Help ID these congas

[deadhead]

Excellent work on the sanding! Whatever they are or were, they are going to be some
great drums. I love the shape on them. Can't wait to see the finished project. Keep it up man!

Thnx BnB, that was just a rough first sanding with 80 grit, still have a few more passes with the sander to get them smooth. Luckily I found no cracks/splits whatsoever in the shells! The only real damage was a small chunck of wood missing on the inside bearing edge of the smaller drum. I used the same filler on it that I used for that nasty woodpecker hole on my GB super tumba. These should turn out really nice once they're stained. I haven't decided whether or not I want to leave the foot brackets or plug the holes. I personally don't want them there, but I'm thinking I should leave them as original as possible??

Chupacabra, it does sort of resemble cherry, however I found sample pictures of white oak and cedar that also resemble this grain pattern. I'm stumped for right now.

[deadhead]

As I'm working on these I've noticed a few interesting things. The crowns are marked with an "M" on one and an "H" on the other. There is also an "M" and "H" stamped into one of the staves on the bottom of the drums. My first thought was of course macho and hembra, but they are backwards. The Ms are marked on the larger drum and Hs on the smaller one?? All of the metal bands are also stamped on the inside H1,H2, and H3 in order from top to bottom, the foot rings just have an M or an H. Obviously marked for assembly, but what could M and H stand for if not macho and hembra?

I also noticed that both crowns are hot stamped in the same place on the outside rim. It is hard to tell what is stamped there but it looks like "nir" lower case letters. Possibly the makers initials or the company initials? I couldn't think of anyone with those initals though.

Anyways, all of the old paint is stripped, this evening I will make them nice and smooth and hopefully get to the staining. I'm going with a Minwax oil based Sedona Red on these.

[vinnieL]

Keep us updated looking foward to seeing your end result.

[Omelenko1]

If you go to Craighslist in SF bay you will see 2 congas that look like yours, they even have the legs and the guys claims they are Cuban. If they are I know they are not Vergara or Requena. There were other conga makers in Cuba. Here is a photo of them, as they appear on SF Craighslist.

Dario

Cuban Congas.jpg (7.8 KiB) Viewed 6721 times

[deadhead]

Thanks Dario, I'll email the seller and see if he has any details. I finished the restoration a few days ago, they turned out very nice. I'm about 95% sure the drums are cedar, the smell was pretty much a dead give away once I started sanding. They could really use some new skins, the ones on there are very nice quality but way too thick for my taste. My camera battery died, so I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

[deadhead]

[Congadelica]

They look great . I love the colour . I bet they sound sweet.
I would love to come accross a set like that .
well done

Marco

[bongosnotbombs]

Those look great. Really good, excellent work. I'm glad you got rid of the
built in stands.

[deadhead]

Thanks for the compliments, I put a lot of work into them. They are on ebay now if anyone is interested. I'd like to keep them, but I just don't have the room. I'm always interested in trades, though I don't have room for any more congas.

[Chupacabra]

If I had the room I'd put an offer in. I have to sell off a couple of drums myself, it's too damn crowded in here! Nice work on the drums BTW.

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[deadhead]

those drum are not that old they were made by a company in cuba called Sonoc 60 70 80' they are still makeing drum's today and are sold in france,mexico and any place that cuba export's to. A company called rythm trader inports them from time to times to US look at their website you will see them and factory photos

Cuco, thank you for your input, it is much appreciated. My initial thought was Sonoc, but I never found a picture that matched mine exactly, though the sideplates do have the shape of a lot of the Sonocs I've seen. I've noticed their sideplates are not always the same, I've even seen drums from what looked like the same set with different plates. Did Sonoc make drums with leg mounts and use cast brass? These are the two characteristics that have been boggling my mind.

How certain are you that they are Sonocs? I know you have a vast collection of drums and have been in the scene for many years, and I completely trust that you know what you're talking about, but there is very little information about Sonoc on the web and I've found it very difficult to verify. If they are indeed Sonoc, I will most likely hold onto them.

[Omelenko1]

I don't think they are SONOCS. The outer bands in SONOCS and in all Cuban made congas, are riveted and on these congas they are welded. I would say 95% of the wooden SONOCS are made of Cuban caoba wood up until 1985, when Coaba became part of the protected species in Cuba. After that I've seen a couple of pairs made out of oak (roble), but very rare. SONOCS also makes fiberglass congas, but I don't consider them high quality. The side plates made out of brass are definitely not Cuban, also the mounted legs that it had on them is definitely not a Cuban characteristic. I would say they are a very high end Mexican made congas, similar to the ones one of our members has.
Enclosed find a photo of my SONOCS, Cuban coaba wood from the early 80's (not made anymore). Incredible sounding congas, that eventually will open up with humidity due to the poor quality of glue used in my native country (Cuba). I sold them all because they all splited on me and I didn't know of Matthew at the time, if anything, I would have had him regluing them.
Tumba Tumbador!

Dario

[Omelenko1]

Closer look at some of my SONOCS.

Dario

[deadhead]

Thank you for your input Dario, it is much appreciated as always.