congaplace.com

from Namm 2013.

LP introduces the new Durian Wood Congas and Bongos at NAMM. Beautiful, great sounding and 15% lighter than our Siam Oak Congas!

they look sweat.

Hmmm Durian... Interesting.
Ever had Durian fruit?
I'll just say it is an acquired taste, or better yet, acquired smell.

My guess is since it is commercially grown for the fruit,
They must be old, out of production trees.

Seems as if the nutrional value of that tree
outcompetes the wood quality of that very same tree,
at least according to this source where it says:

Wood: The sapwood is white, the heartwood light red-brown, soft, coarse, not durable nor termite-resistant. It is used for masts and interiors of huts in Malaya.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/mort ... n_ars.html

But I think the guys at LP know what they are doing...

Gon Bops came out with durian wood first
on their Mariano series drums. LP claims
these durian wood drums are 25% lighter
than their rubberwood drums.

Interesting, I did not know that.
http://www.gonbops.com/congas/mariano-series

So is this light and possible not very hard wood type maybe comparable to Luan aka Philippine mahogany which Gon Bops
employed till the 1980s?
Sounds pretty good here if you ask me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfkaELoND4Y

The new Gon Bops mariano Series are funny,the quinto sound like a conga,the conga sound like a tumba,the tumba sound like a super tumba,and the super tumba sound like......

joaozinho wrote:The new Gon Bops mariano Series are funny,the quinto sound like a conga,the conga sound like a tumba,the tumba sound like a super tumba,and the super tumba sound like......

Well, you are right, it is no quinto sound, but the "conga" and "tumba" sounds are just alright, to me at least.
After all that video does not show too much, the drums are tuned fairly low, that is all in my opinion.

BTW my vintage Gon Bops which I do not really dare to crank up too high
are also the peculiar 11" Conga, 11.5 large conga and 12.25 tumba sizes
- Gon Bops has simply had a size system of its own kind.

Hello Mike,
there is not many good videos from the mariano series,that is true,this one is pretty good with Acceptable Quality.The mariano's series sound too mellow for my taste,I love gonbops drums(like the rest of the world) but this ones dont convince me,they felt like if they going to fall apart...

So is this light and possible not very hard wood type maybe comparable to Luan aka Philippine mahogany which Gon Bops
employed till the 1980s?

You know Mike I read somewhere that durian wood was considered
a soft wood.

So now, after playing, when someone says "You stink," they may be right regardless of how skilled one may be.

Here is a thought for LP:

If the shells are lighter, why not put the heavy duty galaxy hardware on them? In my opinion theat would open up that market of players who look for "upgraded" products with less costs.

The congas are lighter because the wood is softer,so it just means cheap and fragile congas.

joaozinho wrote:The congas are lighter because the wood is softer,so it just means cheap and fragile congas.

... which would not require superstrong hardware anyway!
At least the combination frail wood + beefy hardware would not really make sense - to me at least.