LP palisades park cherry wood?

[Mike]

Hola bongoceros, I hope you are doing well!
I wonder if there has ever been a cherry wood model in Martin Cohen´s bongo line at some time, maybe in the early days of Palisades Park?
Any input is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Chtimulato]

Hello Mike. It could be. From what I've read here and there, I believe it's rather some early models of the Gen II, which were made out of several wood species, walnut for instance. But I also believe there were some Gen I made out of zebra wood, so why not?

[Mike]

Yeah, why not indeed.
I knew about walnut, zebrawood and of mahogany in the 1st generation (rather than Generation II) bongos Martin Cohen produced in that workshop, but I was just curious about Cherry Wood as there is one bongó at German eBay which is allegedly made of cherry:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/334066684056?_t ... %7Ciid%3A1

[Chtimulato]

It has the "Palisade Park" label, indeed. And looks like cherry wood too, indeed. So... it must be true.

The price seems correct to me too.

[Juaort]

Hi Mike, hope you’re doing well and staying healthy. Here’s my Palisades Park NJ set in Cherry Wood. Not sure that there were many made like the Zebra wood sets. I’ve only seen a handful of them through the years. The line up on the pic as follows…

LP Palisades Park, NJ Models
• Mahogany Wood
• Zebra Wood
• Cherry Wood

Best, Juaort

[Juaort]

Also Mike, I took a look at the eBay action you added the link to, from the pics it’s hard to tell, but the second pic doesn’t have to much glare from the flash. It looks like a Mahogany model. But I could be wrong. As you know the mahogany models is the one LP made the most of.

[Chtimulato]

I remember a conversation I had once on another forum with a friend about an old LP bongó set, both of us wondering wether they were made out of mahogany or walnut. The set had been kept in a closet for decades, so we couldn't tell from the colour, and the pics were not close enough to allow us to see the wood grain. So we both looked for some pictures to emphasize our statements (I stood for walnut, and him for mahogany). I have a few pieces of furniture made out of walnut wood, so I posted some pics, with close-ups of the wood grain. This lasted quite a while, till someone else jumped in the conversation and taught us the set was made out of... cherry wood... Our binary brains were focussed on the 2 first wood species, and none of us could figure out it could have been made out of something else...
This is just to confirm that is can sometimes be difficult to ID a wood species, as you already know.

BTW, we make in France (and certainly in Europe) a difference between ("domestic") cherry trees and wild cherry trees. The wild species gives a little darker or more reddish wood. I don't know if this distinction exists in the USA.

[Psych1]

Hello Mike, Its been a long time. Hope all is well.

Indeed, Martin did make a series of Armando Peraza commemorative LP/Valje congas and bongos in cherry wood. Not sure how many were made. Most looked like the one you posted and could easily be mistaken for mahogany, but a bit redder. He did get a small ammount of a beautifully figured cherry wood and that was resereved for bongos. I once saw one in a pawn shop window for $75, by the time I got back an hour later it was gone .

I once had one of the first LP cherry wood bongos and it was my favorite for many years. Then I got a cherry wood by Jay Barack (SOS) and passed the LP on. I’m not sure that the different woods make much of a difference in sound for bongos, unlike congas where they definitely do, but I seem to think that the cherry wood has a “warmer” sound. Maybe

My SOS