bongo 5 HH question

[wikifishy]

Hi all
This is my first post her
I have a bongo 5HH for a month now, love the versality and the WEIGHT.I trade it with a stingray HH, mostly because of the weight.
Anyway, i hear everywere about bongos balls and power, but in contrast to my previus stingray, this bongo lack balls.
It has a nice tone with flat eq, but a little anemic for me.Stingray was more mid present.I boost low mids near full on bongo to cut in the mix.My batteries are fresh

Is this a norm on these basses?

 

[OldManMusic]

Welcome to the forum. I'd say that all of my Bongos have more output than my Rays. Anemic is not a word I'd used to describe my Bongo's tone. If you've tried new batteries, I'd check PU heights against factory recommendations (see FAQs). And it's always worth a call to EB Customer Service to ask the pros.

 

[73jbass]

Do a setup to factory specs with new strings,and it will make all the difference in the world.

 

[Movielife]

It needs a setup/batteries/new strings. Trust me, the Bongo pre-amp is super powerful.

 

[jlepre]

First step is call EBMM Customer Service. (ALWAYS) Right BP?

 

[uOpt]

Hi all
This is my first post her
I have a bongo 5HH for a month now, love the versality and the WEIGHT.I trade it with a stingray HH, mostly because of the weight.
Anyway, i hear everywere about bongos balls and power, but in contrast to my previus stingray, this bongo lack balls.
It has a nice tone with flat eq, but a little anemic for me.Stingray was more mid present.I boost low mids near full on bongo to cut in the mix.My batteries are fresh

Is this a norm on these basses?

Was your Stingray ash or alder, maple fretboard or rosewood?

 

[wikifishy]

thanks for the answers.
Stingray was 4string ash HH rosewood board.Set up exactly the same on both basses by myself.I am very piky on this.
Stingray was full 11lbs, bongo 5 is 9.2,Same fresh slinkies strings

With Eq flat on both stingray was more mid present, output maybe the same, but i dont care for output.
With boosted mids and a tad lows, bongo has balls, maybe mare than stingray boosted.
My question is if this is the natute of the beast when eq is flat

again, thanks for the answers

 

[Tollywood]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Golem]

thanks for the answers.
...............

With Eq flat on both stingray was more mid present,
output maybe the same, but i dont care for output.
With boosted mids and a tad lows, bongo has balls,
maybe mare than stingray boosted.

My question is if this is the natute of the beast
when eq is flat
again, thanks for the answers

They have very different bassic tone contours, so the
two WILL sound very different when both are dialed
to "flat" ... IOW "flat" is a fictional scenario [for all
basses, all brands]. The Ray's native contour IS more
aggressive. Once you start boosting, as you've already
noticed, the differences are reduced. Frinstintz, Rays
have more finger/fret noise than Boingos, which tells
you right away that they do have accentuated mids.
Boingos sound noticeably "cleaner" than Rays.

Finally, there's your amp [and total rig]. It might be
that the Ray's contour and your amp's contour are so
very similar that they "stack" tonewise, which would
make the Ray even more aggressive than it typically
sounds. Boingos ARE monsters, but they are a more
refined monster ... like the Ray is a werewolf, while
the Boingo is Count Dracula ? You DID ask about the
"nature of the beast" So anywho, "Velkomme to
Castle Ball .... ".

 

[wikifishy]

hey, golem ...You make me laughed....
O.k. what are you describing here is exactly what i am hearing.

werewolf> count dracula

But dracula was always more sexy..

still laugh..

 

[uOpt]

Stingray was 4string ash HH rosewood board.Set up exactly the same on both basses by myself.I am very piky on this.
Stingray was full 11lbs, bongo 5 is 9.2,Same fresh slinkies strings

Right, so the thing is.

Nothing else sounds like an 11 pound stingray, except maybe an earthquake or a 12 pound stingray.

 

[wikifishy]

Right, so the thing is.

Nothing else sounds like an 11 pound stingray, except maybe an earthquake or a 12 pound stingray.

Yes, its true.I have played lighter stingrays, and always liked mine better.But my shoulder has a different opinion

 

[uOpt]

Yes, its true.I have played lighter stingrays, and always liked mine better.But my shoulder has a different opinion

Neoprene strap?

 

[ZiggyDude]

Don't stay with the "flat" settings if you are looking for the power. The Bongo has the 4 band EQ and use it plentifully. I tend to tun mine at Low - 8, Mid Low - 4 (minus detente a bit), Mid High at 8, High at 8 or 9, and the balalnce just off detente to the neck pup. Try that just for jollies!

 

[uOpt]

To illustrate the point a bit more, here is the frequency distribution for playing a couple notes up and down the neck on all strings (same playing for both). It's my H4/ash/rosewood stingray and my HH4/rosewood bongo.

Note that the graph has lifted highs like pink noise with α = 1.0, otherwise it's too hard to see anything with bass graphs.

You can clearly see that the Stringray packs the majority of it's punch right at ~120 Hz and that it shows the typical Stingray complete dropoff at 1500 Hz. You can do whatever you want with the Bongo, you can't get there because the neck pickup has the required low-mids but still too much high and way too much bass. The Bongo's bridge pickup goes crazy around 200 Hz which is much higher than where the SR was.

And that's a pretty light Stingray. If you use an 11 pound SR to put the hammer down it'll look even worse.

 

[wikifishy]

very different beasts. I loved stingray' s tone but i cant carry all that weight.

 

[wikifishy]

However, Bongo was designed as a 2 pickup bass.And i can use both pups dialing usefull tones.
Stingray HH has the pups way far for bridge.They didnt want to mess with the classic bridge pup location, so they add the other pup near the neck.
I loved the bridge soloed, but the others settings dont work for me.Muddy tone in my ears.
I cant think any other modern 2 pup bass with the pickups so far from bridge.

 

[tunaman4u2]

The solution?

A Sterling HS with maple neck

The ANTI muddy tone


ha ha ha, you knew it was coming folks! ha ha ...

 

[stu42]

From what you're saying you like for your tone I think you'd be much better off with the Single H Bongo.

Of course, a Sterling is also a great bass but there's nothing quite like a Single H Bongo. Mind you a Big Al SSS with the Bridge and Middle pickups in series is also a real beast. You might like one of those too. I've never played the Big Al Single H so I can't comment on it but I've heard it's got some big beefy tones as well.

 

[Golem]

the solution?

A sterling hs with maple neck

the anti muddy tone

.......... ...

sdrooth !