Pics
Well, I hired a guy with a good digital camera because I don't have one, but I didn't like the pictures. He said that the light conditions in my place don't help. Anyway, here are some:
And here's one of the whole family:
Someone at TalkBass asked me if it was a pain in the a** to bring it home. Not really! I feel I was really lucky. I bought the bass through Consolidated Music in Miami. I was really worried because the instrument was supposed to be ready like three weeks ago, but the guy who I dealt with told me that they were in debt with EBMM (like $5000 or something like that) and that the factory wasn't going to ship the bass if they didn't pay. I started to think he was lying (His last name is Sánchez. the "latin blood" in action
, I thought ), but fortunately my Bongo was shipped from San Luis Obispo to Miami last week. The problem of shipping to Colombia is that I must pay the 26% of the value declared in the invoice, but Mr. Sánchez recommended me a guy in Miami who could put the bass in my door easily. I contacted him, and it turned out that he's also from Colombia and he imports musical instruments. I don't know how he did it, but it was very, very cheap because no costumes! Besides, I had to send the second half of the payment to Consolidated Music, which, for the first half, I did through my bank. And that's a real hassle. I was ready for that again, but this colombian guy has an account here and he offered to help, so I could send the money to CM without the hassle. Risky, I know, but I took it and everything went fine.
Now I have to play this beauty extensively for writing a good review. What I can say right now: This bass is awesome. The EQ settings I like for most playing situations are: Both magnetic and piezo pickups on (knob in the center detent position), neck and bridge pickup on (same as the previous setting), full bass, full treble, full high mids and low mids slightly cut (somewhere in between the center detent position and full blast position). There were two things I was very worried about: The neck width and the neck humbucker getting on the way for slapping. At first I ordered a single coil-humbucker configuration, but the rave reviews (specially from Bovinehost) of the HH made me change my mind. Besides, I looked at some pictures and the single coil is placed near to the neck, so it makes no difference with the humbucker. NO PROBLEMS! I've played slap riffs and the humbucker doesn't bother me. Neck width is perfect. I'm so used to my Carvin BB75 wide neck, specially for popping the D string, and I thought the Bongo was very different, but it isn't. Yes, it's narrower, but not too much.
I feel the action a bit high in the last frets and the pickups a bit low. I want to make adjustments, but those are the "factory recommended" settings. Am I wrong? The neck isn't bowed. I thought it was going to be because of the weather change, but it looks and feels perfect.
I thought my Carvin sounded good (and it does), but this beast outperforms it. What I like the most (again, after a couple hours playing it) is that aggresive character of the Bongo. The Carvin sounds too "polite" and maybe that's the reason I haven't been happy with my slap tone in a band situation. I smell that the Bongo really
CUTS. Unfortunately, I don't have gigs these days. After playing with my band I will give full appreciations on my new Bongo.
