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Ebay DIY bongo bass kit? $199?

#41
yeah actually marshall is an English company not usa, as far as the. my point actually remains though these DIY kits are not copyright violating anything regardless of what the copyright goon squad says, they are simply inexpensive DIY kits and no where do ANY of them claim you will get a high end instrument by building one, sure you can get one that LOOKS like an expensive one but it wont be one. you can actually improve the sound from them by using better electronics but it still wont be the high end name brand one, even if you get it to sound and play like one it still isn't the expensive brand name one.

if i had the money i would have bought one of these myself but the one i wanted was the 6 string version of the bongo that apparently is no longer available and since i now have my vintage epi 5 string ( i consider it vintage because it is 20 + years ( 23 if i am correct) old.

i am still thinking about one of these 4 string bongo DIY kits but i am also thinking of another DIY les paul kit and regardless i have to save up for one first. if i ever did manage to get up the cash for the kit and supplies to build one of these bongo bass kits i would definatley post up some pics as i progressed through the build with my honest opinions about it. i built a coupld of those DIY strats and one was a complete pleasure to build and sounded great with zero issues on stock electronics the other one came from a different company ( albatross if memory serves me correctly) and that was a complete nightmare because the frets had to be pulled and completely redone.

in essence these DIY kits are cheap for a reason and it has been said that these might actually be farmed out for production as learning tools as well as those that don't pass inspection during the build from the company. MM actually licensed out the mm bass to olp and when it came time to renew mm decided not to and instead started making them theirselves under the stingray name ( or so i have been told)

i would love to get another DIY lp kit and a bongo bass kit, but the lp i want to customize from the start and that is going to require at least 850.00 to get everything i need for that, the bongo bass kit would be cheaper but there are still a couple of things i would want to do with it so i would probably need another 250.00 + for that LOL
 
#42
As a way of learning to put a bass together, I can see how this can be fun as long as you realize the $199 is the price paid for taking the "course" and the end result may look like a facsimile of the Bongo but it will certainly not sound like one. You could of course upgrade the components etc. and go the extra mile and make it into a fairly decent player but it will cost quite a bit of money.

I would love to get one for the fun of it (wife is an artist so she can go hog wild with designing something to paint on the bass) and perhaps brand it "BOINGO" ... then frame it above the mantleplace. :)
 
#43
max that is exactly what I am saying they are fun to build and nto intended to be the real thing. it is really highly irritating when the copyright goon squad jump in and spout their nonsense, if they really want to flame something they should flame the 100% assembled fakes that try to make and exact copy including the serial numers and logos ( like the CHibson les pauls). these little diy kits aren't hurting the bottom line.

I do believe that there are some out their that try to pass them off as the real thing after finished but the tell tale signs would be far to easy to spot.
 
#45
lordraptor1 said:
sadly these companies keep catching flak from the anti counterfit goon squads when MOST of these diy guitar makers are legit and are making diy kits for educational purposes.
Click to expand...

My bad, I thought they were in business to make money.

And here it turns out.....they're actually philanthropists, trying to "educate" people. Wow, who knew? ;)

(BS meter in this thread is pegged)
 
#46
I used my kit to build a fretless Frankenstein Bongo
20171126_134746.jpg
 
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#48
it sounds great......used a 3 band chinese electronics set and it works real well with it. The fretless neck was a bit shorter than the one supplied in the kit, so I had to mount the bridge a bit further south to get the full 34 in. scale. The strings are La Bella copper core nylon wrap Deep Talkin' Bass
 

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