Bongo Letdown?

[adouglas]

it's just all one big boomy glob of s**t . . . .

- Tim

I always find it funny how vehement the anti-Bose crowd is. Downright nasty, at times. It's as if anything that isn't traditional is threatening in some way.

Not at all unlike the anti-Bongo crowd.

Hey, if it works for us, it works for us.

The devil is in the details. I get really good results...tight, focused, plenty of punch, plenty of low end without mud or boominess...with four bass modules and the external amp.

Short of that configuration it didn't sound as authoritative, and I used the same solution that Psycho did....I kept my old bass rig. But after doing a lot of a/b listening over the course of five weeks or so, I sold my rig because the extended-bass PAS sounds better. Better to my ear, to my bandmates and to our audiences. We've never had one negative comment from anyone who's actually heard it...only positive ones.

I don't give a rip what the experts say. It makes us smile, it makes our audiences smile. That's what's important, no?

 

[tkarter]

I always find it funny how vehement the anti-Bose crowd is. Downright nasty, at times. It's as if anything that isn't traditional is threatening in some way.

Not at all unlike the anti-Bongo crowd.

Hey, if it works for us, it works for us.

The devil is in the details. I get really good results...tight, focused, plenty of punch, plenty of low end without mud or boominess...with four bass modules and the external amp.

Short of that configuration it didn't sound as authoritative, and I used the same solution that Psycho did....I kept my old bass rig. But after doing a lot of a/b listening over the course of five weeks or so, I sold my rig because the extended-bass PAS sounds better. Better to my ear, to my bandmates and to our audiences. We've never had one negative comment from anyone who's actually heard it...only positive ones.

I don't give a rip what the experts say. It makes us smile, it makes our audiences smile. That's what's important, no?

Wanna know why I am listening to the anti-bose crowd? I will just say the knobs on my bongo aren't bent and leave it at that.


tk

 

[tadawson]

I always find it funny how vehement the anti-Bose crowd is. Downright nasty, at times. It's as if anything that isn't traditional is threatening in some way.

Not at all unlike the anti-Bongo crowd.

Hey, if it works for us, it works for us.

The devil is in the details. I get really good results...tight, focused, plenty of punch, plenty of low end without mud or boominess...with four bass modules and the external amp.

Short of that configuration it didn't sound as authoritative, and I used the same solution that Psycho did....I kept my old bass rig. But after doing a lot of a/b listening over the course of five weeks or so, I sold my rig because the extended-bass PAS sounds better. Better to my ear, to my bandmates and to our audiences. We've never had one negative comment from anyone who's actually heard it...only positive ones.

I don't give a rip what the experts say. It makes us smile, it makes our audiences smile. That's what's important, no?

Can't argue with you there - different tastes for different folks . . . . . myself, I tend to prefer EAW . . . .

- Tim

 

[TSanders]

Can't argue with you there - different tastes for different folks . . . . . myself, I tend to prefer EAW . . . .

- Tim

EAW is the stuff.

 

[strummer]

I have only love for my Bongos, sound- and otherwise. I run Bongo eq flat , both H on full, AG500 flat and plain smoke all the other bass players I have played the same venue with. Sound wise only, guys

However, I recently had to let a player in another band play a Bongo (he didn't bring spare strings and I didn't want to ruin their show). He normally plays a Sadowsky 5-string through a SWR Redhead, and he's an accomplished player (or so I judge).
Anyway, we decided together that he should also use my amp, as he liked the sound I got very much. I didn't see their first songs, but the ones I heard sounded great.
After the show, I got his impressions of my bass and amp. He had used tons of eq on both bas and amp, but was happy with the results.
BUT: Me playing "his" bongo settings sounded like crap, with no midrange and a sea of mud. Him playing "my" settings sounded even worse; tin can comes to mind.

So, I guess that apart from different amps and such, there will be a HUGE difference in sound from player to player. I think this is especially true when you are new to the Bongo, in that you will have a certain technique sucessfully used on other basses, and tend to just use the same technique on the Bongo.
I like to think that we as bass players unconciously try to get the best possible sound with our fingers, and that if we spend enough time on a certain bass the technique for that bass will be locked into our muscle memory. And having a certain technique been used for a long time, the Bongo might indeed sound strange if said technique is used to play the Bongo.

 

[grooveguru]

Thanks for getting "My" Bongo thread back on track!

 

[drgroovenstein]

Ok, I'll get back on track.. not!

I played two shows, one on Thursday in a small house that was turned into a youth hang-out, and a second at an OLD church. They were both a little bizzare, but I had a good time.

Tone wise, it worked out great at the first show. Many compliments on the look and tone of the bongo, both by the audience and my band mates.

The second show was not so good. The church had absolutely no grounding, all the plugs in the place were two prong. My bongo buzzed like CRAZY if the SC was even slightly on. Full pan to the bridge was dead quiet, but as soon as I panned to the SC at all it was seriously loud buzzing. Our rhythm guitarist's amp was shooting out a sea of white noise, and the lead guitarist's fender strat was also buzzing, even using his bridge humbucker. Talk about distracting.

The room seemed difficult to EQ for, as random notes were just super boomy. I couldn't get anything to sound tight, it was just a tough room. Not to mention, I had to face an odd angle to elimunate the buzzing heheheh.

One really odd thing was when I played the low D on the B string the volume would be great at the attack, but then it would fade into nothing pretty much right after the attack. Anything below the D sounded fine, really. But then, I wasn't trying to sustain anything else played on the low B string.

Would this be a headroom issue with my amp? I was playing my EBS HD-350 through my accugroove cab.

As far as the bongo goes, I'm really starting to dig it. I flubbed a few slap lines because I would try to pop on the pickup, but fingerstyle was a great feel.

 

[sir funkytown]

Bongo Mod

This is the thread for the mod I did on my bongo.I was having a hell of a time slapping on the Bongo so I took the bass into a local repair shop and had the single coil pickup moved back about 3/8ths of an inch and a new pickguard made.I'm afraid that I deleted the pic that went along with the post , but as you can see from the comments , it looked just like it did before.The mod turned out very well , it made all the differance in "ease of slap" and it...in my opinion , is a touch more focused.


http://ernieball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14547

 

[drgroovenstein]

I'm not let down, but... I do have a question

Hrm maybe I should start a new thread, but I dunno, might as well keep posting in this one.

I was able to reproduce the wonkyness with my Low D note, and a few others on the B string. It is subtle in this clip, but at amp volumes it is very noticable. Wonder if it is a bum string or something else. I love my bongo, what can I do to make the decay of these notes less severe? .. Especially since notes on the other strings have insanse sustain, and harmonics.

The first round of B through E are played on the A string. The second round is on the B string. You can here the strangeness I am talking about pretty well on the D-Eb-E.

Am I crazy?

http://www.drgroovenstein.com/b-string.mp3

granted that is subtle compared to what I was experiencing at high volumes on Friday. The initial attack would kick you in the gut, but then it just went away completely, no sustain (that I could hear).

 

[xring]

Well, that does sound really bad. You must, must, must at least go pick up a B string and swap it out. It sounds like it's shot somehow. Other than that, I have no idea.

 

[Paul_C]

I gigged my Bongo 4 the other night (into a Lexicon MPX-G2 and then a Markbass Little Mark II with and EBS Neo 112 and an Accugroove Tri112) and it sounded stunning from where I was standing, I use 30-90s on all my basses these days and even so it had some thunder

P.

 

[Big Poppa]

Wow
Im getting really frustrated with this thread...over a thousand views with a sensational thread name and the guy is using it through a bose direct...Please either change the thread like "help with preamps for bongo" or help with strings for bongo" it is really now just a cheap shot on the bongo.......

 

[usedtobeachacha]

i haven't really gotten much feedback on it from anyone here but i change the batts in my bongo five every two weeks. Most people here seem to have the non-piezo basses and i wonder if that has something to do with our different expereinces that we've had with the bass. I run my piezo all the time, and i love the way the low mid control alters the tone, so i run that a lot also. And i find that after 2 weeks a noticeable amount of low-mid strength goes away. Since the duracells are only 5 bucks for a two pack i don't see anything wrong with changing them.

 

[drgroovenstein]

Wow
Im getting really frustrated with this thread...over a thousand views with a sensational thread name and the guy is using it through a bose direct...Please either change the thread like "help with preamps for bongo" or help with strings for bongo" it is really now just a cheap shot on the bongo.......

Eh? I guess too many people posting Qs in this thread. Well, at least I am asking too many Qs in this thread. I moved my last question to a new thread. I consider the Bose jive solved, I just need a pre-amp to use with it. My lastest question was about my experience from my gig, where I used my convensional bass rig.

I didn't pick the thread title, I just hijacked it!

I was pretty careful to make sure nobody took my questions and comments the wrong way. I am a bongo and musicman, in general, fan. I have an SR5 on order

Help me out in my other thread thanks!

ps. bump my production

 

[Paul_C]

Wow
Im getting really frustrated with this thread...over a thousand views with a sensational thread name and the guy is using it through a bose direct...Please either change the thread like "help with preamps for bongo" or help with strings for bongo" it is really now just a cheap shot on the bongo.......

You can't expect everyone to have a perfect experience with any EB product every time, after all they might use EB strings on a non-EB bass, or an EB bass with non-EB strings, or heaven forbid, a non-EB bass with non-EB strings through an EB amp

(or, of course, any combination of the above)

Threads, as with life, don't always go the way we'd like, but on average those that post are happy with the EB stuff they use (I've been on a Status kick for a while but recently gigged (and was thrilled by) my Bongo, and just bought my second Stingray (which I've fallen for big time) - those that express concern want to feel the thrill that they perceive their fellow posters experience.

I don't see this thread as an attack on the Bongo, or any other EB product, just a request for help balancing the sound a Bongo generates with the equipment it's plugged into.

You have a fantastic product in the Bongo, so don't feel the need to defend it such that you won't hear anything negative about its use ( I'm recording next week and the guy that owns the studio has never heard of a Bongo (mind you, he's not heard of EBS, MarkBass or Accugroove either)) no matter what you would like to believe, no bass is going to satisfy all the people, all the time.

P.

 

[sir funkytown]

here here!
I'm still using the bass , aren't I?

 

[smallequestrian]

You can't expect everyone to have a perfect experience with any EB product every time, after all they might use EB strings on a non-EB bass, or an EB bass with non-EB strings, or heaven forbid, a non-EB bass with non-EB strings through an EB amp

(or, of course, any combination of the above)

Threads, as with life, don't always go the way we'd like, but on average those that post are happy with the EB stuff they use (I've been on a Status kick for a while but recently gigged (and was thrilled by) my Bongo, and just bought my second Stingray (which I've fallen for big time) - those that express concern want to feel the thrill that they perceive their fellow posters experience.

I don't see this thread as an attack on the Bongo, or any other EB product, just a request for help balancing the sound a Bongo generates with the equipment it's plugged into.

You have a fantastic product in the Bongo, so don't feel the need to defend it such that you won't hear anything negative about its use ( I'm recording next week and the guy that owns the studio has never heard of a Bongo (mind you, he's not heard of EBS, MarkBass or Accugroove either)) no matter what you would like to believe, no bass is going to satisfy all the people, all the time.

P.

Um, I think he just would rather have the title changed to something a bit less sensational.

 

[Big Poppa]

thanks for the lecture Paul C. With your 17 posts I can understand your response. If you hang around I dont have a problem with other manufacturers, people with problems, people with constructive critisism. I do have problems when people don't use my well staffed customer service but post frowny face negative posts without giving us a chance to fix the problem. It just gets old too when something gets the sensational headline and the person posting is actuallly wrong.

Small horse guy...you hit the nail on the head. Bo should be worded better thats all.Bongo letdown and the insuing threads Paul C good luck with the session.

 

[bovinehost]

I just attempted to edit the thread title and apparently my many super-powers do not include title editing.

I can still kill small mammals with just my eyelid, however.

 

[TSanders]

I can still kill small mammals with just my eyelid, however.

Which is a skill that every man should know. Im glad my step dad passed that one on to me. Sounds like yall may have shared a gubment job or two.