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Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:21 am
by pcastag
Just picked these up from Robert Felcher, they're actually in pretty good shape, I'm going to go ahead and re-skin the quinto just to see how they play while I work on the tumba (12") . They look to be made of caoba, and if anybody can tell me their origin I would be greatly appreciative. The seller said they were from the 50's, if that's the case they've held up extremely well, there's just a bit of separation at the bottom of the larger drum. I have a feeling they're probably some older soncs, but i'm not certain.

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PC

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:06 am
by pcastag
Nobody? Nothing? Not even nice score?
PC :(

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:06 am
by bongosnotbombs
Look like Sonocs to me. They are pretty rough, but hopefully with a lot
of work and sweat they will turn out great.
I saw that GB requinto your selling on eBay. $300 is a good price, too bad
I already have one!

What are your plans for these Sonocs?

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:13 am
by pcastag
Rough in terms of ugly, but surprisingly few major (splits ) repairs needed, just a couple of areas on the bottom of the tumba and two on the quinto. my plans are glue em, maybe refinish em, skin em and play em! :D
PC

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:02 pm
by KING CONGA
Greetings pcastag. No doubt a great score, it's going to be a nice project. Please be sure to post some picture, I certainly look forward to the end product :)

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:28 pm
by docarroyo
They look like great drums, just clean em and play em. They seem very well constructed a little steel wool on the metal parts should clean them up nice. Good luck bro.

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:43 pm
by yambu321
PCASTAG,

NICE,NICE, AND VERY NICE!

THEY HAVE CUBAN SOULS! INFACT I'D BE SURPRIZED IF THEY WERE NOT FROM CUBA.

REFINISH THEM AS THEY SHOULD BE DONE, AND YOU'LL BE THE ENVY OF MANY.

YOU DID GREAT!!!! :mrgreen:

CHARLIE 8)

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:47 am
by el-pulpo59
100 per cent.sonocs from cuba.

you should keep it and repair.these drums sounds much better than any lp...
change the lugs,put mule skins and you'll get the real sound .
many conga makers are copying these drums.
greetings,fred

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:08 pm
by Omelenko1
Cuban SONOCS for sure. I had 5 made from Cuban Caoba in the late 70's. They sounded as good as a Junior Tirado or a SOS. The Coaba was almost purple color. I sold them because they kept spliting on me, the Cuban glue called "cola" is very low end. I could have had Junior or Jay take them apart and reglue them, but opted to sell them. They are what los Muñequitos, Papines, Tata and Pello played. Incredible sounding jicamos. The Miami humidity was very unfriendly to my SONOCS. Wish I still had all 5 of them. Feltcher bought 2 of my 5. Here is a photo of them around my pool.

Dario
Cuban SONOCS.jpg

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:17 pm
by pcastag
Well I'm sure the houston humidity will be great for them :D , I need to look into having one of those guys re-do them for me, for now I'm going to go ahead and fix them up my self with some minor gluing and skins, I think masthew might be avoiding me after the last drum i sent him, I don't think it was too much fun to work on!
PC

Re: Old Cuban Drums

PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:19 pm
by pcastag
Well, after looking at them for three weekends straight I went ahead and shipped them up to Pa. to have Matt fix em up. Nothing like some procrastination to get you motivated! Hopefully he'll be a bit quicker with these then he was with my last repair :shock:
PC