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by **roberthelpus** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:38 pm

bongosnotbombs wrote:
roberthelpus wrote:Oh. Where's the egg on your face smiley when you need it?

It's cool man, you haven't been here that long. Check out Lou's amazing craftmanship
viewtopic.php?t=3252
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4728&p=53791#p53791

Wow! I consider myself educated. And most happily so.

by **bongosnotbombs** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:43 pm

Hey Lou, I'm good, how is everything with you in France?

congalou wrote:Do some guys have photos of Gon bops with fiberglass oustide ?? I'm very curious of how it works.

Cheers,

Congalou.

My friend has a set of 3. Really nice drums. I only have pictures of this one though. I put a skin on it for her.

by **roberthelpus** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:46 pm

Here's a quick pic of what I have on file. I will take some that will show them better soon with a better camera phone. I've thought that these may have been glassed by someone other than the factory because you can see the glass mat through the gel in places.

Pay no attention to that thing in front of the drums. I think it was just there to keep people from bumping in to the congas :oops:

by **bongosnotbombs** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:27 pm

roberthelpus wrote: I've thought that these may have been glassed by someone other than the factory because you can see the glass mat through the gel in places.

Nice drums Robert. I think that is the way they were done. You can see the weave in my friends set too.

by **Psych1** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:46 pm

Yeah - can see the weave on mine too - 60" & 70's. I've had a few different Gon Bops over the years and all the ones with the gel coating held together while many of the others split at the staves. I've had a few people tell me that when they stripped the gel coat off their congas developed cracks.

by **roberthelpus** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:09 pm

Thanks, I've played them a lot along side other non-glassed vintage GBs and a set of Valje Valjes and I like the sound. Not to say that I don't find my self pulled towards those Valjes when I'm there. Especially the tumba.

Here ya go. They look the same as far as seeing the weave..

Threw in some pics of the N American bison/buffalo while I was at it.

by **Bongobilly** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:27 am

A cooper is a person who make's wine barrel's. Pretty much the idea of making conga shell's.

by **congalou** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:37 am

You can see the waves of the fiber but can you feel it with your fingers ??

Do you see jonction of fiber coat ?

Very interesting !!!!!!

Galou.

by **roberthelpus** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:47 pm

The quinto has a bit of a rough texture but it is roughness in the gel coat as much as the fabric printing through. The segundo is much smoother. I had to go and look, as it's nothing that I would notice other wise. If I had my choice I would have all oil finishes on my drums as I'm not that fond of the high gloss slipperiness.

There is a spot on the quinto that could be where the material meets but it is not that obvious. Again, I just went to look. No visible line on the conga to this untrained eye.

I think it would be interesting to do a side by side comparison with a pair of drums, fiberglassed and not, that are other wise as similar as one could get.

Otherwise, those are the drums that are out of the cases at my house. The ones that I play. When I wasn't in a situation where I could play were I lived I kept them at my friends studio so that they would get played along side his nice collection and be with their drum friends, and of course, played by me when I was there.

by **burke** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:00 pm

A cooper is a barrel maker. Once a common skill ... not so easy to find anymore.

Darrell aka:

Heritage geek

by **burke** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:02 pm

I really MUST learn to read gooder! I now see that was already answered ... sorry bout that

by **Mike** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 5:17 am

windhorse wrote:I have a friend who owns four fiberglassed Gon bops. We re-headed them with nice cow skin, and we thought they were awesome,, for a while.. Then, we noticed that they were really really loud. If you were a soft player - like he was, and need amplification they were great, but if you wanted to keep it down and sing, then they just rang out too much.

Yes, I can second that, as I reinforced the inside of my 1970s Gon Bops with a layer of fiberglass, and I also applied a coat of epoxy on the shell outside to stabilize those fragile beauties. It DID enhance the tone projection a bit, but to me they sound good.

windhorse wrote: They were light and durable (cut), but none of us like them anymore .. Just too freaking loud.

So I would not say that.

Congalou, my advice would be to leave those beautiful ash shell naked as they are, they shuold really hold the compression forces. If not ash - which wood?
Of course it depends on the skills of the barrell maker, how he joined the staves, glue type and if he emptied some wine barrels before :wink:

by **GuruPimpi** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:47 pm

Congalou and others helllo!

Respect to you, Congalou. You amaze me with your skills, ideas etc... Keep up the good work!

To go to your wood congas now: Ash is one of the strongest wood in europe of european trees, I own meinl's ash congas too. I played giovanni's ash congas and ash it is, to me it makes really warm and solid sounding congas. I personally think that when staves put and glued together good, there shouldn't be no problem with them to hold on the pressure that you would made with tensioning the skin. My teacher, who has hand made congas for him, told me that the cuts of staves on the top of conga (where the skin goes up) is very important for the sound (angle of cuts from outside to center of the drum, if I'm more precise). I hope i'm understandable... If the fear of cracking and deconstructing of the conga body is still present, personally, I would rather built in rust free hard'n heavy steel alma, fixed on each stave to be thourough, and I wouldn't let fiberglass near to such good wood, I own fiberglass congas, i like them, but mixing Ash with fiberglass is in a way disrespectful, maybe a harsh word, but I hope you get my picture of my opinion. Ash is hard and won't die easily. But hey, experimenting makes progress

Keep us posted with how and what you'll do! I would really like to hear them, when you finish them.

Stay cool and keep on grooving!

PimpS

by **congalou** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:38 am

Hello guys !!!

Thanks for all advices !!

The Gon bops with fiberglass outside hasn't got varnish or layer inside ???

Mike, the staves are very well joined, I will try without any thing, maybe an alma on the top. I will see the result and fiber glass if needed.

I'm actually working on the hardware, very strong hardware !!!!! as I like.

Stainless steel
10mm Hook
Plates : 6mm of thickness, the "U" is 30mm per 4mm of thickness.

It will works for hundred and hundred years !!!!