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Hi Guys I'm new to the forum. I have been playing percusion for quite a few years. mainly in a church setting. I have a set of lp calente congas but I recently picked up for $150.00 Aus. 2 old well played meinl marathon congas they have traditional tentioning rims on them, yes they need som TLC and new heads but they sound allright. What I need to know is advice about the sizes and how old they are. the heads are 10" and 11" on a 30" shell. the newer marathon series all have bigger heads. I have not been able to find any info on these older ones so I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks
Phil

philspeed1 wrote:. What I need to know is advice about the sizes and how old they are. the heads are 10" and 11" on a 30" shell. the newer marathon series all have bigger heads. I have not been able to find any info on these older ones so I would appreciate any suggestions.

Hi Phil,
and first of all welcome to this forum.

You mention the head sizes to be 10 and 11". These have usually been the standard sizes for the cheaper editions
of many brand names like Meinl, Afro, Cosmic percussion and the like.
It is striking though and quite unusual that the shells are 30" high.

So in order to find out more, some pics would be useful. Let´s play some Sherlock Holmes here.

What would be good to know is:
1. Do the shells consist of two wood colors? Meinl had some of those on the late 1970s if I´m not wrong.
2. Do your Meinls have chrome or blac powdercoated tuning rims?
3. Are there any "feet" attached to the bottom of the shell (or holes left, respectively)

Hi thanks for the reply they are 30 inch shells with chrome hardware any information would be good i have posted some photos i hope they are ok thanks

G´day Phil,
as I thought they seem to be "real" Marathons,
my guess would be they are from the early to mid-1990s.
Maybe even a bit earlier. Anyway, Meinl made the Marathon
congas in Thailand from the start, at least the shells.
The hardware should be pretty beefy, and with a little bit
of WD-40 and elbow grease you can make it shiny again.

Yes, the skins are pulled down considerably, you might want to
change them, which would be worth the effort, as those Marathons
are sturdy, reliable drums, good workhorses.
You should stick to cowhide, no synthetic skins, as they
would probably be hard to find in the correct size.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for that. yes i plan to use unmpounted heads i think i will use the lp flat skins should get away with 19" thanks again.

You might want to contact L & H [just search skin supplier list here]. Better skins and likely a comparable price.

Cheers

thanks Burk
I have looked at L&H and will email them today my only concern is getting them through Australian Customs they can be a bit funny some times L&H have said they do send them this way so I will see.
Phil

^^^ +1 - L&H skins are a good product, I recently ordered through them and they arrived in good time as well.