congaplace.com

Hi,

This is a shot from one of the restaurants in my country.
Those drums are interior detail there, but looks seriuos for me
Anyone recognises what's there ?

The one one the right looks very much like a Mariano series Gon Bop. The colour, bands and hardware match - except for the shape of the side plates which should be rectangular instead of triangular. The one on the left matches colour but not the rest. But perhaps a different vintage GB or perhaps some one changed it.

[quote="burke"]The one on the left matches colour but not the rest. quote]

I'm sure those drums has been painted to mach the walls
Anyhow, I will go there this weekend to check (the picture is from newspaper)

These drums are almost certainly Cuban.

The wood is likely cedro or caoba/mahogany.

The shape is Cuban.

I've seen both of these side plate shapes and crown loop styles on what I know to be Cuban drums.

They're definitely not Gon Bops - the band thickness is wrong, the side plates are wrong, the lugs are wrong, the crown loops on the one on the left are wrong (narrower than that of Gon Bops international-series) and the wood is wrong. Although the Gon Bops drums with super-series or voodoo-series hardware used the crown loop style of the drum on the right (bent round-stock instead of flat-stock), it's a copy of a Cuban style - you see this style used in a lot of Cuban drums, including Sonocs (which they very well might be - Dario?)

These drums are almost impossible to find in the States - they look fantastic! If you have an opportunity to buy them, please do so for all of us - quite a find.

James

And it probably would make sense for there to be a number of cuban instruments floating around the old eastern block.

Barrie

Those congas are SONOCS Cuban made from the Fernando Ortiz factory in Calzada Del Cerro, also they are pre 1985 and are Caoba wood. In 1985 they stopped making Caoba congas. If you can buy them don't even think about it, their sound is second to none. Those are the ones "Los Muñequtos", "Los Papines" and Tata used. Sweet sounding congas, the only thing is that the Cuban glue called "cola" is of very poor quality and the staves tend to split, but as far as sound, they are incredible. I had 5 and let them all go because they will open up on me, at the time I didn't know Matthew Smith. I regreat having sold them. Those there are real treasures!

Attached see mine.

Dario

Just tell the big guy it's time he focused on his horn playing.