HELP WITH MAKER OF ANTIQUE CONGA DRUMS

I found these at a friend's used furniture store - he buys storage units at auction & anything that's not furniture he to me; usually very cheap! (I got these for $100 - my offer price)
Does anyone know them? They have no name that I can find so far - but they do have what looks like initials inside each drum + each drum - which are different sizes - have a different Cuban flag on them.
I figured that even if not a great conga or name, they would be at least be a great decor piece?
As always, I appreciate your help!

 

The flags may have been put on later. @Jeff Drum will probably know more.
Btw, antique?

 

I'm guessing at least 1950's

 

NUTS !! now I'm antique

 

Hi BOB,
You are NOT an antique until you hit 100. I was born in 1936 and I have almost 20 years to go. My gram lived to be 113. She still lived alone and traveled every where. She put her four kids in nursing homes and watched them die, then her grandchildren started to die of old age. She just wanted to live to see the year 2000 so she could claim to have lived for three hundred years..
greg

 

I don't know the first thing about conga drums but these looks similar.



Found them on this blog.

http://congadr.blogspot.com/2008/03/maestro-mariano-bobadillia-gon-bops.html

 

I did read that any cracks are bad so you might want to check that out. (I have no idea how to judge)

 

Good buy, I would have bought them. I don't know a lot about congas, but ones that have matching hardware to this are sold on eBay as possibly Gon Bops, this one looks like an exact match (https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-WO...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557).

Gon Bops started in 1954 in California so it is possible. But I'm a bit skeptical since there are noticeable hardware and price differences between the above and signed examples of Gon Bops (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Go...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557) .

Worth further investigation because they are worth more if you can show they are by Gon Bops, if not they are likely made in Mexico by a smaller operation. Drums just as good, but not as desirable to American collectors. There are a couple drum forums where you can join and ask - drumforum.org and vintagedrumforum.com Hand drumming is a specialty that most drummers don't get into, but there should be knowledgeable people on both forums that will know on sight.

 

If you are, you're not the only one.

 

I believe that's them!
You guys are the greatest!

 

Check out my post. I don't think they are Gon Bops based on the hardware differences you can see in the ebay sold listings I gave. Check on one of the forums I listed if you want to be sure.

Minor differences make a huge difference in attributing drums to one manufacturer or another, because drums are pretty simple (cylinder with skin heads) and they all borrowed basic hardware ideas from each other, but until the parts started all being made in Asia, the hardware was distinctive and tells a lot about what company made it.

 

I still know nothing but this hardware does look similar to my eye....no?

http://rumbainstruments.blogspot.com/2011/




"Will's Gon Bops quinto with the conga I sold back to him.

The next trade saw me selling my old vintage Gon Bops conga. It was a nice drum, in very good shape, oak, but the 10 3/4" inch head was just a little small for me. It was a little hard playing this drum with two hands; my hand would overlap playing tumbao and such, though it was fine for rumba. Anyways I put this one up for sale and wouldn't you know it, but the conguero I bought it from, my friend Will Perez, contacted me and wanted to buy it back. Seemed Will had gotten a perfectly matching quinto for it. So the drum went back to it's previous owner, probably the best place for it as Will takes better care of his drums than anyone I've ever seen."

 

OK, yes, sorry those do look just the same. I thought your first post was comparing the ones in the first picture to the OP's in the second. There is a noticeable difference with the first pic since those are newer, but the second picture does look the same, and when I clicked I saw that it wasn't the OP's at all, so I agree. That suggests the first one I found on ebay is also an original, though the seller wasn't certain.

 

I still have no idea . The photos I posted are all some I found in blogs that looked the same to me. I really like the horizontal wood band

 

Well, I just sold them on craigslist - $240. They may have been worth more, but $120+ (I paid tax for them) in 1 day for 1 item is ok by me - especially because the week-end is coming and there is an auction of a estate on Sat...

 

Perfect! Shipping them would have been a bear!

 

I use shipbikecom - you go to fed ex but with a 50-60% discount + they now ship reg boxed items, not just bikes - I love that company!

 

I'd go with Jeff Drum on this one.
Congas all look pretty much alike, to one not intimately familiar with them; so the fact that they, or their hardware looks "the same" to me or you, doesn't really mean much.
It is not an area where an online search by someone unfamiliar with conga drums will reveal any actual comparable drums.

I'd guess it is sort of like someone who has a native mask or basket, saying to Komo or Taupou or me that it looks "the same" as one they saw online.
In some areas, you really need an expert; in this case, someone who has seen or better, played hundreds of conga drums, and can recite all the makers in the last century from memory, and ID their products using the kinds of identifying features that only such an expert would know.
That wouldn't be me, in this case.

 

Or me! But thanks