Volcano Congas from Hawaii - Any info

[Derbeno]

Has any one seen or played them?

They are made to order only and I am seriously considering them.
http://www.volcanopercussion.com/

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... olcano.jpg

[deadhead]

Havn't played any myself, but I believe there have been several other posts about them, try searching the board for info about them. They just look absolutely amazing in my opinion. Have you contacted them yet? What are the prices like per drum?

[Derbeno]

I have been talking to Tom who is very passionate about his art. As a guide the price for the Conga size is $949 for the Mango wood model and $1349 for the rare Hawaiian Koa wood model. This was back in Feb 07.
I tried to search this site for previous threads with no joy.



Edited By Derbeno on 1178040751

[82-1170142196]

Aloha D!
I have played the Volcano Percussion "Mango" wood drums. Very well made, the tone's are excellent! My friend purchased the Quinto, Conga and Tumba set.
He's very pleased with Tom's craftsmanship.
A very well made Drum.
Aloha!

[deadhead]

very high prices in my opinion

[mco]

http://www.congaplace.com/cgi-bin....;t=1991

There was a long discussion about these beautiful congas some time ago. The URL is above.
The subject heading was "Thunder and Lightning" and was posted by maSSive drums. It's on page 19 of the "Conga Set" sub-forum
There are some nice photographs in that thread.
Enjoy.
mco

[maSSivdrums]

Aloha Derrick,

Yes, they are incredible Drums. That picture you posted is one I took in my front yard of a set that I had previously owned and sold some of them shortly after ward. I still have the Quinto (far left) and the Tumba (2nd from right). I also own several other Vp drums. The wood grain on the drums are spectacular with alot of curl, and burl in the grain and also spalting. That type of wood grain is only found in approx. 10% of a mango tree making that type of wood grain prized.

This past weekend I had the pleasure to visit the Master Drum Make Tom Alexander in Kona on the Big Island and had a first hand look on the process in building these drums. The process is labor intensive in building the finest hand made drum. By personally observing how the drums are made, made me understand why a precision hand made drum can fetch a well deserved high price.

There was mention in this post by another forum member indicating that a Mango Conga went for $949 and a Koa Drum went for $1349. What one should understand is the top quality material used to make these drums. For that price range, all the hardware on the drum is solid, hand polished stainless steel that Tom bends, welds and hand polishes himself which is a very labor intensive process. The price of top quality Koa wood is on the rise, making it difficult to find the type of wood that posess the wood grain that Tom uses.
If you were to look at the other Hand Made drum makers like Mathew Simith, Ritmo drums use to be in the $450 to $550 price range. Now his drums go for around $750 a piece. So, Volcano Percussion Drums are not too far off in price, the only difference is the hand polished stainless steel hardware, which will probably outlive the drum owner. Not to mention the strength of stainless versus mild steel with a chrome finish. With stainless you don't have to worry about snapping a tuning lug, that some of you have delt with using mild steel lugs.
As for sound, just ask Conguero's like Robertito Melendez who plays with the like of La Palabra and Bobby Matos, or Eddie del Rios of Johnny Polanco, both west coast Conguero's. These drums give them the sound that they are looking for. These drums are also bought by the likes of bedroom musicians ( myself) to Percussion enthusiasts and also Percussionist who perform in Church Bands. These are just a few of who can recognize a beautiful drum in appearance that has the sound to match its looks. Better yet, just ask one of our own Conga Forum Brother Yoni. He visited Hawaii last year and had a chance to play several of my drums. He was in Heaven!
Like I said in the past, when you decide to make the move, hey, save your lunch money, break open that piggy bank, take out that stashed money in your underwear drawer.What ever you do, you won't regret it.

Keep on Poundin'...
Aloha, maSSivdrums

[kaukona]

:) Volcanos start at $649.00, not $949.00. There is a more affordable series known as "Natural Fusion" for every type of wood available. Those come with chrome hardware. The main advantage of stainless of course is it's ability to withstand rusting and no peeling as well as it's strength and it's a handcrafted "mirror" finish that only we provide. We do not compare ourselves to our competitors as mentioned concerning price or quality. Everyone does what they can or want to do when putting their name on it and let it be understood that Massivedrums sold some of their drums only by Volcanos request to obtain different varieties of Volcanos. Also, 90% of Mango trees grown in Hawaii, don't have curl, not 10% of tree has curl. In conclusion, we make drums in Ka'u not Kona. For the straight scoop, contact tom@volcanopercussion.com

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... A_copy.jpg

[109-1176549166]

[quote="maSSivdrums"][/quote]
Aloha, maSSivdrums,

To me, those VPs are works of art and Tom is truly a master craftsman and an artist!

Being a Filipino-American of Spanish, Chinese and Malay ancestry, I have enough of both the Latin and Pacific Islander blood in me to desire to own a set of VP drums eventually.

Re: mango wood, I know first-hand how resilient it is. Growing up as a boy in the Philippines, my childhood buddies and I used to make Y-shaped slingshot frames from smaller branches of mango trees 'cause they never broke or snapped.

I checked out VP's website. Tom's drums are absolutely gorgeous! However, if I owned some, I don't know if I'll have the guts to take them out on live gigs. Those VP drums are among the most immaculately-made congas I've seen. Mine will probably never leave homeand will be used exclusively for practicing and jamming at home.

BTW, on VP's 2006 NAMM website pictures, I recognized a good friend and pianist, Kenny P., with a picture of John, drummer for "Earth, Wind & Fire".

Mahalo,

Manny T
Percussionist, Guitarist & Vocal Soloist (Independent)

[maSSivdrums]

Aloha Gang,

I hope all is well with everyone.

Kaukona-

Kalamai, and Mahalo for posting the correct info. My medication must have been peaking while I was type that post. :p And yes, Ka'u IS God's Country....

mjtuazon-

Hey, I am also a conguero of Pinoy ancestry. Born and raised in Hawaii. I got a chance to meet and converse with your friend Kenny P. at the 2006 NAMM Show. Kenny and his friend drove from S.F. to be there. If you look at the drum gallery on the VP website you will see a a pic of a combination mango/monkeypod set of Congas with a little dog next to them. They belong to Kenny's friend, who is also another Pinoy Conguero.
Speking of Pinoy Congueros, while at the NAMM Show I made it a point to meet my mentor and someone who I always tried to emulate, Raul Rekow. Well, when I finally got enough nerve to ask him to take a picture with me, he floored me when he asked if I was Pinoy. When I replied that I was, he said, "me too!". Man, that was the highlight of the whole show!!!
I know what you mean when you say that you would not gig with VP drums and keep them in your house. I was like that too. But now I have a set to gig with, and I have some very special VP drums that I really don't take out of the house, maybe only on special occasions. I told myself that these drums are too beautiful to not share them for others to see and hear.

Keep on Poundin'.... Aloha, maSSivdrums

[yoni]

Hi MaSSivdrums, hi all!

MaSSivdrums honored me by letting me play his Volcano Congas in Honolulu while I was there, and those congas are definitely the best I ever laid my hands on by far!

All the best,

Yoni

[CongaTick]

An endoresement from Yoni-- for those seriously considering these pricey museum quality drums--is something that should be given authoritative cconsideration.

[maSSivdrums]

Aloha Yoni,

I hope all is good over there in the Mother Lands.

No, your wrong. The honor was mine, to have a fabulous Conguero such as yourself, use his talent to bring out the beautiful sounds out of my drums. Hope you can visit us soon and get reaquainted with " da skins".

Keep on Poundin'... Aloha, maSSivdrums

[109-1176549166]

mjtuazon-

Hey, I am also a conguero of Pinoy ancestry. Born and raised in Hawaii. I got a chance to meet and converse with your friend Kenny P. at the 2006 NAMM Show. Kenny and his friend drove from S.F. to be there. If you look at the drum gallery on the VP website you will see a a pic of a combination mango/monkeypod set of Congas with a little dog next to them. They belong to Kenny's friend, who is also another Pinoy Conguero.
Speking of Pinoy Congueros, while at the NAMM Show I made it a point to meet my mentor and someone who I always tried to emulate, Raul Rekow. Well, when I finally got enough nerve to ask him to take a picture with me, he floored me when he asked if I was Pinoy. When I replied that I was, he said, "me too!". Man, that was the highlight of the whole show!!!
I know what you mean when you say that you would not gig with VP drums and keep them in your house. I was like that too. But now I have a set to gig with, and I have some very special VP drums that I really don't take out of the house, maybe only on special occasions. I told myself that these drums are too beautiful to not share them for others to see and hear.

Keep on Poundin'.... Aloha, maSSivdrums

maSSivdrums,

Aloha! Delighted to know that you're a fellow Pinoy!

Yes, a sizeable number of Pinoys from the Philippines migrated to Hawaii during the early-to-middle-part of the last century.

I emailed Kenny P. after you sent your email and, yes, he remembers you. He's an excellent pianist and loves to play Latin music, especially Brazilian samba music.

I first met him and jammed with him at a mutual friend's birthday party in San Francisco. I provided harmony vocals and some hand percussion to his very lovely, movie-star-like female singer.

I haven't met his friend, though, who owns some VP congas. although I'd love to. I'd love to hear the sound of his congas. Better yet, I'd love to be able to get a chance to touch and play with those skins!

Yes, I've heard from someone before that Raul Rekow also has Pinoy ancestry. But, to me at least, this fact has never been confirmed before. And watching some of his instructional videos (with Karl Perrazo) and the way he spoke made me suspect that he's more Mexican than Pinoy.

That is, until your own personal encounter with him and the words "coming straight out of the horse's mouth" that he's Pinoy. This makes it so inspiring to be a Pinoy myself, most especially as a percussionist!

Music is deeply imbedded in both the culture and psyche of Pinoys. Pinoys love to sing--at "fiestas", serenading or just among friends (with or without beer on hand). And it is often said, sometimes jokingly, that every Pinoy residence has a karaoke machine.

Part of the reason for the Pinoy's inherent love of music and beat is our Hispanic heritage, the Philippines having been a Spanish colony for 400 years!

The other reason is because many Filipinos, living in a developing or 3rd-world country (depending upon how one looks at it) for centuries, have had a lot of hard times. Music is just one of the Filipinos' way of coping with the hardships of life. Ironically, though, a recent study showed that the Philippines ranked 16th among the happiest people in the world.

Then, with the U.S. defeating Spain in the U.S.-Spanish war, the Philippines became a U.S. Commonwealth (much like Puerto Rico) for 50 years until independence was granted to us on July 4, 1945, right after the end of World War II.

There's a running joke that the Philippines was "400 years in the convent" followed by "50 years of Hollywood". :;): :laugh:

In truth, Pinoys are sometimes looked upon as the Asian Hispanics or the Asian brothers of Latinos (probably by Mexicans more than any Central or South American Hispanics). And rightly so.

Generally, we have rounder eyes than our other Asian brothers and sisters. And, generally, when eating, we use spoon and fork (as well as bare hands) rather than chopsticks.

As a Spanish colony, there was heavy trading activity between Manila (Philippines) and Acapulco (Mexico) via "galleons" or large wooden ships. It's a fact that some Mexican sailors/passengers stayed in the Philippines for good, intermarried with the locals and generated offsprings of Asian Hispanic mix, while some Pinoy sailors/passengers did the same thing in Mexico.

I, myself, descended from Spanish settlers (from Malaga, Spain) on my father side. I also descended from Chinese settlers (from mainland China) on my mother side.

Thought I'd share a little history about Pinoys.

Mabuhay,

Manny T.

[maSSivdrums]

Aloha mjtuazon,

I sent you a PM so we don't get off the main subject of this post.

Keep on Poundin'..... Aloha, maSSivdrums