OK, as promised here's some thoughts on last night's show and the Bongo.
First of all, this bass is lightyears ahead of anything I've been graced to own and play, so take heed to that fact before analizing if the Bongo is right for you......just don't give it too much weight.
Having not owned a MM bass before I'm at a loss to compare it to a Sterling or a Stingray, which BTW was what I was looking to buy when I walked into the music store the day I bought the Bongo. Yeah, I've picked 'em up before and tooled around for minutes at a time, but never had a solid try at one over a long period of time. This could very well be best described as a testimonial to what kind of quality instruments EB makes as opposed to a Bongo review, but of course everyone knows that so...
Playing the Bongo was a delight. Think of a great bass player (or guitar player for that matter) that, as they are performing on stage, seem as though they are putting absolutely no effort into that awesome sound that's coming out of their instrument and just seem to be having a good time with the band. That's one feeling that I got while jamming with this bass on stage. Moving around the neck was like butter......making bass playing hilariously easier.....and mo' fun.
Even the weight of the Bongo is very well balanced when strapped on. I think in that Bass Player review the article mentioned that, when playing while sitting (bass resting on your leg), it's a bit heavy at the end of the neck and the head will tend to dive toward the floor. That's true. But it's not a hinderance at all. When it's strapped on your shoulders however you can't feel any imbalance.
I can say that coming from a jazz bass to the Bongo will feel something like getting out of a Lincoln and comfortably settling into a Lexus. It's that good.....though I'm sure there will be times you'll want to take the Town Car around the block a time or two again.
As I said before, tone control is amazing with the 4-band EQ. EB sure did their homework on honing down the right frequency bands to select for these 4 ever important knobs, not to mention all of the electronics inside that make purely magical sounds fly off your fingers (or pick). I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to play with the pan control between the humbuckers to find all kinds of new and interesting sounds, but for last night I left it in the middle, which pleased me very much.
One last thing. This bass very well may change the way bass amps are built, because from now on there will need to be three inputs instead of just two.
1. Passive
2. Active
3. BONGO!!!
Chris in Tokyo
but the trip was a ton of fun and I'd love to get back there sometime.
