Have you read Part 1? A Rare Treasure Found in the Twin Cities – Minnesota.

Taking The Drums Apart

These drums were hand-made, including all of the hardware.
They were not made by automated machines using the latest CAD computer technology to carve the same shape over and over again.
So, one must be very careful to photo-document and label each piece of the drum so that it may be re-assembled just as it had been originally.

Thus, the first marking one should make is the location of the skin (in its hoop) relative to the crown and drum. Older Valje drums were made with a convenient reference locator. The overlap of the metal band at the foot of the drum, the handle, and the sticker identifying the drum as made by Tom Flores were all lined up vertically. I used this reference point on the drum to always be able to orient the hoop, crown, and skin in its original position.
The crown and hoop may look pretty round, but it is not likely to be perfectly round and the drum has grown accustomed to stresses and shaped to accommodate that particular orientation of the crown and hoop. Additionally, the lug loops on the crown that the hooked lugs use to pull down on the drum skin are not evenly spaced; so again, it is important to mark a reference location on the crown. Use tape if no other marking is available.

Continue reading “Restoration of Congas Valjes from the 1970s (Part 2/3)” »

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A Rare Treasure Found in the Twin Cities – Minnesota.

In the summer of 2011, I noticed an online advertisement in Minneapolis, MN offering two Valje drums of an unknown build date for $1000.

From the pictures, it was clear that the author was offering the “real” Valje drums from the 1970s and not the Latin Percussion line.
There were only two grainy photos by which to judge the condition and authenticity, so a visit was required.

I had just begun a search on Ebay and other sources to locate drums made by Tom Flores in California in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. Seeming like a miracle so far away from the east and west coasts of the United States; these drums offered in my home town were definitely a rare find.

My heart raced dialing the phone number of the seller. If these were true Valje antiques, then some other person surely would know their value and buy them from under me, I thought. I raced to the bank and withdrew the cash that afternoon and set a time that day to travel out to New Hope, MN to inspect them.

Continue reading “Restoration of Congas Valjes from the 1970s (Part 1/3)” »

Technorati Tags: conga, percussion, restoration, Valjes