Dargin Knows Best

[bovinehost]

So I finally remembered that I had an extra set of TI Flats in the drawer - I got 'em from someone here, who was that? Anyway, slapped 'em on the single hummer Bongo this afternoon then went for pizza with the wife and kid.

Tuned up, hit the studio, plugged into the Dream Peavey Rig (it's easier to get to than the Ampeg/Sunn if I'm sitting at the desk) and put the new Bongo through its paces, playing along with everything from Bonnie Raitt to Adrian Belew to freakin' Elvis and I do not mean Costello.

This is a mean sumbitch. I like it. It is very responsive to right-hand position and attack. I got some fine mellow tone from playing up near the neck, no need to even touch the controls, then swooped back nearer the bridge for Big Scary (dare I say Stingray-esque?) Attack Mode.

At first, I sort of missed the dual mid tone controls but after some technique adjustment, I forgot all about it. This is the ultimate gigging bass for people who are easily confused by knobbage. Volume, treble, mids, bass. Set them once and then you can get what you want by varying your approach. Simple, effective, deadly.

Patrick had the thing set up super low with Slinkys, and I figured I would have to do some tweaking once I slapped the TIs on. Nope. Not yet, anyway. Maybe tomorrow, once the neck settles in to the new strings, but six hours after restringing it, it's perfect. Man, these basses are good.

By the way, it sounded purdy damned fine with Slinkys. But I am truly not a roundwound guy.

I won't even bother with the silly details like fit and finish. You guys already know how good that is on these basses. Like, perfect. And the tort looks so good that I'm considering yet another guard for the dual H four banger in Desert Gold.

I could take this bass anywhere. I played some rockin' Bears/Psychodots stuff and it will do the American Rock and Roll thing just fine. And wassat tune by Bonnie Raitt? "I Can't Make You Love Me"? Freebo on fretless? Well, fans, I am no bass monster, but I made the Bongo stand up and say "Hey!" A little vibrato and some sliding on those flats made it completely believable.

At first, when this bass became available and I shockingly had the funds, I thought I would pick it up, play it a while just to get Scott and Sterling off my ass and then probably offer it up to one of you guys. Now, I don't know. It still won't usurp the big bad Black Sapphire Bongo as the King Bass of Camp Bovine, but I think I'll be hanging on to it.

Questions? I'm no bass review guy, but I'll try if you got 'em.

Scott - once the wedding is done, let's sit up late and drink martinis and burn up the phone lines.

Jack

 

[Psychicpet]

wow, I'm beginning to be swung....... I love my Dual H but a few times doing some session stuff I found the HH to be a bit too much even with tweaking the blend and eq it still is a little too gregarious (sp?)(usage?) but is an excellent versatile bass but I really am thinking of a single H 5 now.... if you ever get tired of that one Jack and want another Dual H 5 in Desert Gold let me know
And you definitely are making me more intrigued about the TI flats..... although i am a fairly diehard roundwound guy.
Sounds like you've got another good one though!

dang.. forgot to ask, is the p/u placement on the single H in the same spot as a SR5? It seems to me that the bridge p/u on the dual H's are closer to the bridge than on the SR5 but it looks like the single H is in the same spot....??

 

[Big Poppa]

Jack,
Dargin knows best? I still remember when I took a single H bongo for a gig with Biff Babies Allstars and Dargin looked down his nose at big Poppa......"What's the matter pops
not man enough for the two pickup?" Of course the day after the gig I notice that Little
Dargie is trying to sneak in an order for one. (he uses much the same technique when he
claims to not be hungover but is just sneaking the morning relief as a precaution.

When I explained that if I could do it again with the Bongo I would have offered it in the one pickup version first. We kind of hit people over the heads with the looks, power and
EQ. The electronics that Dudley designed for these basses are really special. The thing I like about the simgle h is the simplicity and versitility, no tthe mention that the bridge PU is in a great spot.

Trying to do something different in this business is pretty funny. A good story.....A big selling hard rock band that I won't mention the name of (I will give you a hint the band is named after a 60's Chevrolet) loved the sound and looks of the Bongo but told me that he couldn't play it publicly because he hated the name Bongo. I said "let me ask you a question. Lets say that you found the perfect girl...gorgeous, fun exciting great cook laughs at your lame jokes rocks your world in every way but her name was Esther..Would you not date her? He now plays the bongo exclusively.

I can't tell you how many people that I run into that tell me they hated the Bongo's looks and now they own one. The tide is turning and the mo is starting to catch on.

I will try to get some video of the royal wedding with a sneak peak at the new morse guitar, and the bongo single h that I will be playing today.

 

[Aragorn35016]

Jack,
Dargin knows best? I still remember when I took a single H bongo for a gig with Biff Babies Allstars and Dargin looked down his nose at big Poppa......"What's the matter pops
not man enough for the two pickup?" Of course the day after the gig I notice that Little
Dargie is trying to sneak in an order for one. (he uses much the same technique when he
claims to not be hungover but is just sneaking the morning relief as a precaution.

When I explained that if I could do it again with the Bongo I would have offered it in the one pickup version first. We kind of hit people over the heads with the looks, power and
EQ. The electronics that Dudley designed for these basses are really special. The thing I like about the simgle h is the simplicity and versitility, no tthe mention that the bridge PU is in a great spot.

Trying to do something different in this business is pretty funny. A good story.....A big selling hard rock band that I won't mention the name of (I will give you a hint the band is named after a 60's Chevrolet) loved the sound and looks of the Bongo but told me that he couldn't play it publicly because he hated the name Bongo. I said "let me ask you a question. Lets say that you found the perfect girl...gorgeous, fun exciting great cook laughs at your lame jokes rocks your world in every way but her name was Esther..Would you not date her? He now plays the bongo exclusively.

I can't tell you how many people that I run into that tell me they hated the Bongo's looks and now they own one. The tide is turning and the mo is starting to catch on.

I will try to get some video of the royal wedding with a sneak peak at the new morse guitar, and the bongo single h that I will be playing today.

The band mentioned above that sounds like a chevy car, I LOVE that bass sound the bass player gets. For some reason it reminds me of a pissed off hornet. "The clincher" (I believe thats the name of the song) almost makes the speakers rattle out of my car when I listen to it. Good stuff love it, makes me want a bongo really bad now.

 

[oddjob]

Jack... you hit it right on the head. The single H is a mean mother. After almost a year with Kermit (the Fritz Green single H) I feel I can get almost any tone with technique adjustment. Now that I also have the RRed HH I am torn. The HH is a tonal beast from an eq standpoint but the H is so simple and can get some definate growel. Choices, choices! BP said it best, the pickup is in a great spot.

 

[cgworkman]

This is the ultimate gigging bass for people who are easily confused by knobbage.

I am definitely one who is confused by knobbage.

 

[xcental34x]

I still left slinkies on what bass? Huh?!

 

[bovinehost]

Not Patrick - Travis.

Doh!

 

[TSanders]

Dang Jack, make your post, then have your martinis. Joking.

I told you that you would like it (along with Dargin and Mr. Sterling Ball himself). The Single H is a great bass. I wish more people had the chance to try them before getting the other p/u configs. I know most of you dont like Fenders, but I have a soft spot for a good P-Bass. What I liked about the Single H was that it had the potential, given the pickup placement to get a good P-Bassish tone. Anyone who thinks that a single p/u bass isnt versatile hasnt tried the Single H Bongo. Its my favorite of all the Bongos. The B string on that bass growls, dont it Jack.

 

[bovinehost]

B. Poppa:

“Dargin Knows Best” – I can explain. Back in the dark days of the EBMM Bass Forum, back before repair techs had access to hypodermic-wielding Chihuahuas, when pterodactyls darkened the skies over San Luis Obispo, when I myself had only a few Bongos, there was no (known) Big Poppa presence on the forum, and lo, times were sad.

But there was Dargin, and he was often referred to as the Evil Dargin, and he did say unto me, verily so and quite often, “The single humbucker Bongo is the secret weapon.”

Now it strikes me that Dargin might have said many things, such as:

“Man, you sure got some Bongos” or
“Gosh, you must like Bongos” but no.

Dargin could only speak of the one Bongo pickup combination (we’re ignoring piezos for brevity’s sake) that I did not have. These were unsettling times, Big Poppa, and many nights I dreamt that there was a presence coming from the west, pursuing me, waving what seemed to be a sales slip, and his nametag read “Dargin”.

This is how we lived for many months, sir, and there was darkness and a plague upon the land. Well, to be completely accurate, it was generally darkest at night, with scattered light toward morning and I just completely made up the "plague" thing.

But then you made your presence known, and I knew what I had to do, as it seemed everyone with the last name “Ball” was after me, hounding me, making my life a living hell!

Well, not a living hell; that might be overstating it a bit for dramatic effect.

But that is why I said “Dargin Knows Best” in the title of this thread, for it was his evil influence that drove me to the unsettling knowledge that someday I would have to purchase the single hummer Bongo.

And there was great rejoicing in the land, and Big Poppa played the single hummer Bongo, and it was good.

Trying to do a new thing in this business does seem to be difficult. When we first heard rumors of a new EBMM bass, I couldn’t wait to see it. Then a friend zipped me some photos from the Bongo Debut NAMM show, and we posted them on another bass forum where I also have connections. The reactions were unpredictable, at least as far as I was concerned. Yes, it was different! But EBMM had given us, the bassists of the world, something NEW. That doesn’t happen very often, as I’m sure you know. I kept staring that the photos, thinking “Yeah, that’s odd” but I knew I had to have one. (I did not even guess that I would have to have FIVE, however.)

But the bassists went nuts. They didn’t like it! It didn’t look anything like a Precision - how could it be good?

The best news is the news that you already know – that many of those same bassists, now having played the Bongo (and having some time to become accustomed to the look) are out there, playing and buying and loving Bongos. Bassists! Who knew we would be so conservative? But a great bass is a great bass, and the players have come around, sometimes reluctantly, to that simple fact.

“We kind of hit people over the heads with the looks, power and EQ. The electronics that Dudley designed for these basses are really special.”

To say the very least! I’ve come to appreciate the fact that non-band members – bartenders and girls at tables and even a bouncer – actually comment on the Bongo. No one ever said anything about my Custom Shop Jazz! The Bongo is an attention-getting device, isn’t it? And my bandmate Brian, who thinks mostly all the good music was written prior to 1970….even he admits that it’s a great bass, and he has a HOFNER.

Heh heh. HOFNER.

So! What color is YOUR single H?

Jack

 

[tkarter]

Just another time dad knows. Kid figures out deal to me.

Been ther done the above.

My SR5 is a single pickup bass and I preferred the Jazz to the P, until I played the SR5.

This is not unreasonable to me. Overkill is wanking on a bass. If you get it done with one pickup then two will break windows in town for sure and that is what you were wanting great. Why would you need that? Bass is the bottom and foundation of a song. NO matter what song.

I think this guy named Gates does the Windows breaking thing. That cuts into my bass playing time too!



IMHO

tk








tk

 

[oddjob]

I am definitely one who is confused by knobbage.

Are these single or "stacked" knobs???

 

[maddog]

You guys are giving me GAS!

I thought about going for the single pup due to the simplicity. Instead, I talked myself into the SC/HH which by no means was a mistake. Maybe it's simply time to get another bongo

MD

 

[jongitarz]

I wanna know where Chris got that pic of my wife!!??!
















Well, it looks like my wife

 

[Aussie Mark]

Lets say that you found the perfect girl...gorgeous, fun exciting great cook laughs at your lame jokes rocks your world in every way but her name was Esther..Would you not date her?

Ain't nothin' wrong with Esther. "Esther Be The One" is a very cool tune from ZZ Top's last decent album before they turned into musical jello .....

Esther be the one that shoots a machine gun
Whether you like it or not.
Midnight or daylight, stay out of her sight
'Cuz I heard she's one heck of a shot.

Esther be the one, she's the only one.
She'll get you with her gun when the wolf starts howlin' at the moon.

And you will feel her love bullets when you look her in the eyes.
There ain't no way to escape.
And that's when her fever will materialize,
But it ain't no unfortunate fate.

Esther be the one, she's the only one.
She'll get you with her gun when the wolf starts howlin' at the moon.

If she gets you in a corner, don't let her mess you 'round
And don't let her blow you away.
If you can't dig on Esther, you turn and leave town
'cause if you think she's bad you ought to see her sister.

Esther be the one, but she's not the only one.
She'll get you with her gun when the wolf starts howlin' at the moon.

 

[cgworkman]

I wanna know where Chris got that pic of my wife!!??!

Well, it looks like my wife

Well, she told me not to say....

 

[jongitarz]

 

[cgworkman]

 

[jongitarz]

 

[cgworkman]