refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby roberthelpus » Wed May 01, 2013 2:06 pm

Mike wrote:
roberthelpus wrote:My four legged guy is indifferent..

And why are you indifferent to the topic of this thread? :?


Oh I am not by any means indifferent to this topic and I follow all of the drum rehab threads with interest. One day I'd like to talk my friend into letting me have at the 5 or 6 split Gon Bops that he owns. I just made an aside about dogs that - which topic had already been brought up - in the hope that some would find it humorous.

The green looks like old paint. Pigments from old oil based paint that have soaked into the wood. Fortunately, for me, when I've seen it before it was on wood that was going to be repainted so that it didn't matter.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby Mike » Wed May 01, 2013 2:16 pm

roberthelpus wrote:
Mike wrote:
roberthelpus wrote:My four legged guy is indifferent..

And why are you indifferent to the topic of this thread? :?


Oh I am not by any means indifferent to this topic and I follow all of the drum rehab threads with interest. One day I'd like to talk my friend into letting me have at the 5 or 6 split Gon Bops that he owns. I just made an aside about dogs that - which topic had already been brought up - in the hope that some would find it humorous.

OK, sorry, Robert, the fact that your aside about the dog actually referred to the mentioning of a dog
in salzfaas´ post seemed to have slipped my notice.
No offence meant.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby roberthelpus » Wed May 01, 2013 2:19 pm

salzfaas wrote:ok already you wanna talk dog not conga ,Is this conga a dog or is gonna turn out a real tiger, one never knows when you start a project......is the labour gonna be worth it .This time at least I know that it's a sonoc to start with.But did they sometimes turn out a woofter drum?.....or shall I say a spayed.....no cahones.The wood is very thin only 12mm... I have never seen a quinto this thin or as light made out of wood but I have had light djembe's that sing sweet.The main concern is, is the strength of this puppy strong enough for the job....You can see it has had the holes redrilled to take the side plates before probably because it had splitting issues on the stave joins.should I beef these area up a little ,if so what with to not effect the sound.the last thing I want is high pitched ring like on the bauer that i have that have been fiberglassed in the top section lots a volume but no good for quality.


I know that I have read that the Cuban manufacturers would make some drums for the tourist trade. Perhaps that is what yours is.

no one has commented on the green part of the wood?


See my best guess above.

Thanks King C I know that there are some real conga aficionados here and no mistake ...also dog lovers!lol
Hastings is a small sea fishing town 60 miles south of London with a large drumming community .....now if you want to talk FISH that's a whole nother thread .talking of dog chew what thickness you reckon of mule what thickness if cow?


I just buy what's on sale. It's bleached cow I think :-) Wolfie also takes a great interest in my Columbian hide maracas, so I have to remember that when I set them down.

If you really want to strengthen this drum you could fiberglass the outside with actual fiberglass mat. If carefully done it can look good and transparent. Then you have to decide if you want to do that work and also if you want to change the drums character in this way.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby roberthelpus » Wed May 01, 2013 2:31 pm

Mike wrote:OK, sorry, Robert, the fact that your aside about the dog actually referred to the mentioning of a dog
in salzfaas´ post seemed to have slipped my notice.
No offence meant.


No problem.

If you have a canine friend you do have to watch out for that stuff. I didn't think about it until one day I was playing bongos along with my MP3 player and turned to the table it was sitting on to find a song I wanted. I looked down to find Wolfie licking the skins probably thinking about how he could get at them for a good chew.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby KING CONGA » Wed May 01, 2013 4:50 pm

salzfaas, Your sonoc is typical of the conga construction of the day. All of the congas, not just sonoc, were made with thinner staves. My Requena is the same way as well as some Vergaras that ive seen, very thin staves. I believe that that is one of the reasons why these classic drums have a very wonderfully distinct sound.
Neither the construction not the hardware of those day was made like todays S.O.S. OR RITMOS etc.
You need to be wise about the skin that you mount on it, it can't be too thick or you could end up damaging the shell or hardware.
Are you going to put a tint on it? I think that you should as it will cover/shade some of the imperfections on the shell.
Please be sure to keep us posted on your progress.
The best of luck to you.
Take care.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby roberthelpus » Wed May 01, 2013 5:13 pm

^Ahh, there's your answer from someone who knows.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby salzfaas » Wed May 01, 2013 5:13 pm

Thanks to all for your interest.King your post validated that i am going to get a good one once I have done all the work.I was careful to glue all the staves real tight to keep the resonance.I don't think this is a tourist piece....too fine and too much craftsmanship.
Dog talk.......I use my strips when lapping my congas for the dog chew that is the only time she is interested in my drum .
I quite like the green bits adds character! will sand down to 000000 and stain a little but not to it's previous brown murk.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby pcastag » Wed May 01, 2013 9:08 pm

My sonocs are pretty old and they are not thin. I had a requena that was really thin, thinner probably than the sonoc you have . I think the sonoc you have is a later version, definitely not as old as the vergaras and requenas. I'm pretty sure sonocs weren't made probably until after the Castro regime came into power. Anybody know the history of these drums?
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby Omelenko1 » Thu May 02, 2013 2:21 am

SONOCS were made in the 60's in "El Cerro" neighborhood, that's were I'm from. They came into play after Vergara went to prison, they were mass produced in a factory, where sting instruments and timbales were also made. Aside from Caoba, cedro and roble, SONOCS were also made in fiberglass with surprisingly less overtones than LP's.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby salzfaas » Thu May 02, 2013 6:19 pm

Thanks Dario for the pictures and history, Why was vergara sent to prison?for making congas????
after a whole days work sanding here we have the shell ready to be danished and sitting drying with danish. most of the green came off, and I think I can pull it off with a slight colour change to darken the grain
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby roberthelpus » Thu May 02, 2013 8:18 pm

Yes sir. A bit of tint and you'll be there looking good and more importantly playing good.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby salzfaas » Sat May 04, 2013 3:17 pm

HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I put all the hardware on and tightened up the old skin(very thin) to see what it might all sound like.And Where you see the 2 lines on the last picture on either side of where the side plate goes the wood stave started bowing out and separating from the other side staves.so what to do to strengthen?The plate is secured on the inside by large 11/2 inch washers to spread the load but obviously not enough.I could make one large inside plate to span the 3 staves or the dreaded fiberglass....Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby pcastag » Sat May 04, 2013 4:07 pm

Jay berek fixed my requena, he used the dreaded fiberglass. May be the only option, if rhe wood is old and brittle it may crack then you've got a whole other problem to deal with.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby Mike » Sat May 04, 2013 4:30 pm

Yep, fiberglassing wil be the only really durable solution to cure those nasty cracks,
even if they will alter the sound to some extent.
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Re: refurbishing old mahogany congas from the 70's

Postby joaozinho » Sat May 04, 2013 5:00 pm

Epoxy resin!
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