by handdrums123 » Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:10 pm
I'm the owner of the pictured Valjes. I repaired both drums once before with some guidance from this site. I repaired 2 cracks one in each drum, sanded, and stained the drums. I polished the rims, plates and hooks, and I replaced the heads. It wasn't the best job but they looked better,and sounded great, sweet and warm. They never left the house but a year and a half later a new crack popped up in the tumba. I didn't have the motivation to get into this time but I repaired the separation (half ass job) and I sanded some of it. Thats why it looks that way. I'm not trying to hide anything, because I would really like to keep them, cause during that down time I picked up some mahogany Gon Bops with the fiberglass coating that are sounding just as good as those Valjes. I have 8 congas (3 LP Patatos, 3 Gon Bops Tumbao Pro, and 2 Vintage Mahogany Gon Bops) And what I've learned from buying all of these drums, is you still need to know how to play them. Its not the drum it the person playing the drum.