Since downsizing my vintage drum collection to four drum sets and one cocktail set, I haven't taken on any projects....until today. I opened a bongo drum carrying bag that i hadn't opened in a few years. To my surprise, what I found in there was my drum set bongos of mixed parentage. I wrapped these bongos in various satin flames to go with what I called my Clown Barf set of orphan drums

I thought that the shells might be Ludwig because of the white paint on the interiors of the 5x6 and 5x8 drum shells. I remember replacing the flimsy, bent-up, and rusty bongo drum hoops with conventional tom tom hoops. The 6" drum has a four lug hoop and the 8" drum has a five lug hoop. Here's where the crazy part comes in. And, I don't remember the specifics. I now think that these were Slingerland bongos because many of the washers for the lug screws are Slingerland-embossed cup washers. The lugs are Leedy that dropped right into the original lug holes with no need to do any adjustments.

Now, comes the project I have in mind. Precision carries a wrap that they call Charcoal Pearl. The pictures of this wrap look exactly like the factory-original wrap on my near mint 1963 Leedy Shelly Manne drum set. I always called the wrap Black Diamond Pearl. But, those of us familiar with Slingerland and SlingerLeedy drums from the mid- twentieth century know that the BDP wrap they used had a much larger random pattern with a lot more "life" in it with color variations of black, grey, and silver. Well. for less than $50, I will have pre-cut wrap to apply to these shells, I also plan to repaint the interiors. I will paint the center block black. I still have the floor stand somewhere in my stash of hardware and stands. I'll post progress reports over the next couple of weeks.