Number of pickguard screws on a Bongo?

[nicjimbass]

Hey all, quick question- where there any early Bongos with pick guards with 9 holes instead of 8? I bought a pick guard from Reverb, and failed to realize it came with 9. It was advertised as being for an older Bongo, and mine is from Dec 2003, pretty early in the production. Seller is claiming that it was for an early version, but I'm coming up empty handed online... not a single pic. Thanks!

 

[oddjob]

Mine is an 04 (I think if not it is a 03) --- 8 screws

 

[Edmang]

Didn't the Bongo come out in 2003? Would have had to have been the very first few basses if they came with 9 holes.

Maybe try contacting Music Man customer service to see if they can help?

Music Man Customer Service <[email protected]>

 

[JayDawg]

Every Bongo I have ever seen or owned has had 8 screws.

 

[Golem]

My oldest Boingo was a Desert Gold 5. Desert Gold
means it's of the earliest type. While I never counted
the PG screws I know for sure is had two screws near
the bridge, with no screw centered between them.

Any ODD number of screws would require a central
screw just below the A-string, cuz all the remaining
screws are more or less symmetrically arranged on
both sides of the PG.

Does your weird PG have a central hole nearest the
bridge ? If so, and if the other 8 holes are where they
belong, maybe someone decided to add a hole. If it's
NOT a 1H, I can see how someone might regard the
original set up as a bit risky. There's very little plastic
at the rear corners near the bridge humbucker unless
it's a 1H.

 

[nicjimbass]

My oldest Boingo was a Desert Gold 5. Desert Gold
means it's of the earliest type. While I never counted
the PG screws I know for sure is had two screws near
the bridge, with no screw centered between them.

Any ODD number of screws would require a central
screw just below the A-string, cuz all the remaining
screws are more or less symmetrically arranged on
both sides of the PG.

Does your weird PG have a central hole nearest the
bridge ? If so, and if the other 8 holes are where they
belong, maybe someone decided to add a hole. If it's
NOT a 1H, I can see how someone might regard the
original set up as a bit risky. There's very little plastic
at the rear corners near the bridge humbucker unless
it's a 1H.

It does have a central hole, just like you said. Not one of the holes line up.

In my haste to install the pickguard, I took off the protective plastic. That rendered it used, and the seller would only offer me a fraction of what I paid in trade. I made it work with double sided tape.

Every single pic I've seen has 8 holes. The seller swears they have personally seen a Bongo with 9. I dunno.

The seller said they purchased a bunch of stuff from the Perfect Bass, including this pickguard and others with 9 holes. They claim that PB told them that they were OEM, sent directly from EBMM. The holes, as well as some imperfections on the edge make me think otherwise.

Oh, and the seller, trying to make their point, sent me this pic, which "clearly" shows a 9-hole (actually 7-hole, but who's counting?) pickguard:

 

[nicjimbass]

Didn't the Bongo come out in 2003? Would have had to have been the very first few basses if they came with 9 holes.

Maybe try contacting Music Man customer service to see if they can help?

Music Man Customer Service <[email protected]>

I made this point to the seller. From what I gather from this forum, the first Bongos were originally shipped in late October 2003. Mine was finished in December of 2003. IF there were some early ones with 9 holes, they'd have to have been made in that month and a half period. I've owned 2 desert gold Bongos, and they bother had 8 holes.

I don't think this warrants bothering CS. Just wanted to see if I was missing something.