congaplace.com

Does anyone have any idea what kind of wood this is? These drums are signed and dated by Jay in 1979. I am thinking it is Oak that the previous owner,(deceased) stained, but it it a very tight job so I am wondering if Jay did it ...or ever did anything like this or if it is aftermarket? I just got these (traded two high end Khadi wood Guinee djembes for them).
The handles are now off and there are new Manito steer skin heads.

Sometime ago somebody mentioned that back in the day
Jay used to have a conga budget line made out of
spruce. Perhaps these drums are made out of spruce,
kind of look like spruce. Spruce has a distinctive smell
for sure. I am under the impression that spruce is in the
pine famiy of trees. Got to love them handles on them
drums, real huge, they look like refrigerator handles. Also
it seems the shape of them SOS is kind of unique for an SOS
normally the shape is more taper, the drum on the left has
quite a belly on it. Nice drums..........

Nice set. When I ordered my SOS I asked Jay if I could get mine with a darker tone color, stain, and he told me that he did not do staining.
The wood on your drums does not have the appearance of oak so as RimoBoricua said, that might be an exotic wood.
I would think that the inside of the drum would give you a good idea in regards to staining or not.
Cheers.
K.C

Spruce is a domestic wood widely used in construction and as tonewood for guitars as well.
There is the possibility that previous owners refinished the drums and decided to go with a
darker finish. I have a set of bongos made out of spruce and coincidently I refinished them
with a darker hue varnish some years ago. Last weekend I decided to refinish the set and
this time I went with the natural look of spruce. The grain pattern on them congas is
consistent with the grain pattern on my bongos. I am pretty sure if the congas are spruce
they will have a distinctive smell inside like my bongos do. Also ash comes to mind when
looking at the conga drum on the right side of the photo.

Mike, This is Mario, Larry's friend from Miami. These congas were up for sale here in Florida a while back and the person selling them was asking something like 1,600 dollars He was under the impression they were mahogany but there not, they are flat sawn oak. Hope this helps

See this thread and see what Jorge had to say some years ago about this 4 band SOS
conga drums.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5432

Anyone has an SOS Oak tumba or supertumba for sale or trade?
Serious buyer here..