congaplace.com

Hello friends.

Somebody is selling his gon bops and it feels like I should go there play them and have a good inspection on them.
From the pictures they look nice.
its not like you see these old Gon Bops a lot in europe.

The seller claims these are from the sixties but I think they are from the eighties, arent they ?
He also tells me they are from mahogany wood. What do you think ?

Please, where do these 3000 series stand in the whole line of Gon Bops.
Does anybody own them, play them, loves them.

model IQ- 3000
unit 413785

model IC- 3000
unit 413785

I own them, play them, love them. I have 4 from the 3000 series now and have had many over the years. Lightweight, great sounding, and great looking. Philippine mahogany - Luan wood.

In the 60's the side plates had straight sides. The ones you are looking at are most likely from the 70's. There must be a way of finding out the manufacturing date from the serial numbers - maybe someone here knows it.

Great congas! Get them if you can.


http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/my_coll ... bops2.html

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/my_coll ... talog.html

If they have no cracks they are in better shape than 90% of the drums over here!

Thanks for repsonding Psych1.
Nice to hear you enjoy them.

The seller tells me these used to be his mothers and have been in his family house for many many years.
He tells me the tubs have no cracks what soever and still have the original skins.

I need a bit of help to know what would be a reasonable price for them if they are structurally intact.
The skins however need to be replaced.

Godskin

I recently found an immaculate IC3000 Quinto (10.75") with original skin on it still, in amazing condition. The person who sold it to me purchased it new in 72 and it sat in their lounge room for 40 years! It is in unbelievable condition and sounds fantastic.
Pics below.

Great find Abakua.

Well, I bought the 2
Structurally they are good, no cracks what so ever.
Both where tuned quite low and after cranking them up a bit the original skins still produced good sound.

The super quinto is so small, a bit under 9.75".
The super conga ( really a quinto) is 10.75"
I will do my first restoration on these 2 using the poor mans guide.
I want to stain them red mahogany.

Can anyone give some advise for replacement skins for these beauties ?

Hi there brothers and sisters.

I have finished the restoration of the super quinto and it looks like it never looked before.
Nice fresh stain and 5 layers of lacquer. When completely finished I will post in the restoration thread.

To completely finish this tub I want to re-skin it.
It still has the original skin but feels, sounds like it could be replaced.
The original skin looks quite thick, around 2 mm.

When I ordered some steer from manito he advised me to put 1.6 mm on the super quinto
and 1.8 on the super conga.

I have seen and read the topics about thick skins on requinto's.
I feel these old gonbops might not like the stresses of these thick skins a lot.

Have does this choice resonate to you ?
What would you re-skin this 9.75" requinto with ?

godskin wrote:When I ordered some steer from manito he advised me to put 1.6 mm on the super quinto
and 1.8 on the super conga.

I have seen and read the topics about thick skins on requinto's.
I feel these old gonbops might not like the stresses of these thick skins a lot.

Have does this choice resonate to you ?
What would you re-skin this 9.75" requinto with ?

Sound advice from Manito,
and I would also say, not thicker than 1.8mm by any
means, or you might end up with an out-of-round requinto.

Agree with Manito and Mike. I have an old 9 inch with a very thick skin, at least 2mm, that has been on for 20 years, no problems and sounds great. But the old, alma-free, mahogany Gon Bops are not very tough, They go out-of-round with uneven stress and the old glue cracks easily. Thinner skins are probably better.

That's a quinto and a conga you've got there, that's just how big they made them back then.

When I refurbished my GB requinto, I took Micheal's advice [L&H] and let him pick the skin he thought best. When it arrived it was pretty thick - scary even.

I put it on, cranked it up and have had no issues since. I was more concerned with the hardware - again no issues.

I should mention I also put in an alma when I did the refurbishment.

Cheers

Darrell

Hey Godskin did you ever finish this project? I am thinking of redoing my old bops too and would love to see the finished product.

A couple of weeks ago I finished the restauration of these 2.

3 layers of waterbased mahogany stain.
5 layers of waterbased satin lacquer.
2 dark steer skins from manito, yes they as dark as the picture shows


I happy and satisfied.
The proces of restauration has deepened my relation with these beauties.


Here some pictures, with and without flash

Good job, looking good.

Yes, they look gorgeous, well done,
and I like the dark steer skins very much.