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Trying to like the Bongo...

GeneralElectric

GeneralElectric

Dec 26, 2007
10,314
1,375
36
NY, NY
#1
Howdy all,

So one of my basses got stolen recently, and I've been looking for a replacement and I want a tone machine. So I thought to myself, well everyone seems to like the Bongo.

A local store who knows me offered to sell me a Stealth Bongo for $600 with case out the door. Its been sitting there and no one even touches it.

I'm a P-bass with flats kind of guy, but I figured this is an opportunity to get out and live a little. So I plug the bongo in the store demo amp (some tiny thing, whose brand I don't recall but usually sounds pretty good)

Noodling around its very comfortable to play sitting down or standing and the neck is very comfortable with no neck dive and its a joy to play. The pickups seem very responsive and its extremely easy to do harmonics on this, they just seem to jump out at you.

Unfortunately, to my ears, its sterile as hell and a bit dull (lifeless?). Very clean and hi-fi if you ask me. Fiddling around with all the knobs I still can't get a sound I like out of it. It still has the original strings it shipped with and a store set-up. They got the Bongo when it first came out and its been sitting there ever since.

Could this be the amp or the strings or both? Or does it just shine in a band setting?

I'm trying really hard to like this as its such a steal.:hmm:
 
#10
The Bongo is worth three times that price (in fact that's what it sells for new). Buy it. It's definitely not sterile. It was probably just the cheap cruddy amp. It takes a bit to get used to dialing in the EQ, but when you get it, you'll be hooked for life.

Buy the Bongo.
 
#12
Lesfunk said:
Don't buy a bass you don't like
Click to expand...

+1

There is a lot of good advice in this thread, but this is the best.

Try the bass through a different, bigger, better amp. Better yet, take your amp to the store and play the bass through it.

If the bass doesn't do it for you after trying all of that, then don't buy it.

And this is coming from somebody who loves the Bongo, and things it is one of the best production basses around.
 
#14
GeneralElectric said:
Howdy all,

So one of my basses got stolen recently, and I've been looking for a replacement and I want a tone machine. So I thought to myself, well everyone seems to like the Bongo.

A local store who knows me offered to sell me a Stealth Bongo for $600 with case out the door. Its been sitting there and no one even touches it.

I'm a P-bass with flats kind of guy, but I figured this is an opportunity to get out and live a little. So I plug the bongo in the store demo amp (some tiny thing, whose brand I don't recall but usually sounds pretty good)

Noodling around its very comfortable to play sitting down or standing and the neck is very comfortable with no neck dive and its a joy to play. The pickups seem very responsive and its extremely easy to do harmonics on this, they just seem to jump out at you.

Unfortunately, to my ears, its sterile as hell and a bit dull (lifeless?). Very clean and hi-fi if you ask me. Fiddling around with all the knobs I still can't get a sound I like out of it. It still has the original strings it shipped with and a store set-up. They got the Bongo when it first came out and its been sitting there ever since.

Could this be the amp or the strings or both? Or does it just shine in a band setting?

I'm trying really hard to like this as its such a steal.:hmm:
Click to expand...


That's the way I hear those basses. It feels like I am 'playing the preamp'. That's not necessarily bad, but it isn't my idea of a good time.
 
#17
If you're a P bass with flats kinda guy, you probably won't like it in the long run. Personally, I kept trying to get a P bass sound out of the Bongo I used to own, but to no avail. There are guys around here that LOVE the Bongo. It's really funny for me - I love the way the Bongo sounds when other people are playing it...? Even the guys in my band loved it! I may have liked the single pickup bongo better. Mine was an HH.

But a Stealth for $600? Man, what are you waiting for???????
 
#18
I cant get an exact P-bass tone from my bongo, but I can get in the ballpark by having my blend knob favoring the neck pickup about 75% and boosting some low mids and rolling back some of the treble. It is still very clean sounding and every note is distinct but I think thats what makes the bongo so great to begin with.
 
#20
I felt the same way when I tried the Bongo in the store but when I played one with a band, it sounded awesome. To me, it is definitely a bass that is meant to be played in the mix as opposed to solo. I play mine through my headphone amp and it sounds a little clanky and sterile but in a band setting is sits really nice and can growl like a J and thump like a P. It's kind of a strange phenomenom with that bass. When I record with it, I never like how it sounds in my headphones but when the recording is played back, it just sounds amazing.
 

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