Manito Solid Shell Bongos Available Soon!

[Gallichio]

Mr Rumba,
Beautiful Bongos!

[Mr.Rumba]

These are my new Manito Percussion solid shell one piece bongos. Finished and on their way to my house now! The tan macho skin is thin (5 sheets of paper thick) Mule skin and the hembra is thick-(16 sheets+) American white steer. What do you think? Here is Manitos e-mail if anyone is interested. I think he has some Maple bongos coming soon as well!

[RitmoBoricua]

Nice, real nice, that walnut is something else.
I love the minimalistic approach to the hardware
and the center block.They are aesthetically pleasant.
Congratulations and hope you have a great time
playing that bongo.

[caballoballo]

Simplemente preciosos, beautiful I said!!!!

[Ebongo]

ManitoPercussion bongos is among the very best out there. The only thing that I see could be improved is the drying of the shells. After finishing the shells, perhaps place them back in the kiln dryer for three more months.
After a couple of months in a dry house with my beautiful solid walnut manito bongos, there are now wide gaps in between the shell bottoms and their base/tuning rings.

[Psych1]

I have a set of old Gon Bops mahogany congas, at least 40 years old. Every year in the dry winter the shells shrink and the bands are loose. In the more humid summer they swell a bit and the bands are tight again. Some wood does that. Stave drums often crack from that movement. With solid-shells should be no problem. Use a little gaffer tape.

[Mr.Rumba]

ManitoPercussion bongos is among the very best out there. The only thing that I see could be improved is the drying of the shells. After finishing the shells, perhaps place them back in the kiln dryer for three more months.
After a couple of months in a dry house with my beautiful solid walnut manito bongos, there are now wide gaps in between the shell bottoms and their base/tuning rings.

Interesting. I have no thad this problem at all with mine. I suggest you contact Manito about this. I also forwarded him this as well.

[Manito]

Ebongo, By nature all wood will swell and shrink a bit with changes in humidity. Kiln drying ensures that this natural movement is smooth and uniform in a solid drum shell and that the movement never results in cracking or warping. How much movement you see depends a great deal on where you live and how stable the humidity is where you keep the drums. In places like the north where you get humid summers and bone dry winters, especially indoors with heating units, you will see more variation in the swelling and shrinking. Somewhere like California where there's relatively even humidity all year round, you won't see much movement at all.
When I do my final kiln drying, I try to set the moisture content of the shells to match the geographical location of the customer. For clients who live in the desert, the moisture content of the shell will be a bit lower than for a customer in northern Cali. For places with a huge variation in the humidity throughout the year, the best practice is to put the moisture content between 7-8% in the shells and build the hardware so that it accommodates the movement of the shells, but doesn't affect the playability or tuning of the drum. It's kind of like finding the natural middle ground for the wood and ensuring that the bottom bands don't put too much pressure on the shells when they swell a little.

The best way to reduce the movement in drums is to add a humidifier to the room where you keep your drums during the dry winter months. Also you can pick up a cheap hygrometer/thermometer for under $10 that will give you an accurate read on the humidity in your room. Keeping the relative humidity more stable will make any other wood items and wood floors happier too!

Remember your bongos are under warranty, so please let me know if you have any concerns and I will gladly take care of you!

Best Regards,
Manito

[Ebongo]

Thanks for the info , Manito. The bongos play great, and it is merely some [indesign] shrinkage as was expected. The base/tuning ring is still mostly in the shell's groove. If ever any part of the base/tuning ring fully protrudes out of the shell's groove, I'll let you know. Great bongos.

[Mr.Rumba]

Solid Shell, Red Ambrosia Maple wood with zebra wood center block, polished stainless steel hardware, mule skin and natural brown steer skins.

Here are some more photos of new Manito Percussion bongos I found on Manitos Facebook page (for those of you who don't go on Facebook

[caballoballo]

Beautiful work by Manito. I would like to see a little more style on the lugs. They look too simple and could be thicker.

[Mr.Rumba]

Beautiful work by Manito. I would like to see a little more style on the lugs. They look too simple and could be thicker.

Thicker lugs are available from Manito as an option but no one has ordered any so far. According to Manito, these lugs are actually much stronger then most thicker lugs. Also, thicker lugs weigh more and therefore make the bongos weigh more. Most people want lighter drums these days.

[rhythmrhyme]

Very nice looking drums, each is a piece of art - no question! Reading Manito's post about kiln drying and the warranty is very informative and reassuring. Cracking and warping did come to mind, but it looks like he's all over it.

Manito, if you read this, in your opinion: which configuration of wood and shell size has the best projection and brightest sound?

[Manito]

Josean,
Thank you! And I hear you brother. The lug style is sort of my personal taste, but I have done many sets with more curvy, stylized lugs. I like the look of them both ways, but when it comes to holding the drums between my knees, this style I have here is the one that fits and feels best to me as a player. That said, I am a custom shop and I can build to the client's specs. Same thing with the thicker lugs. I can make thicker lugs, but the standard sized stainless material I use for all my hardware including the lugs has a post-work tensile strength of over 210,000 psi. The strength of the lightweight lugs is far superior to the strength needed for the job. It's also about 3 times stronger than chrome plated steel (60-70,000 psi) used in thicker lugs. Ultimately, the larger concern I hear from my customers is about weight, which is why I go with the smaller, stronger lugs. For example, I just recently finished a set of slightly larger than normal sycamore wood bongos(7" x 9" x 7" tall) that weighs only 9 lbs. My "heavy" black walnut bongos are weighing in around 10-11 lbs. By comparison, my set of fiberglass LP's weigh over 14 lbs.


rhythmrhyme,
Thanks so much for the compliments! Projection and brightness have a lot to do with hardness, density and grain pattern of the wood. A harder, higher density wood (like walnut, persimmon, osage orange) will want to resonate at higher pitches and that's basically correlated with brightness in the tones. But it gets a little bit complicated when you factor in grain patterns and the way different hardwoods grow on the microscopic level. By looking at wood all the way down to the cellular structure, you can get an idea of how it might sound. All that said, I think the brightest 'Domestic Exotic' hardwood I have used would be Osage Orange. Size-wise, generally the smaller, the brighter but personally I think it can go too far. There is a sweet spot when it comes to sizing, but it can be different for each type of wood.

[Mr.Rumba]

Josean,
Thank you! And I hear you brother. The lug style is sort of my personal taste, but I have done many sets with more curvy, stylized lugs. I like the look of them both ways, but when it comes to holding the drums between my knees, this style I have here is the one that fits and feels best to me as a player. That said, I am a custom shop and I can build to the client's specs. Same thing with the thicker lugs. I can make thicker lugs, but the standard sized stainless material I use for all my hardware including the lugs has a post-work tensile strength of over 210,000 psi. The strength of the lightweight lugs is far superior to the strength needed for the job. It's also about 3 times stronger than chrome plated steel (60-70,000 psi) used in thicker lugs. Ultimately, the larger concern I hear from my customers is about weight, which is why I go with the smaller, stronger lugs. For example, I just recently finished a set of slightly larger than normal sycamore wood bongos(7" x 9" x 7" tall) that weighs only 9 lbs. My "heavy" black walnut bongos are weighing in around 10-11 lbs. By comparison, my set of fiberglass LP's weigh over 14 lbs.


rhythmrhyme,
Thanks so much for the compliments! Projection and brightness have a lot to do with hardness, density and grain pattern of the wood. A harder, higher density wood (like walnut, persimmon, osage orange) will want to resonate at higher pitches and that's basically correlated with brightness in the tones. But it gets a little bit complicated when you factor in grain patterns and the way different hardwoods grow on the microscopic level. By looking at wood all the way down to the cellular structure, you can get an idea of how it might sound. All that said, I think the brightest 'Domestic Exotic' hardwood I have used would be Osage Orange. Size-wise, generally the smaller, the brighter but personally I think it can go too far. There is a sweet spot when it comes to sizing, but it can be different for each type of wood.

Great information Ryan, thanks for posting! Now that I have read and re read this post a couple of times and thought about it more I actually have changed my mind about thicker lugs and will stick with the thinner lighter ones on my new bongos please! I want to go with the lightest possible drums!