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I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 1:04 am
by COL66
I thought I'd share my happiness with you guys...
I recently moved to Colombia and immediately started looking for some HR "El Piernas" Congas. They are incredible, but pricey (at least for me). New, they go for about $900. I couldn't find any cheap ones, so I was about to settle for a set of crappy Chinese-made congas. I did one last internet search and BOOM!! I found a set of HRs for $135. They are probably 15 years old. They are solid, but definitely need some love. This weekend I'm going to refinish them. I'm very excited. Here is how they look now. I will post more pictures once I'm done sanding, staining and lacquering them :D

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Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 4:36 am
by Mike
COL66 wrote:I thought I'd share my happiness with you guys...
I recently moved to Colombia and immediately started looking for some HR "El Piernas" Congas. They are incredible, but pricey (at least for me). New, they go for about $900. I couldn't find any cheap ones, so I was about to settle for a set of crappy Chinese-made congas. I did one last internet search and BOOM!! I found a set of HRs for $135. They are probably 15 years old.


Great find, congratulations,
and a steal at that price!

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:25 pm
by KING CONGA
Man what a find!!!!!! :mrgreen:
Congratulations, you deffenetly did good. Would you mind taking a picture from the Inside? Do they have almas? Looks like you might have to re skin them? :?:
Cheers
K.C

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:13 pm
by pcastag
Nice. Mothing better than a good set of solid staved congas. Legs baby! Used to play with a colombian gy that had a piernas cowbell, I loved that thing.

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 7:06 pm
by COL66
Hey guys.
so the congas are sanded down. here are some pictures.
they dont have almas, but they have some thin metal rings in the wood, on the outer part.
they also have some sort of wax paper on the inside.
pictures below.
more pictures after the stain and lacquer.

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Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:16 am
by windhorse
Can you plane down and flatten the bearing edges? They look uneven, but maybe that's an optical illusion with foreground vs background. Still a great buy whether you have to re-head and plane the bearing edges or not.

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:06 am
by ABAKUA
Nice find!! 8)

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:29 pm
by KING CONGA
windhorse wrote:Can you plane down and flatten the bearing edges? They look uneven

I noticed that also from the initial pictures as well, be sure to put a straight edge to verify if the surface is even.
As for wax paper? No, thats a layer of fiberglass. Typically this is done to re enforce the shell, gon bop did the same but on the outside surface.
Cheers.
K.C.

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:46 pm
by COL66
I also thought it was fiber glass, but i ripped off a little piece out curiosity and it's as thin as wax paper.

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 3:02 pm
by COL66
This was an emotional process :? My hairline definitely receded during these last few days.
Because these drums are made with tropical woods and I am in a tropical climate, I was told I would have to treat the wood after stripping it, to prevent fungus/insects from attacking it.
I went to a paint store and they recommended the best 'transparent' wood treatment.
I brushed it on and the wood turned black!!!! I freaked out. I called the company that makes the product and they told me that the product that I applied works by chemically BURNING the wood to prevent animals and fungus from being attracted to it.
Their response still didn't answer why something that is meant to burn wood would be labeled as 'transparent"!!!!
I was furious and gave up on doing the project myself, so took them a professional wood painter.
The painter suggested that he BURN the conga to match the color of the tumba, because the two drums were of different tones.
This was the second time my tubs were getting burned!! ... and this time it was a literal burn! Fire on my drums.
I freaked out once again, but my uncle has taken a lot of furniture to that guy and assured me that he is as good as they come.
Anyways, I lost faith and figured I'd lost these babies forever.

24 hours later.... the painter delivered these beauties!! :D

How they look at nighttime...

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How they look with day light....

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P.S. -- I know that the tension of the rods is completely uneven, but these are the original skins and the person who owned these drums previously seemed to only tighten the two lugs that were are closest to the handle. These old skins still sound incredible so I am not in a rush to change them; maybe for Christmas I'll buy myself a new set.

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 4:03 pm
by burke
Those are just stunning!

You wood guy did a fantastic job. Just curious, did he say anything about the paper on the inside?

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:09 pm
by ABAKUA
They look fantastic! Nicely done. Just need new heads on them now. Conga-ratulations. :lol:

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:48 pm
by congamyk
Excellent! Perfect!

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 2:47 pm
by 440ranch
Very, very nice!

Re: I found my dream congas :)

PostPosted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 2:54 pm
by Mike
Pretty cool congas, man!

As to the skins: I guess with the reputation of quality skins that HR drums
have, you can leave them on. Just take care to tune carefully.

An outstanding set anyway, really stunning.