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THE BONGO CLUB (Part 2, 3 and infinity)

Glad you like them. I rarely suggest strings, as tone is so subjective. But I truly feel these strings bring out the be(a)st in the Bongo.

I played some again this morning, they sound great. They have a great fingerstyle attack but aren't too ringy. Did not need to change set up at all. Looking forward to playing through my rig tonight at practice.
 
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I'm very excited to join the club. I just ordered the Stealth Pearl Bongo 6 direct from musicman. They are doing a custom pearl white finish for me with a wider sparkle in the finish and in the HS configuration... 2-3 month wait, here we go....
 
Howdy ya'll.

This seems to be the right place to ask about Bongos so here goes...

I have a Bongo 4 and it's one of the best basses I've ever owned - super light weight, sounds incredible, perfect playability and incredibly flexibly preamp.

The only problem is I primarily play extended range basses now.

But my experience with Music Man 5 strings (usually Stingrays) is that the fretboard is just narrow enough to allow the G-string to slip off the edge sometimes when I go to fret it. I've also seen this complaint many other times in talkbass threads.

Those of you who have owned (or played) both the 5 string and 6 string versions of the Bongo, can you tell me if this is a common issue as well for that particular bass as well?

Was hoping that maybe the fretboard of the 6 would be a little wider and not suffer from this as much.

Also, my 4 string balances perfectly.... but the headstock of the 6 is huge! Can anyone speak about the balance on their six string Bongo?
 
Howdy ya'll.

This seems to be the right place to ask about Bongos so here goes...

I have a Bongo 4 and it's one of the best basses I've ever owned - super light weight, sounds incredible, perfect playability and incredibly flexibly preamp.

The only problem is I primarily play extended range basses now.

But my experience with Music Man 5 strings (usually Stingrays) is that the fretboard is just narrow enough to allow the G-string to slip off the edge sometimes when I go to fret it. I've also seen this complaint many other times in talkbass threads.

Those of you who have owned (or played) both the 5 string and 6 string versions of the Bongo, can you tell me if this is a common issue as well for that particular bass as well?

Was hoping that maybe the fretboard of the 6 would be a little wider and not suffer from this as much.

Also, my 4 string balances perfectly.... but the headstock of the 6 is huge! Can anyone speak about the balance on their six string Bongo?

I have a StingRay 5 and a Bongo 5. Never had an issue with the G string on either bass.
 
Howdy ya'll.

This seems to be the right place to ask about Bongos so here goes...

I have a Bongo 4 and it's one of the best basses I've ever owned - super light weight, sounds incredible, perfect playability and incredibly flexibly preamp.

The only problem is I primarily play extended range basses now.

But my experience with Music Man 5 strings (usually Stingrays) is that the fretboard is just narrow enough to allow the G-string to slip off the edge sometimes when I go to fret it. I've also seen this complaint many other times in talkbass threads.

Those of you who have owned (or played) both the 5 string and 6 string versions of the Bongo, can you tell me if this is a common issue as well for that particular bass as well?

Was hoping that maybe the fretboard of the 6 would be a little wider and not suffer from this as much.

Also, my 4 string balances perfectly.... but the headstock of the 6 is huge! Can anyone speak about the balance on their six string Bongo?
I have both the Bongo 5 and StingRay 5. The string spacing and fretboard dimensions seem the same to me. I have, on occasion, had the G-string slip off the fretboard on both when playing above the 12th fret or so. Not so much an issue that improved technique could not solve.
 
... Can anyone speak about the balance on their six string Bongo?

Funny, I definitely have that problem but I primarily play my Bongo and haven't compared that on enough basses to say whether that's fretting technique or the bass itself. That being said, I always thought it was improper technique. This is the first time I'm questioning if it's the actually the bass...
 
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Ive had the g string on bongo 5s and c string on my 6 slip off while playing, but I'm not the best player out there.

I have an older 6 string and had a fretless 6 with the newer lighter tuners and they both balanced similarly with my big wide-ish strap. Theyre not perfectly balanced but they do it well enough that it doesnt get in the way much when I play, although I'm sure it would drive some other pickier players insane.
 
Ok, today I finally found a Music Man Bongo 5 string at my local music store.

After playing it for about 20 minutes I realized that the G-string does sit a little closer to the edge of the board than other basses I have owned... however, it wasn't a big deal. I was able to adjust to that just fine after a few minutes.

I fell in love with everything about the bass... it's a dark pewter sort of grey, and the string spacing is just perfect for me. The EQ is the most musical and powerful of any bass I've ever owned.

I went ahead and pulled the trigger and now am the owner of a beautiful, used 5-string Bongo!

Gonna try to get some pics and do a NBD thread soon. Seriously, I've gone through a LOT of basses and this is my absolute favorite yet.

Don't think I'll be getting rid of this anytime soon.
 
Ok, today I finally found a Music Man Bongo 5 string at my local music store.

After playing it for about 20 minutes I realized that the G-string does sit a little closer to the edge of the board than other basses I have owned... however, it wasn't a big deal. I was able to adjust to that just fine after a few minutes.

I fell in love with everything about the bass... it's a dark pewter sort of grey, and the string spacing is just perfect for me. The EQ is the most musical and powerful of any bass I've ever owned.

I went ahead and pulled the trigger and now am the owner of a beautiful, used 5-string Bongo!

Gonna try to get some pics and do a NBD thread soon. Seriously, I've gone through a LOT of basses and this is my absolute favorite yet.

Don't think I'll be getting rid of this anytime soon.
Congrats! What pickup configuration is it?
 
Congrats! What pickup configuration is it?

It's an HS... my four string is an HH.

I'm both of them I tend to favor the back pick up with a little bit of low mid boost and bass boost. And boosting the highs a little while cutting back the high mids.

For me that's been a great overall tone for both bases.

I'm not sure exactly what Ernie Ball calls the color.. it's a very dark grey, darker than the Egyptian smoke gray.

Right now it has a white pearloid pickguard, but I want to get a black pearloid pickguard for it.

I'll try to get some pictures with better lighting tomorrow, but this is what it looks like:
 
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