Gon Bops, along with Vajie are the oldest US conga manufacturers that had tuneable modern crowns. Both have an authentic Cuban sound. Gon Bops date back to the 50s.

Santana's drummers used them on the early albums, Jose Chepito Areas played Gon Bops and tuned them high. His solo work stands out as more stacato and aggressive as opposed to Michael Carabello. Carabello played a nice solo too, but really shined on the rythym parts, his Vajies tuned lower than Chepito's drums.

I believe Gon Gops are the best out there, but are getting harder to find since the factory closed in '98. No one is making the drum anymore. The older drums tend to go out of round (not so bad for the sound, I've got a bad a$$ quinto that is escentric) and the chrome tends to pit and peal. A mint drum in my estimation is worth more than any new drum on the market.

Valjie was bought up by LP and the new drums are now made in Asia and similar to all the other LPs out there. Original mint Valjies can bring a price even greater than Gon Bops.

Now about prices; you should pay about 2/3 retail or less. Akbar will sell you a Sol (a great drum styled after Valjie) for $800 or sell it for $600, maybe. Swing a deal.

Timba by the way are NOT Gon Bops, but I believe some of the people making them are ex-Gon Bop employees. I have examined and played on a few Timba and I'm not real impressed. The sound wasn't there, and the hardware showed grinder marks under the chrome. But they are expensive.