5 String Musicman neck comomnality

[Coarsebass]

Musicman experts,

I've always been a fan of Musicmans, but I've never pulled the trigger on one. I'm thinking a chunk of my next bonus is getting carved out for a Reflex 5, in White, HSS.

My question is about MM 5 string necks. I'm never going to find a Reflex 5 in the wild to test out, so I'm hoping to find another MM with an equivlent neck. MM specs are sparse for necks, but I've devined the following from the website.

SR Classics have a slightly thinner neck with a tighter radius, vs the SR, Sterling, and Big Al, who's 1st, and last fret widths are identical, all with 11" radii. At the level of detail the specs give me, they're identical.

The Bongo and Reflex share the same neck specs, but the width is specified at the last fret, which is 24 for the Bongo and 22 for the Reflex, so if that's accurate the Reflex would actually be a bit chunkier.

Chunky is good, I don't like being to cramped on a five.

The only MM 5s I've ever played have been the recent Ray SUB series - nice basses, but the neck felt tight, cramped.

How similar are necks across MM 5s? If the SUB has a neck equivelent deminesioanly to the SR/Sterling/Big Al, I'm not really going to dig those basses. How much variation from model to model is there in terms of profile, thickness, etc? If I find a Bongo in Peoria, Il, to play, will I get a good representation of the Reflex neck?

 

[KevinM]

Here's a link to the Reflex product review page on the Music Man website
Reflex Bass 5

Compare the neck measurements to other basses on their website to see if any match

 

[Coarsebass]

Here's a link to the Reflex product review page on the Music Man website
Reflex Bass 5

Compare the neck measurements to other basses on their website to see if any match

Reread my post - I've done exactly that. EBMM specs are lacking, and there is no exact match.

 

[sanderhermans]

Here's a link to the Reflex product review page on the Music Man website
Reflex Bass 5

Compare the neck measurements to other basses on their website to see if any match

You should read a bit better. He allready compared those sizes.... its compared in the original post.

 

[KevinM]

You should read a bit better. He allready compared those sizes.... its compared in the original post.

Pardon me for being in a hurry. Have anything helpful to add?

 

[sanderhermans]

Pardon me for being in a hurry. Have anything helpful to add?

Nope i have 0 experience on 5 strings... nothing at all to add to this altough i have heard ebmm 5 strings have a pretty narow neck in comparison to their 4 string counterparts so im not sure if you should buy one without trying it if you dont like narrow necks coarsebass....

 

[KevinM]

Nope i have 0 experience on 5 strings... nothing at all to add to this

I guess I can say the same for myself considering I posted a link to info that he already had.

Except maybe this.

If I find a Bongo in Peoria, Il, to play, will I get a good representation of the Reflex neck?

I have several Bongos and a Reflex. They have a different feel. Somebody pointed out the location of the strap buttons relative to the neck. With the Bongo being closer to the headstock it pulls the headstock closer to your body and is an easier reach. The longer reach of the Reflex tends to create some neck dive.
For what it's worth, my Reflex sounds better than my Bongos. It has more versatility in sound and is hard to beat. The Bongos come close but have a different tone. I have replaced my Reflex with my fretless Bongo as my working bass but that's because I like the fretless, want to give my Reflex a break for a while, and the fretless single H Bongo sounds good enough that it is an adequate replacement.

 

[donkelley]

Adequate the man says. Fretless bongo is adequate.

My USA sub 5 fretless is more than adequate. Your bongo is a step or two up I would think with that eq...

.... Meant in fun ;-)

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[KevinM]

Adequate the man says. Fretless bongo is adequate.

My USA sub 5 fretless is more than adequate. Your bongo is a step or two up I would think with that eq...

.... Meant in fun ;-)

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

It's all relative to the Reflex. Being an adequate replacement for that is saying a lot.
My other basses are killer but the Reflex is king.

 

[donkelley]

Just shows how high a pedestal the reflex sits upon.. . and from what I've read and heard it's well deserved.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Coarsebass]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. It sounds like the Reflex 5 neck might not be for me...I need to get my hands on a Bongo.

 

[dmarotta]

I use a 20th Ann 5 ( Reflex ) and Bongo 5's and have no issues going back and forth as the spacing and widths of the neck are the same.
One important difference that someone else pointed out is that the strap mounting points are different so the Reflex headstock will sit father out compared to the Bongo.As for sound , they are different animals . Lots of pickup combos are available so it depends on what speaks to you. My Reflex is a dbl.H and I have Bongos in Single H and dbl H.My go to bass is the Bongo dbl H. I wouldn't discount either bass until you can try one.

 

[sanderhermans]

Imo the reflex is the last ebmm bass i would buy. I think its just a bit too expecive and compared to other models, where does that extra money go to? Some additional neck dive. I bet the reflex sounds and plays great but so does the stingray, bongo , sterling, big all, ....

 

[KevinM]

Imo the reflex is the last ebmm bass i would buy. I think its just a bit too expecive and compared to other models, where does that extra money go to? Some additional neck dive. I bet the reflex sounds and plays great but so does the stingray, bongo , sterling, big all, ....

I'll bet you never played one either.
The neck dive isn't bad. I never even thought about it until someone here talked about it.
I usually only have to pull it up a few inches when I'm playing really active bass lines where I have to see the fretboard.
The regular price is higher but I got mine on sale from GC for less than I paid for my Honey Roasted Bongo.