Ordering a Custom Bongo

[Moscovitch]

What's up y'all. After much deliberation, I've settled on a Bongo 4 banger. My question is, how do I go about ordering one suited to my choice of color of body, pickguard and type of neck wood? Part two of my question is how would one compare the sound of a HH Stingray to that of a HH Bongo?

[stingray96191]

Contact a dealer to see what your options are for ordering vs. what they may have in stock. Basscentral.com or Dubaldo's or The Perfect Bass are all great independent stores to work with. There is also guitar center. As far as i know, currently bongos can only be ordered with a maple neck that is painted to match the finish on the body. But you may find a dealer that still has a roasted maple neck in stock. CHeck out guitar center's platinum room. Just know color choices are going to be limeted. If i were going to be ordering a new bongo. I'd Be calling up Beaver or Grasshopper at Basscentral.com

[Golem]

`

About "part 2" .....

They're very different. The Ray ranges from mashed mudd
to very aggressive, but little of its range approaches "clean
tone". The Boingo, oh contry aire, is "Mr Clean".

If you're a slappy daddy you may be annoyed by the longer
scale on the Boingo. Control-wise, the Boingo has 4 bands
of EQ and, most signiifcantly, a fader/balancer for the PU's.
The Ray can play the inner or outer pair of single coils, but
the Boingo simply balances/fades between its 2 PU's which
are always humbucking [never single coil].

The Boingo has an 18 volt very-low-noise system, just in
case you do modern sessison work. OTOH, the Ray is very
hiss resistant for its genre [i.e. Leo-derived basses].

[stingray96191]

Both the bongo and the ray have the same 34" scale. They do have a different neck shape. The bongo is Smaller but not quite as small as a sterling or big al. The stingrays are meatier unless you order an slo special. Which is a sterling profile neck.

[Golem]

`
By "longer scale" I meant the extra 3 frets on the high end,
which some consider to be an intrusion into their slap space.

[adouglas]

how do I go about ordering one suited to my choice of color of body, pickguard and type of neck wood?

Just to be clear here, there are several color, pickguard and pickup options. Those are what you may choose from, and no, if it's not listed you can't get it. EBMM does not do "custom" orders, period, unless you're an endorsed artist. If you work out the math for all combinations of pickguard, color and pickups, you'll find that there are currently 288 different flavors of Bongo 4 string. If you limit that to just the HH without piezo, the number of available combinations is 48.

That's based on current production options. There are still some NOS basses out there in the dealer network that sport discontinued finishes.

There isn't a great deal of stock out there especially since Guitar Center stopped buying Bongos except on a special order basis, but it does exist. All EBMM basses are built when a dealer orders one, and most dealers don't order Bongos for inventory. A black/black/maple SR4 is a safe thing to hang on the wall because it's the single most popular color/fretboard/bass combination. A Bongo... not so much.

The notable exceptions are the dealers already noted. I'm fortunate enough to have Pete DuBaldo almost in my back yard (well, an hour away) so he's my go-to guy.

If you don't find what you want in stock and decide to order, the production backlog generally runs about four months. The wait IS worth it.