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Bongo GAS


niceguyhomer
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[quote name='thedonutman' post='638325' date='Oct 27 2009, 06:56 PM']I'd love a bongo too, probably a white 5HH for me. My only gripe is that they've got painted necks - it's understandable why a set neck/neck-thru could be painted, but why would anybody want to paint the back of a bolt on neck?![/quote]


Have a look here and you'll see mine:

photobucket.com/cgordonfreemanbongo

Classy:)

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I've had a Bongo for about three months now - an orange 5HH - and have to say I'd liked these basses (well, from a distance) from the first time I clapped my eyes on them.

In reality, it's been a bit of a love/hate thing; I got the bass on a trade here and the setup wasn't really to my liking (strings buzzy/action low, pickups too high)...I took it along to a jam and actually felt well depressed after; it sounded great at home (at low volume), but in a rehearsal it was pretty awful. No sustain, little output, just horrible. I spent a couple of hours tweaking the setup it and while it's [i]better[/i], even after a handful of jams the GAS was arguably more exciting than owning the real thing.

I don't want to come over as sounding too underwhelmed, it plays great now, looks sweet, balances nicely, but I'm still not wholly happy. I guess at heart I'm a simple bloke as well; I prefer volume, or volume/tone, or volume/volume/tone (as opposed to volume/select/midsx2/tonex2) and I tend to find that when I start off at a jam it sounds nice, but four hours later (after having to tweak constantly) every control on the thing seems to have moved to the 100% position and it sounds pretty terrible. I would also say that it hates strings that have been on for a while.

Anyhow, I'll stick with it for now. It's back in the spare room and (for now at least) the Lakland is back on top.

P

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  • 4 weeks later...

[quote name='thedonutman' post='638325' date='Oct 27 2009, 06:56 PM']I'd love a bongo too, probably a white 5HH for me. My only gripe is that they've got painted necks - it's understandable why a set neck/neck-thru could be painted, but why would anybody want to paint the back of a bolt on neck?![/quote]

Ahhh.. Story time!

I went to a well respected Bass Stockist last January. It had been super-evil cold (and dry) the previous night (-6c)
For once I had a good budget and tried everything I liked the look of. So many basses were suffering from being cold that (whilst still playable) they'd all gone a bit dead. All the Warwicks, Overwaters, Laklands, Sandbergs (and many others) were not well at all.
The ones that had survived the cold night best had a couple of common denominators;

i) Some Graphite in the necks somewhere (Vigier, Status, Fender (!))
ii) Heavily Painted or Varnished necks (Bongo, Spectors)

So I think that a good coat of varnish (or paint) may help the neck retain moisture and therefore its stablity in cold environments (possibly)

I have to say that painted / varnished / satin / natural necks have never bothered me that much.

Oh yes, and the last Bongo I tried was excellent (4HH) and gave the Corvette $$ a royal battering!

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