Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:00 am
Poor mans Step by Step, guide to Conga restoration
Gon Bop Banded Oak Conga Restoration Post 1 in a series of posts
Some thoughts on conga restoration.. I have played Congas, timbales, and Bongo since the late 60’s professionally, on and off until the present.( I also play drum set) I am now nearing 60 this year. Afro Cuban music, rhythm & blues, and jazz have always been my passion, in that order. My other passion has been woodworking. When music stopped paying my bills, woodworking started and neither has ever stopped, although music is now more of a medication. ( Or is that meditation?)
Both disciplines require the hands to make the wood respond, the head to communicate the thought, and the heart to make it come alive. The rest is paying attention to detail. The repairing and restoration of a neglected drum can be one of the most gratifying, spiritual connections a conguero might ever have with his instrument. Why? Because you talk to it as you heal it, you tell it to be patient, you tell yourself to be patient, you assure it that it will speak, and be heard, and will soon be worthwhile and magical again. You make it your companion, and it will respond accordingly.
That’s the spiritual part, now for the reality. A conga is essentially wooden a barrel. That’s all. Unless it’s a solid carved or turned drum, we will be discussing a stave constructed conga. Most of the ones you find or will be looking for, are either old Gon Bops of California, which you might find in really bad shape for not so cheap, on ebay, (when you factor in shipping), or get lucky at a tag sale, or find one on Craig’s list in your area. Maybe you know a friend? Your chances are much better if you live in California, I’ll tell you that! But they do show up now and then, everywhere in the country.
The other vintage drums (primarily, but not exclusively) are of Cuban and Puerto Rican origin ( there’s some great local builders too) and you will pay out the nose for any one that comes to light, unless of course you get extremely lucky. One just surfaced on ebay last month and went for 500 bucks, not including shipping. It also was cracked and repaired, and needed to be re-chromed. I, like a lot of people in this forum, watched that bad boy for a week! (Not everybody can afford 600 for a used tub). So I decided to write this article on restoration, for anyone interested in doing it yourself, if you find a wooden drum you like.
What might be of value to some are the techniques I use to do the wood restoration. I use straight forward hand applied, furniture techniques to accomplish this. There is no magic. It’s the same process I would use on a desk, or bookcase in someone’s home.. The tools are minimal, but I would have to say that I have extensive tooling at my disposal. Not much of it applies to drum restoration, you’ll be happy to know, but having tools, or a friend who does, will make your life easier. Again, I worked quickly on this, I was not aiming at ultimate perfection, it is what it is, for my purposes. You can put as much or little time into it as you desire according to your own preference.
My conclusion is that ANY wooden drum, no matter how broken or neglected, as long as it has collector value, or sentimental value, ( and has ALL the hardware parts, with the exception of the lugs ) can be repaired and refinished by hand, with a little effort and these straight forward instructions. Also, for those of you who like the beat to shit , funky ass, my drum got soul look, Just use the glue up information, slap that bad boy together, and hit the park bench in style. It’s all good.
A word of advise; you will have a hell of a time finding any hardware for a vintage Conga drum, period. Don’t think you can just go on ebay and find 50 auctions for a lug plate for an old Gon Bop, or a Cuban rim, or some bands, to finish off the drum. You’ll be looking for a long time, Brother. If you buy the parts from Gon Bop, (if you can,) you’ll pay out the nose, too! So try to get a drum that might be beat, but complete! Like this one for example. ( pic 0)
This drum that will be the focus of this thread was purchased by me, from Ebay for $195.00 plus $85 shipping for a grand total of $280.00 In the auction picture it looks strange but OK. But I saw the end to end split, right away, and knew it was a 70’s banded oak Gon Bop. I picked it up for the rings, which will kinda sorta match my mahogany GB’s. The rings don’t belong on this model incidentally, but I wanted that size drum with rings for visual purposes on stage, ( until I come across the right mahogany sizes) and I really like the old drums. I’m old, I appreciate old things! The drum was much worse than the pictures. Naturally. Full of deep dents, dings, scratches, x holes, brads everywhere, and splits everywhere. Or a typical Ebay vintage conga for under 200.00! What I own, right now, at this point is a $280.00 umbrella stand. That I will change into a decent Conga, and hopefully, you’ll be able to do the same. This is the before photo. ( pic 9)[/attachment] Almost all of these photos I took are very high resolution, save for a few. You will see lots of ugliness. Much more then you will see from 2 feet away! This is for illustration purposes
Gon Bop Banded Oak Conga Restoration Post 1 in a series of posts
Some thoughts on conga restoration.. I have played Congas, timbales, and Bongo since the late 60’s professionally, on and off until the present.( I also play drum set) I am now nearing 60 this year. Afro Cuban music, rhythm & blues, and jazz have always been my passion, in that order. My other passion has been woodworking. When music stopped paying my bills, woodworking started and neither has ever stopped, although music is now more of a medication. ( Or is that meditation?)
Both disciplines require the hands to make the wood respond, the head to communicate the thought, and the heart to make it come alive. The rest is paying attention to detail. The repairing and restoration of a neglected drum can be one of the most gratifying, spiritual connections a conguero might ever have with his instrument. Why? Because you talk to it as you heal it, you tell it to be patient, you tell yourself to be patient, you assure it that it will speak, and be heard, and will soon be worthwhile and magical again. You make it your companion, and it will respond accordingly.
That’s the spiritual part, now for the reality. A conga is essentially wooden a barrel. That’s all. Unless it’s a solid carved or turned drum, we will be discussing a stave constructed conga. Most of the ones you find or will be looking for, are either old Gon Bops of California, which you might find in really bad shape for not so cheap, on ebay, (when you factor in shipping), or get lucky at a tag sale, or find one on Craig’s list in your area. Maybe you know a friend? Your chances are much better if you live in California, I’ll tell you that! But they do show up now and then, everywhere in the country.
The other vintage drums (primarily, but not exclusively) are of Cuban and Puerto Rican origin ( there’s some great local builders too) and you will pay out the nose for any one that comes to light, unless of course you get extremely lucky. One just surfaced on ebay last month and went for 500 bucks, not including shipping. It also was cracked and repaired, and needed to be re-chromed. I, like a lot of people in this forum, watched that bad boy for a week! (Not everybody can afford 600 for a used tub). So I decided to write this article on restoration, for anyone interested in doing it yourself, if you find a wooden drum you like.
What might be of value to some are the techniques I use to do the wood restoration. I use straight forward hand applied, furniture techniques to accomplish this. There is no magic. It’s the same process I would use on a desk, or bookcase in someone’s home.. The tools are minimal, but I would have to say that I have extensive tooling at my disposal. Not much of it applies to drum restoration, you’ll be happy to know, but having tools, or a friend who does, will make your life easier. Again, I worked quickly on this, I was not aiming at ultimate perfection, it is what it is, for my purposes. You can put as much or little time into it as you desire according to your own preference.
My conclusion is that ANY wooden drum, no matter how broken or neglected, as long as it has collector value, or sentimental value, ( and has ALL the hardware parts, with the exception of the lugs ) can be repaired and refinished by hand, with a little effort and these straight forward instructions. Also, for those of you who like the beat to shit , funky ass, my drum got soul look, Just use the glue up information, slap that bad boy together, and hit the park bench in style. It’s all good.
A word of advise; you will have a hell of a time finding any hardware for a vintage Conga drum, period. Don’t think you can just go on ebay and find 50 auctions for a lug plate for an old Gon Bop, or a Cuban rim, or some bands, to finish off the drum. You’ll be looking for a long time, Brother. If you buy the parts from Gon Bop, (if you can,) you’ll pay out the nose, too! So try to get a drum that might be beat, but complete! Like this one for example. ( pic 0)
This drum that will be the focus of this thread was purchased by me, from Ebay for $195.00 plus $85 shipping for a grand total of $280.00 In the auction picture it looks strange but OK. But I saw the end to end split, right away, and knew it was a 70’s banded oak Gon Bop. I picked it up for the rings, which will kinda sorta match my mahogany GB’s. The rings don’t belong on this model incidentally, but I wanted that size drum with rings for visual purposes on stage, ( until I come across the right mahogany sizes) and I really like the old drums. I’m old, I appreciate old things! The drum was much worse than the pictures. Naturally. Full of deep dents, dings, scratches, x holes, brads everywhere, and splits everywhere. Or a typical Ebay vintage conga for under 200.00! What I own, right now, at this point is a $280.00 umbrella stand. That I will change into a decent Conga, and hopefully, you’ll be able to do the same. This is the before photo. ( pic 9)[/attachment] Almost all of these photos I took are very high resolution, save for a few. You will see lots of ugliness. Much more then you will see from 2 feet away! This is for illustration purposes