, check out our article here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Shell<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The frame of the bongos is called the shell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/picture>The bongo drums frame is called the shell<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe shell is actually not a hollowed log, but is instead a series of vertical pieces of wood glued tightly together as you can see clearly in this picture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/picture>The white lines running vertical to the drum head are actually points where two pieces of wood are joined with glue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe shell is often painted or varnished to give a sleek appearance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shell has an important part in forming the sound–the more unified the wood pieces are, the better the resonation of the drum. If the wood pieces are not joined tightly, then the drum will not ring clearly. How well the wood is joined<\/span> is an indicator of the quality of bongo drums.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBongo drum shells can actually be made from many different types of materials. The most traditional material is a wood of some kind. The most common bongo drum wood these days is called Siam oak, which is just a rubber tree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides rubber tree, (higher-end) bongos are also made from hardwoods like oak, red oak, mahogany, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, bongo drum shells can also be made from fiberglass or ABS (plastic). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s arguable how much of the bongo drum sound is impacted by the type of material, but in any case, the shell build and material type all combine together to form the unique sound of that particular bongo drum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tuning Lug\/Hook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The tuning lug is the connector between the bottom of the bongo drum shell and the rim. The tuning lug is also used to tension the drum head via a mechanism that pulls the rim of the drum towards the bottom of the drum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/picture>Tuning lug in place<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nTo tension the bongo drum heads and therefore to tune them, you simply use a wrench to tighten the nuts at the bottom of the tuning lugs. These nuts effectively shorten the amount of distance from the bottom ring to the rim of the drum, causing the drum head to tighten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Center Block<\/h3>\n\n\n\n “Wow”… you might be thinking… “this guy is talking to me about the center block of a bongo, and thinks I might still be interested!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/picture>The Center Block<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nI get your point. It seems like it’s a very boring part of the bongo drum, and for the most part it is just a simple piece of wood that gets the job done. The center block’s primary function is to join together the two bongo drums.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe center block is often bolted to the bongo drum on the inside of the drum shell as you can see in this picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/picture>The center block is bolted to the bongo drum shell on the inside of the drum shell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHowever, Meinl is one bongo drum manufacturer that believes that the tone of the bongo drum is affected by interrupting the joined wood of the shell by the drilled nuts and bolts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meinl has a patented Free Ride <\/strong>suspension system that connects the two bongo drums without this hardware and the corresponding center block. There is still a block that is connecting to the two pieces, but it is not as you see here. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWho knew there was so much to know about bongo drum center blocks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Ring<\/h3>\n\n\n\n This is a very nondescript part of the bongo drum, as it’s sole purpose is to be a bracing point for the tuning lugs to pull the rim towards the bottom of the bongo drum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/picture>The bottom ring of the bongo drum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe bottom ring of the bongo drum is simply a ring made to go over the bottom part of the bongo drum shell. The ring has as many loops as there are tuning lugs for a particular bongo drum. A nut is tightened against the bottom ring which allows you to put tension on the rim with the tuning lug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other Bongo Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n So that’s the anatomy of the bongo drums complete with pictures and descriptions. There are a couple other questions out there about different aspects of the bongo drums that I’ll address here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Are Big Bongos Called?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n What are sometimes mistakenly called big bongo drums are actually what are called conga drums<\/strong>. Conga drums are in fact a separate type of drum, providing a much deeper drum sound with much more bass. Bongo drums and conga drums are featured together in Latin music, and in fact, drum manufacturers often will make bongo and conga drums in a set with the same color and wood finish to match. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Do You Say Bongo?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The commonly accepted pronunciation of bongo is to pronounce the first “o” with an “ah” sound, like this: “bahn go”.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHowever, bongo drums originated in Cuba, a Spanish speaking country, so the technical pronunciation would be to pronounce the “o’s” in bongo <\/strong>the same, so would sound more like “bone go”<\/strong>, with the emphasis on “bone<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat is a Bongo Player Called?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The traditional title of the bongo player is the bongosero<\/strong>, pronounced “bone go sero” if pronouncing it in Spanish, or just “bahngo saraho (silent h)” if pronouncing it in English. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAlternatively, <\/strong>you can just say bongo player<\/strong> and that’s also acceptable and understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAre Bongo Drums African?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Because of African ancestry in Cuba, it’s undoubted that the bongo drums were influenced by African drum concepts. However, the bongo drums first appeared definitively in Cuba, and thus are featured in many Afro-Cuban music styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which Styles of Music Are the Bongo Drums Played?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Bongo drums are heard in a variety of music styles, but are featured prominently in many different Latin music styles and its derivatives, such as salsa, bachata, the Latin ballad, and many more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides Latin music, many jazz songs feature bongos, and you will hear it in some rock songs as well as in many indie genres. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whether you’re replacing parts on a bongo drum or you would just like to know its anatomy, it can be helpful to know the different sections and parts of a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"Bongos"},{"value":2,"label":"Instruments"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Bongo-Drum-Diagram-1024x768.jpg",640,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Peter Mitchell","author_link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/author\/thesoundadventurer\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"Bongos","slug":"bongos","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":2,"count":23,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":23,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Bongos","category_nicename":"bongos","category_parent":2},{"term_id":2,"name":"Instruments","slug":"instruments","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":105,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":105,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Instruments","category_nicename":"instruments","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}