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I just reskined my Junior Tumba. I think the old skin was the original dating back to the 60's with Bill Confer head's .Should i coat the inside with tung oil.

No need. The skin will do just fine as is. I would maybe consider some "Manteca de Corojo" on the outside surfasce in about 3 months then once a year after that.
By the way, that skin looks very nice, good job Bongobilly!

Beautiful! That's a bit darker than the skins I usually get from him, let us know how you lie the sound!
PC

This looks so much like a Matthew Smith conga on the interior shot. Thanks.

I like to Tung oil my congas interior but there are many claims that this is not necessary. I have experienced in Gon Bops the Tung oil breaking down the excess glue between the staves.

Is all of the tuning hardware mounted on the middle of the stave it is attached to?

[quote="Jerry Bembe"]This looks so much like a Matthew Smith conga on the interior shot. Thanks.

Matt got most of his inspirations from Junior. Everytime I see a Junior Tirado conga is like seeing a Van Gogh or Picasso. A one man operation in a tiny basement in Brooklyn for over 35 yrs.

Enclosed find Junior with his drums, two 1968 Juniors that Matthew refinished for me after Junior passed (before and after photos), my current Junior Tirado set. Natalio "Junior" Tirado, a pioneer in handmade percussion instruments north of Havana, pride of Puerto Rico and the percussion world.

Dario

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Thank's guy's: What i should of said is should i tung oil the inside of the shell. I very proud to have theses conga's and thank god i took care of them for all these year's. I just want keep them in the best shape that i can. As far as the skin go's it's dark but with in time they will lighten up as has my other B.C skin's have. Jerry: Junior knew what he was doing, all of the plate's are drilled in between the stave's as for the stave's are about 4 inch's wide. Look at those glue line's almost perfectly straight. Compare that to a Gon bop's of that era which is messy and sometimes it's there to cover a crack in the wood like smeared on. Funny thing i paid $150.00 for that conga somewhere on 42nd St. N,Y,C and i paid $170.oo for my Gon bop's quinto from Manny's in N.Y.C. I brought the quinto first and than my teacher Gene Golden told me about the store on 42nd St. I wished i would have went there first and brought both from there. There were at least 15 Junior's there.all sizes but at least 4 of them where cracked at the stave line, Cuco by chance do you know what store that was? Did Junior stop selling at Manny's and went other place's ? Here's a picture of them in the 80's.

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There was a store right on the 'duece' nxt. to a skin flix teatre which sold cameras, boomboxes, and records, etc. etc. i know this beacuse i bought a conga [junior] from there back in like 1972.

Cuco: I can always count on you for the history of latin percussion & the N.Y scene. Bronx native: That's the place i brought the conga from, i remember that it wasn't a music store and and yeah the porno theater was close to it or next to it.on 42 st . I went with a buddy of mine's and parked in a no parking zone. My friend stayed in the car just in case the cop's showed up. I got the tumba from a fellow student for $100.00 dollar's because it had some gouges in it. Look the the rim the part where the lug's hook into are different that any of the Junior's that ive seen on this forum. And the the conga plate's are smaller. Omelenko1: I think you said this was a 60's drum.

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The tumba is a late 60's, early 70's drum by Junior. I know this because the "v" on the crown are thicker and because I have 2 from 1968, also Junior told me himself.

Wow! This drum could be 41 year's old! Thank's guys for the information.

I remember coming out of the subway on 42nd st and Broadway and making a complete right on the same street passed a movie house an electronics store then a store that sold records and had on 3 shelves around the top left right and back wall nothing but Congas...I bought these LP 'wood look" fiberglass congas for 268 bucks for both...they are rare today if you can find any...not many of them were made..I loved them back then and sounded great...I bought them in 1972...please xcuse the pink disco outfits...

There was definitely a non-music instrument store on 42nd St in the 1970s that sold Juniors for $150. I remember going in and playing them many times in that store but never could pull together the $150 to get one. When I finally got the money together, they didn't have any more and I wound up buying a Valje at Manny's.