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My "new " Gon Bops Bongo Needs a fix .

With pictures in the last post .
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7243&p=75047#p72837

My Mini bongo's is finished !




Made an alma of milliput

Sanded the rim down so it dous not hurt my fingers no more

alma seen fro the inside

To keep the skin on the ring

The finished mini bongo i've tuned it up a lot more with the alma and it starts to get a high pitch .
I dont know how strong the plastic skin is but i'll find out the hard way .
I'ts a great finger PRACTISE bongo .

Today i've played it in the train on the way to my rehearsal .
About 30 min in the train .
I sit near the entry doors on a folding seat ,(this is a small compartement) then there's a door that leads to the sitting compartments .
verry nice practising with a moving scenery.....

I've been playing a lot on the streets in Amsterdam from 1986 'till 1993
In the end i got sacked many times .

Too Loud the said .And to many.
Jembe came in fasion so you almost had Jembe idiots on every corner .
Having NO cleu of tones in a drum and banging all in the same "beat".
(but the never heard of cross rythems anyway and are probably to stupid for that!!!! )

Then i got fined F75.00( About US 55.00)And the promise that the'll take my bongo's nex time
So i've stopt !

After 15 years i've played on the streets of Amsterdam again .
We played with a trio at the Gay pride .
But this time with my bongo "Light ".
And my travel Conga .

My bongo "light "

Its a crappy supercussion made from wood with verry thin skin, and hardware ! (the shells are not so bad though )
But i fixed the bearing edges and now it sounds pretty good .
And the weight is nothing !!

And best of all it's not so loud as my other bongo's !
I've played twice with it on the streets and no problems sofar !!

I'l post some pix soon !

Bongo light :




The flimsy hardwhare



I've "hardened" the bearing edge with supergleu

Fixing my Gon bops , post pics soon !!

This is as i bought it .



As i carefully opened hair crack in the macho a bit with a small scruew driver .
I wanted to put glue in the crack with a thin piece of verry thin braided fishing line running up and down through the crack.
(not to fast you'll start a fire ...)
A verry good method ,well for me it is ,but it It cracked all the way !
So i took the stave out 'cause "luckily" there where more hair cracks around the affected stave!
The cloth is helpfull if you fold it wright you get an even klamping surface .



I chisseled out a square on the stave with the horizontal crack and gleued a little piece of hardwood and clamped it .
The staves are verry thin there where te metal band groove is ! The weak point in this design !



Glued the staves back together .



Used supergleu and woodpow(d)er to make the shell flush again .



Fixed the warped bearing edge.



Glued the crack in the hembra





Pollished the lacker of the metal bands witch where lackered over .
And put on a "new" skin .So i can play it and find out its sound .
I have two verry thin mule skins wich i want to put on .
But i have to figure out how to do that "cause both the left over skins will be verry small ,so its delicate!

Got a nice 5 lug through Leedy . With JCR hardware .
Did a little work on it .

And yesterday i've changed the connector tubes with steel ones with i've brushed with a metal brush . Put a picture of that later .

Her's my 5 lug with the new centertubes .
Looks much better than the copper one's i think !

There are big tubes in 3 sizes ,lying at a street near my rehearsel place .
The are for things under the pavement on the street . i don't know for what exactely .
Anyway these tubes have lids on them wich make great skinprotectors for conga's djembe's etc.

Ill post pics. of these soon !

For my Agpacbang :








For my
travel Conga
(This one was torn ,so fixed it a bit )





For my Conga :

Made a base(2 x) for playing seated . coverd it with bycicle tubes .
The are great "cause the conga stays stationairy and hardly moves while playing ( also LOUD)

I've been thinking for a while now to put my bongo's in front of my conga's,
instead of behind them . Tryed it out this evening .
I have to adjust my stand properly yet but i'd really like it that way !!


(The conga's ar 27 years old beat up Supercussion .
The bongo is leopercussion .
Its my rehearselroom set . )

I've made this stand about 12 years ago .
It;s made from a Meinl bongo and a supercussion conga stand .

Because a hate movement in my drums while playing i've made this .
Verry good stand ,but i've made a better one from an LP conga stand .

(sorry 4 the shitty pictures )

P P S

Really amazing work! Do you do work for others?