Remo Festival Bongo Drum BG-5300-70 Black

I had a Remo djembe before and tested other Remo percussion instruments. They tend to have a higher pitch than similar instruments. They often have an advantage that they require little or no maintenance.

These bongos require some assembly. Normally bongos are sculpted to be held between the knees. That will not work with these bongos, you have to rest them on top of your knees.

The sound quality is amazing. The purchase price was less than $50 Canadian. A steal even at double the price.

We got these for our young kids to play. They were easy to assemble. The sound is mellow and not annoying. The drums are very durable, and they are holding up well with lots of enthusiastic toddler play.

As someone who has played hand drums professionally, I didn’t expect much from these bongos. However, they’re a nice, simple product, great for pick-up-and-play situations. They’re about as lightweight as you can realistically get, and they’re pre-tuned to authentic pitches. They’re much smaller than standard bongo sizes, but certainly useable. Build quality is just fine, though I was surprised that the head logos were upside down on my drums (facing away from the player when the smaller drum is on the player’s left as it’s supposed to be). I love that you put them together using wingscrews, so no tools are needed.

The sound quality is a bit of a roll of the dice, since these are permanently tuned at the factory. The bongos I got had a surprisingly nicely resonant bigger drum with good harmonics, but a clearly choked smaller drum. The edges of the heads aren’t as nice as a beautifully countoured bearing edge on real bongos, but they won’t tear your hands up either, at least if you’re playing with decent technique.

Note that these (at least the ones I got) no longer feature the super gaudy giant logos on the shells anymore as seen in the product images, and instead just have plain credit-card thick drum wrap all-around. Much better!

I’ll certainly use these in professional situations where I don’t want to lug around a bunch of heavy equipment, and that’s really saying something at this price point. They’re not “real” bongos, but they’re not toys, either, and it’s worth remembering that the first Cuban bongos weren’t all that different in spirit from these!

Over the last few years I have learned to play several musical instruments (Ukulele, flute, harmonica, hand drums, clave, and maracas) for recreation purposes. I have also taken many courses on line to improve my music playing skills. Even though I have several smaller drum percussion instruments I was searching for a Bongo drum set for a reasonable price.

Fortunately, I found this great Bongo (Remo BG-5300-70 Festival Black Bongo drums) set on Amazon for a bargain price. I cannot believe how fast it was delivered and it was easy to put together. The sound is fantastic and I practiced on it for an hour when I got it out of the box. I also belong to a drumming circle and I look forward to playing this Bongo set with a group of other drummers.

If you are seeking a good sounding and solid Bong drum set for a reasonable price you might want to check out this Remo brand. I am very happy with the purchase.
Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Martial Art and Warrior Haiku and Senryu).

Bongos seem pretty sturdy and have a good sound. Pretty good value for the money and packaged well.

They work great. Sound like more expensive instruments. The tacked on heads are really holding their taughtness/tuning. I’m very satisfied.

These bongos arrived tuned all wrong. I was so disappointed because I really wanted a set of cruelty-free bongos and Remo is really the only game in town that makes bongos with synthetic heads for vegans, vegetarians, and/or musicians who don’t want to support animal cruelty. I will keep looking for an alternative.