Style: Absolute beauty. The camera doesn't do it justice, my coworker said she HATED the color when seeing the pics when I ordered it but when it came in she LOVED it. Cabernet Pearl HH piezo 5. Everyone says right away that looks REALLY expensive which is odd because a Fender, Big Al, Sterling HH is around the same cost (Not nearly the reaction as seeing the Bongo). It just has a presence and lay people can see it & feel it for sure.
EQ: I bought sight unseen, watched some of Ed Friedlands clips though. I have a Sterling HH 4 stringer but do to a church project needed a 5 string that could be diverse. I have NOT played a lot of 5 string & I expected this to be my 1 & only 5 string going forward. The Bongo did exactly what I needed it to. 1. Diverse tones 2. Smoother less aggressive for gospel stuff. Knowing your EQ is very important with this bass. 1st... the low mid control is EXTREMELY powerful & can bleed to notes way on the G string. A very little adjustment is all thats needed to the + side, I find that it can be too harsh far from centered. The aggressive MM tone is found with low mids boosted a little, high mids boosted & lows cut. If I want a round P bass less aggressive tone I cut the low mids A LOT & have the lows slightly boosted. The trick for my tastes was not boosting or cutting both the lows & low mids at the same time; 1 or the other. The high mid control is a more gradual change in tone so the extremes are still very musical, same goes for the treble, you can have it cranked & still not feel its to harsh. I felt it was similar to the low & low mid EQ relationship... I had one cut & one boosted for high mids & treble usually but its not a MUST like the lows.
Pickups: I will agree that the bridge pickup is NOT in the sweet spot as they say. I LOVE my Sterling HH bridge pickup soloed but I really found myself staying pretty much center between the pickups. I honestly have been working on getting the EQ down more than testing which EQ works best for which pickup blend combo as of yet. PIEZO: Its nice to have but by no means an absolute must. I like setting a nice warm tone & if I feel I have to add some growl add some piezo, usually well below 50%. You would think you could just blend to the bridge pickup just the same but theres just something slightly better to my ears about using the piezo on the fly without having to change your favorite pickup blend spot & EQ you know? I'll have to play with that more for sure.
vs the Sterling HH: Who wins? Its not even close for myself, its the Sterling HH. I love the 5 position switch. I love the simplicity of the EQ & I actually would consider it as diverse with a bias towards aggression vs the Bongo. While I can't get my Sterling HH to be as smooth, round, polite as the Bongo not having that singled bridge pickup of the Sterling HH or H would be a huge gap, and is my favorite go to tone. I used to play in a cover band with a Sterling H & I made that work somehow, the Sterling HH was FANTASTIC for that. The Bongo would be a touch trickier to change on the fly. I can TOTALLY understand why people love Bongos & would want one over a Sterling\Stingray. I'm a Less Than Jake, Blink 182, MXPX punk rock guy at heart & couldn't give that Stringray tone up ever.
This Bongo HHp has found its resting place, I RARELY sell instruments I love & my Sterling H only was sold because I found this on Craigslist for $800 NEW with 15 pairs of strings.
