Ebony and Ivory Bongo Swap

[markbass99]

I've been wanting to put black hardware on my white Bongo for some time now and I finally decided to rob the Stealth's hardware and bling out the Stealth w/chrome for a cheap sale (since I really want a stealth w/ebony board). So the Stealth is now a "satin black" Bongo 5HH w/chrome and is already being offered to a long time forumite who wants to try a fiver. The swap was not easy due to the piezo on the white but I got-r-done and everything is working good on both basses.

 

[markbass99]

And the final results-

 

[Duarte]

That white one looks so cool. Those chrome piezo saddles actually work very well with the black bridge. Styyyyyyyyyylish indeed sir!

just looking over those pics again, man, you are one daring dude! Well done on your Bongo-surgery.

 

[five7]

Incredible!!!

 

[danny-79]

Great stuff! the white bongo looks great.

 

[the unrepentant]

sweet, the white one looks great, not so sure about chrome on stealth though

 

[bovinehost]

Love 'em both! Nicely done. Chrome knobs on the black one would rule.

 

[RobertB]

very cool

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Love 'em both! Nicely done. Chrome knobs on the black one would rule.

Do they even make chrome knobs for Bongos?

I agree, it would look cool!

 

[five7]

Chrome knobs and pickup covers.

 

[fly]

Love 'em both! Nicely done. Chrome knobs on the black one would rule.

yup...chromes would throw that bass over the top........nicely done on both man.

 

[keko]

That white one looks so cool. Those chrome piezo saddles actually work very well with the black bridge. Styyyyyyyyyylish indeed sir!

just looking over those pics again, man, you are one daring dude! Well done on your Bongo-surgery.

+1

Man You are incredible enthusiast! Well done!

Talking about look, this white now looks better, but stealth is not nice any more to me! (my personal point of view)

 

[Sterling_Bass]

The White Bongo looks excellent. Nice job.

 

[Aussie Mark]

No black laces on the sneakers? FAIL

 

[markbass99]

The White Bongo looks excellent. Nice job.

I'm really pleased with how the White Bongo turned out and that the piezo still works, I guess it's not rocket science. I've been looking at pics of other regular black bongos and there's not much difference between them and my stealth now. The others have a white nut, chrome pickup poles and neck plate, and gloss black body w/contrasting pick guard. All black bongos have satin black necks.

 

[markbass99]

No black laces on the sneakers? FAIL

I'm gonna get right on that, I think I'll steal some from my black pair tonight.....

 

[shakinbacon]

wowza

Markbass,
Thanks for posting this, you have my respect for putting so much effort into this and having the guts (which I lack) to go through with such an endeavor.

Seeing that you are uniquely qualified to answer this, I was hoping you could comment on the difference in tone the piezo bridge makes (using only magnetic pickups (ie no piezo signal)). As you know, the piezo saddles are more massive than the non piezo counterparts. I'm wondering what affect this has.

Thanks!

 

[quadrogong]

wait..how did u get a white Bongo?

 

[markbass99]

Markbass,
Thanks for posting this, you have my respect for putting so much effort into this and having the guts (which I lack) to go through with such an endeavor.
Seeing that you are uniquely qualified to answer this, I was hoping you could comment on the difference in tone the piezo bridge makes (using only magnetic pickups (ie no piezo signal)). As you know, the piezo saddles are more massive than the non piezo counterparts. I'm wondering what affect this has.
Thanks!

I don't think the piezo saddles by themselves change the sound of the magnetic pickups, at least nothing that I can detect. They just seem to be a squarer version of the non-piezo round saddles.

wait..how did u get a white Bongo?

Musicman made a few white Bongos in 2004 before they realized that the gloss white bodies were hard to color match with the satin white necks, so they discontinued the color. Interestingly enough, Rickenbacker also stopped offering white by 1999 and said that it was too hard to get consistant quality. So yeah, white basses of either are hard to find.

 

[Stephen]

Nice job indeed!

The white Bongo looks ... well, complete ... now. I dig chrome hardware on most instruments, it's tried and tested as well, but i never really felt it was the best (optical) choice for the Bongo. The shapes of this bass are so distinctive that shiny hardware actually seems distracting and, forgive me, dated.

I would totally dig if EBMM were generally switching to matte/satin/titanium/black hardware (take your pick) on the Bongo and leave the shiny bits to the other models. And while I'm at it, reintroduce white Bongos as "Snow Stealth", i.e. paint the whole bass in the satin finish used for the necks. This would take care of mismatches when the finish ages and would actually enhance the visual appearance of the Bongo's shape, just like (matte) clay renderings do in prototyping.

OK, maybe I'm getting carried away a bit, but when it comes to distinctive shapes I am like that.