Jerry Bembe wrote:Very cool. This is the first time I have seen this reissue. I find the Tumba sizes to be among my favorites. I hope these are Mahogony and US built. I hope other sizes will be available including the 14.25" XXL Tumba and the 9.75 Quinto.
I have originals of this series and I find the naming of the sizes to not match the original Gon Bops. My Mariano Tumba IT 3300 is 11.5". Gon Bops had odd sizing and naming of their congas by size from the others but they are (in my opinion) the best sounding mass produced American Congas ever built (pre DW).
The original sizing goes:
IQ 9.75", IC 10.5", ICL 11", IT 11.5", ITL 12.25", ITXL 13.25" and ITXXL.
IQ = Quinto, IC = Conga, ICL = Conga Large, IT = Tumba, ITL = Tumba Large, ITXL = Tumba Extra Large and the rare ITXXL = Tumba Extra Extra Large.
Mahogany may sound warm but the soft woods are more prone to shell damage than the rest of wood drums. Dents & gouges deep into the shells & cracks are very common to soft mahogany Gon Bops. It is the most REPAIRED drum model out there.
Thanks for sharing this.
The sizing can vary .25" occasionally.
leedy2 wrote:goingquinto wrote:I just got some more info about these drums in an e-mail from Gon Bops. Here's body of e-mail from Kevin Laskey of Sabian:
Hi Dusty,
This is straight from Akbar:
They are made in Thailand and each stave is made out of two piece laminated light weight Durian wood and I only over see the production in Thailand.
I hope this answers your question.
Kevin
Laminated staves are 2 times more dependable than solid staves that cracks can travel through the shell. The laminated stave is stronger & if used on better woods, make for a better strength to weight ratio. But laminated soft junk woods are only a mediocre drum since the shell is so prone to dents that they try to strengthen the shell & give it a more solid look by adding all the poly coatings that make refinishing a drum, 5 times more labor intensive.
So......... unfortunately they are not made in US or by Akbar. But the laminated two piece staves could also mean they aren't as prone to cracking. I wish I could play some of them to see how they feel and sound.
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