Fat set of Oak Gon Bops Congas back among the living

Here is a restoration of a sweet set of Gon Bops, in Oak.

I just love the sound and construction of these old tubs.

It's a set of Gon Bops from the mid 70's, making it almost as experienced as I.

The owner wanted to keep the original patina, and with all the needed repairs, that was asking for a minor miracle. Every drum had multiple cracks to battle.

So, i masked everything off and went at it with fistfulls of glue and a look of determination, with a glint of ominous embarkation.

The Tumba had no less than 17 hairline cracks.. some not so hairline, but more like an airline... but somehow it came together... see the monstrosity of a fix above..

When you have so many cracks to deal with, the curing time is a big issue. With a rapid fury of binding, relentless attacks on the cracks, strangling the drum into submission with ropes and ratchets. In the end, the drum came back together, and I was drenched in sweat..

...sometimes a drum begs to die, and in my time, ive only seen one who insisted on it.

So, this fat 13+ Super Tumba came back to life joining his other four brothers in musical harmony. (one of the set of five was in perfect shape and was not brought to me)

Eventually, the set came out spectacularly well.

The owner of this set is a casual player who was having fun buying and selling Gon Bops locally for a couple of years...

...well, guess he learned a thing or two about buying drums, as this set was the best buy I have ever heard of.. he got an unbelievable deal for this set, and asked me to turn them into treasures once again. I have to say, in all the buying and selling of drums, I have yet to make such a good buy.

He wanted to skin them up, so he still owes me some final after pics when they are done.... hopefully soon ...

Tony