Meinl Pro Series Free Ride Bongo

[Ivan]

I undertand that the tumbao series are made in Thailand,the California series is not. I got the info below from the GonBops web page .

Caballoballo, you are incorrect. Gon Bops was brought back to life by DW the drum company and Gon Bops like many other manufacturers are made in Thailand - this goes for the California series as well... None the less, I am sure they are still good, solid drums...

Gon Bops new marketing folks have come up with a clever way of naming it the "california" series to possibly make people think otherwise...

Now El Piernes on the other hand... Those are some nice bongos... I picket up a pair a few months ago... They needed work because the I got them from did not take care of them... They are my restoration project which I am moving slowly on at the moment...
CLICK HERE to see pictures of them...

I am looking forward to them when they are done.

Good luck on your gig.
Ivan



Edited By Ivan on 1147464699

[caballoballo]

Hola Ivan,

I agreed with you,those Piernas are something else. The ones I got are in top condition,I bought them from Dario who is a collectionist ,the only change I did was replacing the Macho head for a Fiberskyn,the Hembra has already a very thick Mule skin. They are kind of heavy but once you get use to that strong sound the weight will not count for nothing.The details on the shells on mine are different from the set you have,this ones are about 22 years old.There is a picture of them on this Bongó section. Good luck with the restoration process.

[Jure]

I think that you better concentrate to buy better quality bongos than buying the size 8,5" or 9". A was owned a LP Aspire bongos and tried Lp Matador and others. In our country the Matador is almost same price as Meinl free ride 400 but in my opinion the meinl have better hardware,skin as well as whole construction finish inside and outside. And Meinls better fits between my legs than any others. So i bought Meinls. Not tried all bongos but can say than Free ride bongos are better than many higher priced bongos! Try as many bongos as you can before buying!


Jure

[Mano Teo]

One warning about the Meinl free ride bongos (I have a pair of their FWB 300's): the lugs do not rotate, so playing them in the traditional position quickly gets uncomfortable, since the lugs are digging into your legs and the drums are on the heavy side. The Meinl's are solid drums otherwise.

[pcastag]

The gon bops california series are made in the US. I'm looking at my drum right now, it says, shell made in USA, drum assembled in USA of US and foreign components. I'll bet the hardware is made in the factory DW opened up in Mexico, the gon bops shell however is made right here of North American oak, great heavy duty wood, super loud drums, very bright.
PC

[korman]

So going back to the subject of Meinl freeride bongo, Ivan and mangrockfish, do you still play it? Any other owners here?
I recently also bought used Meinl's 9"hembra bongo with original skins, and I'd like to hear if others too had problems with ringing.

[caballoballo]

Korman,the best remedi to cure for that is to replace the skins with one of superior quality . A thick skin from steer,mule or cow is the way to go.