Vergara?

[bongosnotbombs]

James,

P The wood looked a bit like oak, though I've worked oak before and it didn't seem quite the same, especially in terms of hardness and the way it sanded, and it seemed much lighter than oak.

James

There are several varieties of oak. This drum does look a lot like oak, but it does look different from your valjes.
I was looking at them side by side the other day. The valjes are northern red, the reqena could be a different
species perhaps.

[Omelenko1]

Here is a photo of Mongo with his 3 Vergaras ( these Vergaras today reside with Tommy Saito in California). Vergara made only 3 sizes 10.5" macho, 11" tres dos and 11.5" hembra or tumba. These congas where in my garage in the late 80's for about a year, when Mongo was in the process of moving from Manhattan to Miami. In the last year of his life, Mongo wanted to donate them to to the EGREM museum in Havana, I had established a connection with a guy that had taken Arsenio Rodriguez tres to Cuba, EGREM replied in a letter to Mongo that "they would be honored to accept Mongo's Vergara". Late 2002 Tommy Saito called Mongo, after finding out about Mongo's first stroke, he stated that he wanted his Vergaras back, on account Mongo was retired and not playing anymore. Originally Mongo had bought this Vergara trio for Saito back in 1960 and Saito had loaned them to Mongo after Mongo's Vergaras were stolen from the Black Hawk jazz club in SF. The idea of EGREM inheriting them fell apart,and they returned to their rightfull owner, Tommy Saito.

Dario

[bongosnotbombs]

Looks like everyone wants to get in on the overpriced vintage conga scene...
$950 for a mexican conga, but don't worry, they'll take payments.

[Omelenko1]

As you can see from Mongo's VergaraS, there are some differences between Requena and Vergara congas. I've seen Requenas mostly in 10.5" also 10" and maybe one or to 11" in my lifetime. The biggest tumba in the 50's in Havana was an 11.5" tumba and it was made by Gonzalo Vergara. Years latter, SONOC started making bigger tumbas in the 12" to 13" range, that's why Mongo said that big tumbas didn't exist in his days. Photo of Mongo as a teenager in La Habana.
SOFRITO NA' MA'.

DARIO

[Omelenko1]

Take it from a Cuban born, that has been collecting all kinds of congas for 40 years, has been in the company of Mongo, Patato, Candido, Marcelino Valdes, Alfredo Farach...... These masters visited both Vergara and Requena in Cuba.
VERGARA = ROBLE
REQUENA= CEDRO

Accept it from the source, Cuban congueros icons and a 40+ yrs. collector. Enclosed: Don Ramon and yours truly (his last phot0 Dec. 2002)

Dario

[taikonoatama]

Dario,

I'm posting this so you can see the reason for the possible confusion as to the wood-type of my Requena conga. I know you have no confusion around this, because as you say, Requena only made congas out of cedro, but when you look at these photos you might see why someone would wonder what's what.

I just took some photos of the Requena bongos which I'm just finishing renovating. I don't think anyone would doubt these are certified cedro (though please correct that assumption if you think it's mistaken). Look, I'm no wood expert, but I did strip and refinish both these bongos and the conga, and the wood in its raw state looked quite different - the wood on the bongos having a reddish caste, typical of cedar, and the wood on the conga being just straight light brown, with no reddish caste.

Even more different than the color between the bongos and the conga, and you'd think even more indicative of wood type, is the grain pattern. Check out the photos. It's just hard for me to believe they're the same wood, even allowing for variations tree to tree.

Mind you, I'm not saying it's definitely oak, as it seems lighter and softer than oak than the oak I'm familiar with, but it's hard to accept the cedro designation for this drum when the wood looks so different than what I know to be cedro. Again, I'm no wood expert.

I'm not saying I'm right - hell, I actually wish/hope it's cedro - I'm just trying to show you why someone might think this conga is not, in fact, cedro - the facts on the ground, so to speak.

Respectfully,

James

Requena cedro bongos (refinished)

Requena bongos wood grain

Requena conga wood grain

[taikonoatama]

Requena bongos before refinshing

[Mr. Conga]

James can you please post pictures of the inside of th shells,
from other Requena i have seen, his bongos are not one solid piece, am i right?

The tuning lugs , dont seem to look original, they look thicker, ten what i have seen from Cuba, those lugs look like they were costumized hee in the U.S
I am wondering if you canput regular washers, and nuts.

They look like they have powdery mule skins, how was the sound when you got them?

how are they sounding?

[thomas newton]

P2130012.jpg

Looks like pretty typical vertical grain Western Red Cedar to me.

[taikonoatama]

James can you please post pictures of the inside of the shells,

Sure.

... from other Requena i have seen, his bongos are not one solid piece, am i right?

Well, these are stave construction - not sure if Requena ever did solid shells or not.

The tuning lugs , dont seem to look original, they look thicker, ten what i have seen from Cuba, those lugs look like they were costumized hee in the U.S I am wondering if you canput regular washers, and nuts.

Your talking about the bongos, right? (Conga lugs are not original - need to cut down the length). Can't speak to the bongo lugs aside from saying they're what came with the bongos when I got them - the look similar to what I've seen on other Requenas, though. They take a 5/16" inch nut (1/2" wrench). Funny thing is that the gauge/diamater of the lug rods is actually noticeably smaller than other 5/16" lugs I have (original Valjes and Gon Bops). They're very small lugs.

They look like they have powdery mule skins, how was the sound when you got them? how are they sounding?

They skins that came with them were too dried out and brittle to try to tune up properly, so really don't know how they sound(ed). What you see in the photos is where the renovation is right now - I've got a very thin kip for the macho and I still need to pick up a head for the hembra and then put them on. I'm going on the thin side on the skins for now as I'm sticking with the original crowns and bottom hoops. If they don't sound great I might have to suck it up and ship them off to Matt Smith for new hardware.

James

Requena bongos - inside shot

[taikonoatama]

P2130012.jpg

Looks like pretty typical vertical grain Western Red Cedar to me.

He's talking about this picture:

[thomas newton]

My mistake I meant the conga drum looks like cedar.

[taikonoatama]

Yeah, maybe it is cedar after all. Sigh...

I did some more research and found some photos of cedar that do look a lot like the wood of my conga. It's just very odd how different it is than the wood of my bongos, which is what I was largely using as my cedro reference - must be a really wide range of cedar types and patterns, like the non-reddish, almost blond, oak-like-colored version of my conga.







James

[taikonoatama]

Two more reference shots and I'm done with this (for tonight at least ;^)

One thing I noticed when I stripped the conga was that the staves alternated with what looked like two kinds of wood: a darker, tight and straight-grained stave (quarter-sawn look) and then a lighter stave with wider swirling grain (plain sawn look) and small knots. Once stained, it's not so apparent, but you can see it in the inside shot here. The other shot shows the grain pattern around a knot:

Inside of conga

Conga grain around knot

[Mr. Conga]

The inside of thebongo picture looks very smooth.

Did you fix this, because Some stave Cuban bongos dont look evenly glued on the inside, some staves pop in more on the inside.
The outside looks even, but most vintage Cuban bongos, dont look evenly glued on the inside of the sheels.

Did you sand it smooth with a machine, or they came like that?