congaplace.com

Gon Bops I was told and have heard through the years was influenced by Vergara congas that were brought to Mr. Bobadilla by the Great Mongo Santamaria back in the 50's. I have owned Vergara and see his influence in Junior Tirado among others but not Gon Bops. I love Gon Bops and through the years have owned many at present have Fiberglass coated set, mahogany, and oak sets. I recently placed my Requena next to them and saw that if any Cuban drum influenced GB,s it was Requena. The breaking point of the belly is very close and the hardware is again very close to Requena vs Vergara. On my drum the crown is Vergara but the side plates are a dead give away, sideway vs vertical as on Vergara, can anyone see the similarities that I'm refering to. Just thought it would be an interesting thread.

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

Interesting thread indeed.
Unfortunately I can not spread much knowledge here,
what I noticed is just that the belly shapes WITHIN the
Gon Bops series have varied over time too.
My two 12.25" tumbadoras, one late 1970s (left), the other one 3000Series
from the mid-80s (right) display slightly different shapes, the latter one with a
fatter belly:


And the Valje shape is also very nice, the 11.5" has got an even
bigger belly than the 12.25" GB


Vergara, Requena and also Timba/Ismael,
wow, those names are awe-inspiring indeed. But the Valje makers
followed the Cuban legacy too if I remember correctly.
As I said, this is only a side remark,
I am hoping for more insight into the history of the conga shapes
of those legendary makers from the experts here...

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

It has always been my perception that the Valje line was more influenced by the original conga shapes used for comparsa as originated in Santiago Cuba. They (Valje and Santiago comparsa drums) seem to share a more angular shape with a more pronounced belly. Interestingly enough this shape is also quite similar to the candombe style drums that are also used in a parade style procession. There is more than one tradition for congas in Cuba. If memory serves correctly the actual name of conga that we use for these drums comes from the instruments association with the conga/comparsa from Santiago.

I always assumed that the Vergara and Requena conga shapes originated in Havana at a later date and presumably for Son styles of music than the congas from Santiago used in comparsa.

The drums used in santiago are called boku and are very straight with no belly whatsoever . They dont look anything like the candombe drums .The exact opposite in fact .

These are the shapes of drums that I always associate with congas de comparsa, and I realize now that these drums are probably all from Havana, so I might be totally off base about the connection to Santiago, etc. I do recall having a discussion with a drum builder about conga shapes and that these shapes were also related to Santiago, but that's just second hand knowledge. I can't really back that up.

To my eye the Valje shape resembles these drums more than it does the shapes made by Vergara and Requena, especially that one with Chano Pozo. Chano's drum seems to have the more angular lines. The point I'm really trying make though is that even though Vergara and Requena shapes are regarded as the epitome of the conga, congas existed before those two makers and had varying shapes. So to say that a conga drum does not have a Cuban shape because it is not similar to a Vergara or a Requena I don't think is an accurate statement.

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

leedy2 wrote:MIke
Note here on this original 60's tumba made by Valje's Tom Flores its shape apposed to shape after 1980's model you posted totally different shape lp changed shape a bit does not have same shape.

I dunno, but there is only a marginal difference, is there not ?

BTW Tony has shed some light too in his blog on Valje "devolution"
http://congadr.blogspot.com/2008/05/val ... ution.html
and the overall history:
http://congadr.blogspot.com/2008/05/mae ... ongas.html

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

Here are photos of Gonzalo Vergara's tumbadoras from the 50's early 60's. Junior , Jay and Matt followed this design with minor deviations. Their tumbadoras are mede much stronger than Vergaras but the design is very similar.

Dario