Incoming NBD - Bongo

[drTStingray]

13 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

That white Bongo is one of my favourite basses on Basschat. It does remind me of something else though...

 

 

Thanks - it does draw admiring comments when I take it to a gig (which is very very rare!!) And absolutely - I remember standard daleks, red ones and the black Dalek but don’t recall those - they’re excellent!! 
 

I somewhat got away with it Saturday night - the neck plus headstock is quite long and I bashed it a couple of times - thankfully no headstock chip!! (Talk about a long bass, I can barely reach the D string to tune it when on a strap 🥴 no problem playing it though!) 

[Eldon Tyrell]

4 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

@drTStingray love that sabre

Agree, that Sabre looks killer 🤩

[drTStingray]

7 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

@drTStingray love that sabre

Thanks @AndyTravis I’ve had a few unsolicited offers to buy it - I’ve never been able to get it confirmed but i think it may be unique and if not, super rare. It has a mahogany body and a very early version of the roasted maple neck. Some day, if one crops up, I might get a 30th Anniversary Ray - they also have a mahogany body - but few and far between with the original case etc on the used market these days. 
 

What is a bit odd about the purchase of that bass is I tried to get a Diego blue one but S and T had one of every colour in the U.K. EXCEPT that one!! A few months later EBMM announced the Neptune blue PDN offering - so I immediately ordered the Sabre - couldn’t be happier about it in every way 😀

Edited March 21, 2022 by drTStingray

[Eldon Tyrell]

Just now, drTStingray said:

Thanks @AndyTravis I’ve had a few unsolicited offers to buy it - I’ve never been able to get it confirmed but i think it may be unique and if not, super rare. It has a mahogany body and a very early version of the roasted maple neck. Some day, if one crops up, I might get a 30th Anniversary Ray - they also have a mahogany body - but few and far between with the original case etc on the used market these days. 

It quite likely is the only one. I've done a lot of digging and I only came across this one. 

[drTStingray]

3 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

It quite likely is the only one. I've done a lot of digging and I only came across this one. 

Scott Ball said he didn’t recall them making many!! Station Music had a Sterling in this spec a few years back - I think that was probably unique as well. 

[AndyTravis]

1 minute ago, drTStingray said:

Scott Ball said he didn’t recall them making many!! Station Music had a Sterling in this spec a few years back - I think that was probably unique as well. 

BFR Neptune Blue?

[Eldon Tyrell]

1 minute ago, drTStingray said:

Scott Ball said he didn’t recall them making many!! Station Music had a Sterling in this spec a few years back - I think that was probably unique as well. 

Pro Music Tools had both a PDN Neptune Blue Stingray 4HH and a Stingray 4HS, but no Bongo! 

[horrorshowbass]

+1 on the Sabre tooth stinger

[drTStingray]

On 19/03/2022 at 21:26, AndyTravis said:

Just played mine for 30 mins - lovely thing - still want to do some tweaks.

 

must admit - that neck humbucker and 24 frets…right in the way 🙄

 

I have to work around it

They take a little bit of getting used to with the 24 feet neck - I sometimes used to find myself getting a little lost above say 14th/15th fret - partially because of being unaccustomed to the extra length of neck above 12th fret. 
 

In terms of slapping, I play several songs which have it - I’ve now mastered doing this on a two pick up Musicman bass and of course the Bongos are both fives, which add another complexity.

 

The single H Stingray is, of course, a monster bass for slapping and so much room available to do it - I think it’s really a matter of practice getting used to doing it on an HH. 

[AndyTravis]

6 minutes ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

Pro Music Tools had both a PDN Neptune Blue Stingray 4HH and a Stingray 4HS, but no Bongo! 

This was for sale at guitar guitar a while ago 🤦🏻

[drTStingray]

8 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

BFR Neptune Blue?

BFR Neptune Blue Sabre - they were mostly Bongos and Stingrays - a guy in the US contacted me as he has a Classic Stingray in BFR Neptune blue. 

[AndyTravis]

2 minutes ago, drTStingray said:

They take a little bit of getting used to with the 24 feet neck - I sometimes used to find myself getting a little lost above say 14th/15th fret - partially because of being unaccustomed to the extra length of neck above 12th fret. 
 

In terms of slapping, I play several songs which have it - I’ve now mastered doing this on a two pick up Musicman bass and of course the Bongos are both fives, which add another complexity.

 

The single H Stingray is, of course, a monster bass for slapping and so much room available to do it - I think it’s really a matter of practice getting used to doing it on an HH. 

I’ve been working on it - can manage it much more since that video.

 

I don’t even slap that much in the band 😂

[drTStingray]

1 minute ago, AndyTravis said:

I’ve been working on it - can manage it much more since that video.

 

I don’t even slap that much in the band 😂

For me it’s so embarrassing if I’m playing a song with bits of slap in, and because I’m using a bass I’m less accustomed to, my accuracy goes to pieces - I think it’s just practice but using any sort of 5 string has sometimes made me have that feeling of panic!! 

[drTStingray]

For anyone with an orange Bongo, the pg on mine is an OE one, back in the days when they offered a lot of variants - the swirls are orange and black - called tiramisu, I think they’re still available from Chandler (Pickguard Planet) in the US - they are EBMM’s supplier - must get a new black one for my Sabre - current one is heavily scuffed from use!!! 
 

PS you can get cheap Stingray pgs on the internet but judging by the standard of a white pearl one that came on a used 1993 Blueburst Stingray I bought (the pg delaminated within a few months) it’s worth paying the extra for a decent one IMHO. 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by drTStingray

[ern500evo]

I always thought the orange and tangerine Bongo would’ve looked great with black hardware 

[drTStingray]

6 minutes ago, ern500evo said:

I always thought the orange and tangerine Bongo would’ve looked great with black hardware 

Yeah agree - maybe we’ll see an LE one sometime - unfortunately at an eye watering price I guess 😂

[ern500evo]

4 minutes ago, drTStingray said:

Yeah agree - maybe we’ll see an LE one sometime - unfortunately at an eye watering price I guess 😂

No doubt! Looking at prices now, it’s staggering that I paid about £1250 for my 4HS Stealth brand new! 

[Eldon Tyrell]

1 hour ago, ern500evo said:

I always thought the orange and tangerine Bongo would’ve looked great with black hardware 

Yes, that would look very tempting indeed!

[ped]

On 18/03/2022 at 23:23, drTStingray said:

What happened to the pink keyboard featured in profile pic, @ped

Found it, just for you 😘

[drTStingray]

5 hours ago, ped said:

Found it, just for you 😘

Thank heavens for that!! Forum software glitch??? 😂

[drTStingray]

On 22/03/2022 at 12:28, ern500evo said:

No doubt! Looking at prices now, it’s staggering that I paid about £1250 for my 4HS Stealth brand new! 

They’ve not been that price new since the 2000s - that’s 20 yrs ago 😀!! Seems amazing, I know. I bought a new SR5 in 2003 for £1295 - at the same time I was considering an immaculate Inca silver 77 pre Ernie Ball Stingray at the Bass Centre - previously owned by a famous musician - it was £1700 - there are only around 130 Inca silver pre EB instruments recorded in the CLF days. 
 

However a good portion of the price hike on new instruments has been since the world has gone a bit mad, over the last couple of years. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by drTStingray

[ern500evo]

1 minute ago, drTStingray said:

They’ve not been that price new since the 2000s - that’s 20 yrs ago 😀!! Seems amazing, I know. I bought a new SR5 in 2003 for £1295 - at the same time I was considering an immaculate Inca silver 77 pre Ernie Ball at the Bass Centre - previously owned by a famous musician - it was £1700.
 

However a good portion of the price hike on new instruments has been since the world has gone a bit mad, over the last couple of years. 

I bought it in 2014! 

[drTStingray]

9 minutes ago, ern500evo said:

I bought it in 2014! 

The normal new price of say, a Musicman Classic Sabre at this time was circa £2k so I would expect a Bongo to be similar, unless very very NOS on clearance reduction. 

[ern500evo]

20 minutes ago, drTStingray said:

The normal new price of say, a Musicman Classic Sabre at this time was circa £2k so I would expect a Bongo to be similar, unless very very NOS on clearance reduction. 

The 4 string Bongo in the stealth finish was averaging at around £1850 at most retailers. I trawled the internet for days. Even to the point of speaking with Beaver Felton in the US about the possibility of giving him a holding deposit so that a friend could collect it for me while on holiday the following month. Then I came across an ad for a shop in the Netherlands who had some Bongos on their website, but not a Stealth. I emailed and asked by any chance did they have a Stealth 4 string in stock, and got a swift reply saying they only had one and it was a 4HS. I asked the price, including shipping, taxes etc and it was £1250 for the bass plus shipping. He got me a fixed quote and it came in at around £1285 all in. I ordered it on the Tuesday and and it was on my doorstep by Thursday morning 

Edited March 23, 2022 by ern500evo

[drTStingray]

Excellent - and pre Brexit 🥴 bargains are often possible with luck and perseverance!!