TIMBA BONGOS

[KING CONGA]

Just Re-skinned these for a friend of mine who has had them for about 3 years now.
I used L & H Skins, 1.5mm macho and 2mm hembra.
I like the way they turned out although they are not quite ready to be tuned yet, Ill give it about three days.
These are no dout some beautiful Bongos, looked to be built very well, finish, hardware are very good but I must say, they are on the heavy side.
The hemra is an unusual 9" in dia. I guess that would be the same size as some Requintos.

[No.2-1820]

I have exactly the same set, great bongos in my opinion, the weight never bothers me in fact I seem to reach for these most of all. What type of skins did you go for ?

Barrie

[msb501clave]

we selected some great steer for the bongos. Tuned correctly they will sound great! the thin skin on the macho can take a beating and will last a long time... thin steer or calf on macho will give a crisp sound not a dry as goat but more durable and on these large sizes tends to be a better choice in the long run...

[KING CONGA]

I have exactly the same set, great bongos in my opinion, the weight never bothers me in fact I seem to reach for these most of all. What type of skins did you go for ? Barrie

I can see that you also replaced the skin on your Bongos, what type and what thickness did you use?
You know I was very unimpressed with the skins that these TIMBAS had, there was no uniformity whatsoever on either one, macho or hembra, that really surprised me considering the quality of the bongos themselves and their cost. Why did you change them?

[No.2-1820]

In the photo there they have a medium thin bleached steer/calf (not sure really) on the macho and a recycled mule on the hembre. I really like the sound of the bleached steer in certain settings, I tend to tune it kind of light and it has a dry, chunky (almost quinto-ish) kind of sound that I like for funk etc. The mule hembre is gone now, it was difficult to get sounding right, you tended to have to think about exactly how you struck the hembre to get the right tone, so I couldn't get really fluid with them. The hembre now has a lightly bleached medium steer and sounds great. I interchange the bleached steer macho with a bleached goat that sounds perfect, one draw back I'm finding already with the goat (not too surprisingly) is that it's stretching down the drum pretty quickly, even though I very carefully tune and detune. I like how the steer has different sounds I can obtain by tuning it differently, the goat pretty much has it's sweet spot and either side of that doesn't work at all.
Hope that makes sense ! lol

Barrie

[No.2-1820]

oh, and I didn't like the factory skins at all. They didn't sound right and they were mounted real low down the drums.

[Ernesto Pediangco]

Am surprised to read below that some one found Timba bongos to be on the heavy side ?? I never thought so. My bongos from Piernas in Colombia were heavy even w/ aluminium base rings, but the unnecessary over sized bongo hooks do add weight. I long ago stopped using Gon Bops bongos & Timba is in fact...the original Gon Bops w/o the name. The riveted lug saddles on the bottom base ring are not my favorite design since they can bend or shift out of position & damage hook threads. Timba did strengthen the hard wares and I hope add more clearance to counteract any binding of metal on metal that old Gon Bops had problems with. But Timbas are great bongos and usualy have good heads....a bongosero should know how to mount his own heads anyway...to make them as perfect as you like them. If you buy odd sized bongos that do not usualy have replacement skin wires in store ( Most store do not stock crucial parts for Latin drums ), then you should order a spare set of wires, maybe a hook or two as back up !

[caballoballo]

quote="Ernesto Pediangco"] I long ago stopped using Gon Bops bongos & Timba is in fact...the original Gon Bops w/o the name. The riveted lug saddles on the bottom base ring are not my favorite design since they can bend or shift out of position & damage hook threads.[/quote]
I have always wanted to own & play a Timba Bongó but without any luck since nobody have one here in y beautiful Island for testing. Also a 9" Hembra is not of my like any more since the tendency of ringing even with a thick skin.

Gonbops like Ernesto said are very,very weak on their hardware. The Alex Acuña & their top of the line handcrafted California Series model tuning lugs are no good since they do not hold under tension to the point of slippering off the crown creating an unsafe condition. Also Gonbops customer service do not return e-mail when contacted for their hardware flaws. Can't trust a company that does not take care of their clients.

[docarroyo]

I have played Gon Bops Tumbadoras and Bongos for many years and are among my favorite drums, Cachete heard my favorite quinto on a couple of occassions in Puerto Rico and shortly there after got a sponsorship with Timba. I belive he still plays his Timbas or has his rumberos play them since his Illness. Ive owned Gon Bops since the 70's and have not had any problems with hardware except for the occassional striped tension hook. My GB Mahogany drums were played at a least 2 times a week at Rumbas, Bembes etc for many years while I lived in PR. with no major hardware issues. It may be the way I took care of them but that was minimal maintenance. Heres a photo of a couple of bongos with the peened on rivits in the bottom rim with which I have never had issues. I guess Im just lucky for the 40+ or so years Ive been playing. Of course my exposure to Timbas is just having played them, I think they sound great but have never owned a set so I will not comment on any 2nd hand opinions as to thier dependability.

[caballoballo]

Saludos DOc. Yes you may have been lucky. Once I took the Alex to play and have to keep tuning the Macho until I notice the lugs were loosing their shape where they attach to the crown. You know how is not to be able to keep that Macho tune high into a Salsa band ? Sound like sh!t.

[Psych1]

No problem with my 60's GB bongos - not a crack ever. One stripped lug - my fault, not the bongo's. Many cracks on my GB congas over the years.

[Ernesto Pediangco]

quote="Ernesto Pediangco"] I long ago stopped using Gon Bops bongos & Timba is in fact...the original Gon Bops w/o the name. The riveted lug saddles on the bottom base ring are not my favorite design since they can bend or shift out of position & damage hook threads.

I have always wanted to own & play a Timba Bongó but without any luck since nobody have one here in y beautiful Island for testing. Also a 9" Hembra is not of my like any more since the tendency of ringing even with a thick skin.

Gonbops like Ernesto said are very,very weak on their hardware. The Alex Acuña & their top of the line handcrafted California Series model tuning lugs are no good since they do not hold under tension to the point of slippering off the crown creating an unsafe condition. Also Gonbops customer service do not return e-mail when contacted for their hardware flaws. Can't trust a company that does not take care of their clients.[/quote]
I have repaired more old Gon Bops & Valje bongos than any other. In Gon Bops shells design lies the weakness where the separator block is drilled and bolted to the thinnest weakest part of the shell. The Bottom ring has riveted lug saddles that bend out of position and damage hooks. This is also true of Valjes. Valje shells were not as thin but the bottom ring riveted parts had same problems and the 2 pieced separators allowed the 2 shells to twist and leveraged the mounting bolts in the shells to cause cracks. Resolution brand has not corrected these problems so there has been no Resolution in these regards. The soft thin Gon Bops Mahogany shells can go out of round and the oak shells could crack in the soft grain of the wood. I have found that most bongos of any brand sound great if the hard wares and heads are of quality. The shells have to be strong enough to keep the shape and stand the tension and natural use and some bumping around. A thicker shell also locks the staves into a stronger drum shape and takes the higher tensions of modern drum heads & plastic heads which are thicker than what they used in the 50's & 60's or earlier. Plastic heads are higher torque than skins and have no elastic qualities of skins. Bongo design should take all this into consideration. Five hook bongos only compensate for a weak 4 lug design. If done properly, 4 hooks are adequate for all bongos when the crown rim, bottom ring and lug saddles & hooks are properly situated and fabricated. Some of my favorite examples are Volcano, MoPerc, and Meinl but Meinl design eliminates the wood block separator, uses a bottom ring bridge and will not allow rotating the hard wares to be more comfortable between a players legs. I prefer my own mounting system to a stand that supports my bongos and lessens the need for me to brace them so much but still fit in the natural playing position, I can jump up to play bell & dance and return quickly to bongos when is time to be there. The same stand quick releases and adds to a a raised stand for stand up playing options. I do not use mountings on the separator block since this stresses the shells and I do not like big bulky stands w/ large apparatus to brace the drums. I believe modern bongos need to be more practical for all bongo players...not just traditional style players. Most bongo tone is in the head any way. The rest is just a frame and minimal open ended shell that needs to support the hard wares to tune the heads. If hard ware bends out of shape, then I never trust that brand again if they do not do it correctly the first time around. I have recently noticed 3A brand drums are identical in construction to Rhythm Trader bongos in Portland Oregon which are Asian made and have great hard wares & decent shells but Asian heads. I'd save the Asian heads as back ups and tuck my own. The parts are dependable enough and at least commonly availble compared to older brands or custom makes.