Solid Wood Bongo retrofit project details. Do it !

[Ernesto Pediangco]

For over 10 tears I have held onto some nice Solid Wood Bongo Shells from Colombia or Peru ? They had lame crude black painted rims,base rings & galvanized bolts that were converted to hooks. They were poorly mounted w/ X Ray celluloid heads that I tossed & never rebuilt the bongos. Suddenly some one from this forum wants to barter w/ me & has a nice Tambora built by " Mano ", the drum just happens to match my red w/ black stained finish on my 98" Gon Bops.So...I dug out spare parts & discovered the new heavy duty crown rims for them I had built years ago & had them powder coated red recently w/ a big order ( the job was via bartering as well ). By coincidence, some re enforced aluminum base rings from my Peruvian bongos. ( my regular use set that I already had built new steel bottoms for ) They FIT the solid wood shells w/ some shims I made from left over bongo skin trimmings & they fit very snug & will work ! Suddenly I can finish these shells for this bargain trade for a tambora. The small head fits standard 7 " Asian sized bongo heads like Lp & others & The large shell is slightly smaller than 8 " & I did not have a skin wire so I did not Tuck a new head but I had a new Matador head for the small shell ( Macho ) . Possibly some lesser quality student sizes from Asia may have the same size hembra ? It may be easy to get a replacement pre mounted head as an option but I am sure the soon to be new owner of these bongos will tuck new quality skins. These shells are ideal for the thinner heads, perhaps some Kip or Calf ( slightly thicker than Kip ) or Goat ! I was lucky to have new hooks that were from an student model Asian made bongo that I had replaced hooks for a customer of my former garage pro shop. Recycled parts got this job done ! I will add a picture to this post after its all done. BTW ~ these beautiful ( Like New ) shells seem to be Amazonian Cedar, very aromatic like my Peruvian Cajons. I figured this out when I dis assembled the 2 shells from the separator block & smelled the drill holes since they were not sealed like the shells were. I would value these Bongos as at least $350.oo ( $ 450.oo if it were steel bottoms & all chromed & w/ new heads ) Dude is getting a great trade worth the shipping cost !

[b0ng0]

ur the man ernesto