine was a wreck when I got it: splits all over - almost fell apart when I took the head and bands off, hardware completely rusted over, etc. Took a lot of work to get it into good playing condition.




James

That drum went for $840.

Wow.

James,

Pardon me but that wood (photo enclosed) is not oak , is cedro. All Requena congas, ( for the most part quintos), as I don't think Requena made congas over 11", have been made out of cedro. Vergara only used oak (roble) for his congas and Requena cedro. Both drums sound incredible, but they are the kind of conga that you have to be very carefull with, on account the shells are very thin. No one should ever put a thick head on such drums, as it would tend to split the wood, the skins should be on the thin side and the lugs should be constantly lubicated, to facilitate tunning.

Dario

Omelenko1 wrote:James,

Pardon me but that wood (photo enclosed) is not oak , is cedro. All Requena congas, ( for the most part quintos), as I don't think Requena made congas over 11", have been made out of cedro. Vergara only used oak (roble) for his congas and Requena cedro.

Dario

Dario,

After I first stripped the drum during the renovation, at first thought it was cedro, but having rarely seen cedro (Caribbean cedar - we don't have a lot of this out here in California) in person before I couldn't be sure. The wood looked a bit like oak, though I've worked oak before and it didn't seem quite the same, especially in terms of hardness and the way it sanded, and it seemed much lighter than oak. Around that time I took it to the top lumber store in my area, a well-respected place with hundreds of kinds of woods from all over the world, and in discussing the best finishing options for this kind of cedar they corrected me, insisting it was clearly oak. I questioned them on whether they were familiar with cedar from Cuba and they dismissed my question and again said definitely oak. So that's why I've been saying it's oak. I think you might be right, though I don't have the expertise to say for sure. Obviously, since you grew up in Cuba, you no doubt have seen plenty of cedro, and I value your take on this quite highly.

Does anyone have any pictures of any cedro that looks like this?

Thanks,

James

taikonoatama wrote:That drum went for $840.

Wow.

Wow is right, what a crazy price.

According to the "Diccionario botánico de nombres vulgares cubanos" by Dr. Juan Tomas Roig y Mesa, not even "roble" is roble (oak, lat.: quercus) in Cuba. There are several trees that go by the name of "roble". They are tabebuia in Latin. Commonly, roble in Cuba is tabebuia rosea (syn. tabebuia pentaphylla) or tabebuia angustata. The English name for tabebuia rosea is, according to Dalia Quiros Moran's "Guide to Afro-Cuban Herbalism", WHITE CEDAR. I couldn't find an English name for t. angustata.

Thomas