Vergara?

[Omelenko1]

James,

Those Requena bongos are going to sound incredible, just make sure the macho skin is not too thick, you can go a bit thick on the hembra and you should. Once finished, you can stand those Requenas to any of today's finer bongos and you'll be surprise the sound ou'll get out of them. These are the ones I currently have, they can hang with any of my other finer bongos as far as sound projection is concerned.

Dario

[ABAKUA]

Dario,
I wanna come over your house, play all your drums and swim in your pool. I cook a mean ass asado, and can bring the beers/rum. Do you have a spare room?

[Omelenko1]

Come on down my brother, you cook the asado, I'll provide the Vacio, mollejas and chorizos, I got plenty of chimichurri and very cold Quilmes. Despues metemos un rumbon and will cool down in the pool. Echa pa' ca' rumbero.

Dario

[taikonoatama]

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?

I didn't touch the inside of the bongos.

[pcastag]

requena.jpg

I had a set of those I bought from Phil Kraus, they used to be Jack teagardens and were played on the tonight show and some barbara Streisand albums. I always thought the name of the brand was Solis because it still had the sticker from the music store on them still. Pretty cool drums.
PC

[KING CONGA]

Great posts, thanks Dario.

Vergara used oak from wine barrels from Spain to make his congas, that's probably why they sounded sooo good, the wine cured the staves. Requena used Cedro for his congas.
Dario

Not to confuse things, but my Requena (assuming it is that) is made of oak. Not saying they aren't generally cedro, just that they might not have been made only with cedro.

James

havana_james_renovation_hardware.jpg

Jame are the bands on your requeña original or did you put those on, also is there a reason why you did not chrome the hardware?

[RompeTambo]

Come on down my brother, you cook the asado, I'll provide the Vacio, mollejas and chorizos, I got plenty of chimichurri and very cold Quilmes. Despues metemos un rumbon and will cool down in the pool. Echa pa' ca' rumbero.

Dario

AHHHHH!!! Eres Argentino Omelenko? Yo estoy en Buenos Aires y estàn haciendo º30 ahora mismo, esa pileta y las quilmes heladas son una tentaciòn! Me sumo al rumbòn Marcelooo!....jajajaja....
Esas tumbadoras estàn bien cojonudas hombre!

[taikonoatama]

Jame are the bands on your requeña original or did you put those on

Came with the drum - I believe they're original but cannot vouch for it

is there a reason why you did not chrome the hardware?

My chroming skills are a little rusty

$$$ - Called around and the most reasonable estimate I could get was around $250. Ouch. It's not just the chroming - the remnants of the old chrome and rust and dirt and everything has to be thoroughly removed, and it's very labor intensive apparently and quality chroming is not cheap. If anyone has a good cheap source please let me know.

James

[FidelsEyeglasses]

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.

I just stumbled across this post, possibly this same guy tried to sell a drum on Ebay about a year ago, with the story that his "Grandfather brought the rare drum from Cuba many years ago".
Nothing more than a cheap Mexican drum. Incredible.

However, I personally know a well respected rumbero here in Manhattan, Elio "Yeyito" Flores who refinished a Mexican drum, put a great cow skin on it and it turned into a great quinto.

Markito

[FidelsEyeglasses]

requena.jpg

Greetings James, do you have a photo of these after there were refinished? Assuming they were.
Would love to see them.

Best regards,
Mark