Extremely Rare Banded Valje Congas

[drumaloha]

thanks Congalero!

[bongosnotbombs]

Banded Valje, not so rare! My friend Michael L had five of these that he offered to me for $2,500. about a year and a half or so ago. The owner of Haight Ashbury music bought them. He put them up for resale, not sure what price he put for each drum. bongosnotbombs I think lives by the shop, so he may have seen them there. In any event, the rarest Valje I have seen so far was the ones painted red. In the end, it is really about the sound. My preference is the quarter sawn drums, older oak, that were made early on. Oak became very popular in the 80's in the construction of homes (cabinets ...) so drum makers had to go with what was more available in woods to keep their cost down. If you look at Valjes made early on the wood looks like that of old oak desks and chairs, later it looks like 80's and 90's flooring. There are exceptions pending supply at the time Tom needed product.

I never did see them! My loss. I have seen the unbanded typical oak ones that have been on sale there for over a year at $900-$1400 a drum if I recall. I do look at the quintos, because I've never had a Valje quinto, but the price is just way way too high, though I understand they might be on consignment. Anyways, I did end up with a 60's Valje conga that used to belong to you and had some work by Matt Smith done to it.

[congalero]

If you offer him $500+- he may sell them. He likes to keep a few in the shop for nostalgic reasons, as he used to won the Valje name, but he has his price to move off nostalgia.

[Thebreeze]

congalero wrote... "In any event, the rarest Valje I have seen so far was the ones painted red." I remember seeing a picture of those once somewhere and yes, maybe rare because the buyer requested that they be painted, but definitely not desireable when you think of the beautiful oak that lies underneath that paint. I once painted a Valje Conga in Black and it turned out really nice. I also made the tuning hooks for it myself since the original tuning hooks were rusted and stripped pretty bad. All in all the drum turned out great, but the friend I sold it to immediately stripped it back down to the wood which he preferred better. Moral of the story..... Don't paint Valjes.

[drumaloha]

this is the weirdest forum i have ever been on. At the top of the page it says:

Forum rules
Sell your own gear here, or post up any links to sales of percussion instruments.
KEEP IT POSITIVE PLEASE, SAVE ANY NEGATIVITY TO PRIVATE MESSAGE.

[congalero]

Not sure what the issue is here, but back to the subject. TheBreeze is quite correct, it is all about the sound and natural quality of the Valje Red Oak drum. Rare, not rare or otherwise. In the end, one plays what they find to be acceptable to them; and those who collect find what is acceptable to them. We are only here on this earth so long, so enjoy whatever you find enjoyment in; but please enjoy!!!!

[pcastag]

Looks like admin s been doing some cleaning.