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NBD - Bongo, stingray

newwavefrank

newwavefrank

Gold Supporting Member
Supporting Member
Jul 30, 2009
752
1,531
Salt lake City, UT
#1
Yesterday this Bongo arrived. Birthday present to myself :). So far I like the feel and sound, but i will have to admit that I am still a little more enamored with the white Stingray classic which I got a couple of months ago. Something about the 2 band EQ just sounds better to my ears. I still need some more time with the Bongo though before I can say for sure. You never know until its been gigged with.
Music man collection.jpg
 
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#5
Having owned several Bongos as well as several Stingrays, Sterlings and other MM basses I may be able to help with a tip I learned only a few years back.

The Bongo is a beast. I used one exclusively for several years, then because of a Zep tribute started playing a Jazz and other passive basses. I'll spare you the long story and just say that I learned the Bongo becomes an altogether DIFFERENT beast, if you can get into the habit of considering 1/3 of the way up on all tone controls that center spot. When I started doing that and EQing my amp accordingly, I started getting a whole new set of sounds out of the Bongo. I could get it to fake a good jazz, P or pretty much anything else I wanted to. The one bass a Bongo however doesn't do all that well is a Stingray :) . It definitely has its own flavor though, and can get crazy funky, but in a different way.

Haven't played my Bongo in a long while, been playing short scales (Stingray mostly), but seeing one again may have inspired me to break mine out.

Anyway - congrats! If you want it to be a Stingray you might be disappointed. If you accept it for its differences and try what I said above, I think you may very well fall in love.
 
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#9
That's a fantastic collection. Congrats on the new Bongo! I've never owned one but have tried one out in a store. I didn't like the looks until then but, after playing it and finding out how good they feel and how great they sound, their looks were much less of a factor. They even strarted to grow on me.

Can't wait to hear your addessment after playing it out a few times.



Joe Nerve said:
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Anyway - congrats! If you want it to be a Stingray you might be disappointed. If you accept it for its differences and try what I said above, I think you may very well fall in love.
Click to expand...
Great suggestion. Let the bass be what it is and you might be surprised by how much you end up appreciating it!

Now if only we could learn to do that with other people, too .....
 
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#14
Joe Nerve said:
Having owned several Bongos as well as several Stingrays, Sterlings and other MM basses I may be able to help with a tip I learned only a few years back.

The Bongo is a beast. I used one exclusively for several years, then because of a Zep tribute started playing a Jazz and other passive basses. I'll spare you the long story and just say that I learned the Bongo becomes an altogether DIFFERENT beast, if you can get into the habit of considering 1/3 of the way up on all tone controls that center spot. When I started doing that and EQing my amp accordingly, I started getting a whole new set of sounds out of the Bongo. I could get it to fake a good jazz, P or pretty much anything else I wanted to. The one bass a Bongo however doesn't do all that well is a Stingray :) . It definitely has its own flavor though, and can get crazy funky, but in a different way.

Haven't played my Bongo in a long while, been playing short scales (Stingray mostly), but seeing one again may have inspired me to break mine out.

Anyway - congrats! If you want it to be a Stingray you might be disappointed. If you accept it for its differences and try what I said above, I think you may very well fall in love.
Click to expand...

Good post and great advice when getting a different bass.

While the initial impulse may be to find similar tones to what your already have, the fact is it is a different instrument and that it sounds different shouldn’t be a surprise. Trying to get it to sound like what you have negates a good part of the reason you bought a different bass.

Of course knowing the settings for common tones can be useful, but I’m my mind, I’d want to know what it’s going to give me in addition to what I already have, and or can’t get of what I have.
 
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#15
Congrats on the new bass. It looks great! I used to have a bongo in that same finish but I think mine was the HS configuration. I have an HH Bongo now and I love it. It's such a versatile instrument and definitely does it's own thing compared to the stingray. The stingray sound to me is more classic and old school whereas I find the bongo to be much more modern and hi-fi.
 
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#19
Joe Nerve said:
Having owned several Bongos as well as several Stingrays, Sterlings and other MM basses I may be able to help with a tip I learned only a few years back.

The Bongo is a beast. I used one exclusively for several years, then because of a Zep tribute started playing a Jazz and other passive basses. I'll spare you the long story and just say that I learned the Bongo becomes an altogether DIFFERENT beast, if you can get into the habit of considering 1/3 of the way up on all tone controls that center spot. When I started doing that and EQing my amp accordingly, I started getting a whole new set of sounds out of the Bongo. I could get it to fake a good jazz, P or pretty much anything else I wanted to. The one bass a Bongo however doesn't do all that well is a Stingray :) . It definitely has its own flavor though, and can get crazy funky, but in a different way.

Haven't played my Bongo in a long while, been playing short scales (Stingray mostly), but seeing one again may have inspired me to break mine out.

Anyway - congrats! If you want it to be a Stingray you might be disappointed. If you accept it for its differences and try what I said above, I think you may very well fall in love.
Click to expand...
I'm a little thick (and I just scored a Bongo 2 weeks ago).
So...
Turn all pots down to zero then up a third of the way to the center mark?
 
#20
Joe Nerve said:
Having owned several Bongos as well as several Stingrays, Sterlings and other MM basses I may be able to help with a tip I learned only a few years back.

The Bongo is a beast. I used one exclusively for several years, then because of a Zep tribute started playing a Jazz and other passive basses. I'll spare you the long story and just say that I learned the Bongo becomes an altogether DIFFERENT beast, if you can get into the habit of considering 1/3 of the way up on all tone controls that center spot. When I started doing that and EQing my amp accordingly, I started getting a whole new set of sounds out of the Bongo. I could get it to fake a good jazz, P or pretty much anything else I wanted to. The one bass a Bongo however doesn't do all that well is a Stingray :) . It definitely has its own flavor though, and can get crazy funky, but in a different way.

Haven't played my Bongo in a long while, been playing short scales (Stingray mostly), but seeing one again may have inspired me to break mine out.

Anyway - congrats! If you want it to be a Stingray you might be disappointed. If you accept it for its differences and try what I said above, I think you may very well fall in love.
Click to expand...
The OP should already have that Stingray sound covered by the looks of it!
 

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