My search is done

[TSanders]

So Im playing my Bongo and Sterling this evening and something hit me. I own two of the best sounding basses ever made. What Im about to say may sound weird to some, but I realized tonight that I will probably play MusicMan basses and ONLY MusicMan basses for the rest of my life. I dont know why that feels significant to me, but it does. So this is another hats off to the fine folks at Ernie Ball MusicMan for making instruments that help me get the sound thats in my head to come out of my amp. (my very very fine Gallien-Krueger amp, wink-wink)

 

[BigStrings]

I hear ya! I've been playing my Sterling through my GK 800RB, 15/6 cab with a JBL and EV B-210 cab. I'm thinking the same thing, it can't get much better. But, help me out here, if I already have a Sterling, why do I need a Bongo?

 

[TheAntMan]

Well, I just got a Bongo and I am buying a StingRay.

It's kind of like, there's spaghetti, so why have vermicelli or fettuccine?

Variety is the spice of life

 

[tkarter]

I want a Bongo but every time I play my SR 5 I have to ask why? I am quite sure this wonderful piece of equipment will outlast me.


I may only have and play the one EB my whole life.

tk

 

[bovinehost]

Well........I'm a bit of a gear whore, or at least I have been in the past. Things seem to have settled down lately, probably due to lack of funds more than anything else, but I think my Gear Whore status should be considered in whatever I say, so there you are.

Now then.

I have two really fine Jazz basses. In fact, I've had both of them for so long now that I have to consider them keepers. One is an Olympic White 62 Reissue. The other is a Custom Shop NOS 1964 Jazz. I keep the 62 RI because it was a gift from my wife. I don't play it, but it certainly is a good bass and it deserves better. The CS Jazz does get played, although not to the extent most people would play a bass with that kind of price tag, I think. Nonetheless, I love them both and sometimes even take the CS Jazz as a backup to the Bongo 5. (Never actually had to break it out, but it's my security blanket and no batteries.)

I also have a Reverend Brad Houser 5 in Lava Swirl that is a danged nice bass and has thump factor beyond the norm. It feels a little weird if I don't play it for a while because the horns are so short and it's a 35" scale, but still a great bass. Do I play it? Well........not regularly. I sometimes toy with the idea of offing it because I'd like to get some better PA speakers, but that seems so.....pedestrian.

If you can pull it off, I think it's great to have 7 or 8 nice basses hanging around, but the truth is that when I want a fiver, I go for either the black sapphire Bongo or Heinz, and my choice of a four banger is almost always that Desert Gold Bongo.

It took me the LONGEST time to figure out that the sound in my head was a Musicman bass, strung with flats, played through an old-school sorta Sunn head and a couple of run-of-the-mill Ampeg cabs.

If I had to choose one bass, if all of them but one were gone tomorrow, I would definitely choose either the black sapphire Bongo or Heinz, but it would be TOUGH.

We're lucky, aren't we?

 

[Melv]

I get the exact tone i want from MM basses so ill be a MM bass owner for life and only MM basses. Now im settling for a SUB 5 but hopefully in the next couple of years ill have a Bongo 5 and a Stingray 4 by my side

 

[JB1]

I too think I'll be satisfied for life with my 2 SR4's.

Jack - what's the deal with these NOS basses? Are they new basses made from old parts?

 

[Mantaray]

Actually, you might not believe me, but one of the main reasons that I play bass is the existence of the StingRay. This is MY sound!! EVERY other bass that I've tried(and even quite a few very expensive ones see Alembic) just doesn't sound as right. Someone might say 'c'mon this is an exaggeration. What does a $20k+ bass and a $1500 might have in common?'.Well TO ME EBMMs just sound better. Again this is MY personal opinion. I dream of having an entire EBMM and MM collection in the future.

 

[basadam]

I have great respect to those who have a single sound in their head and can live happily when they found them. However, for me, there is no "greatest bass ever" in the world. Just like bovinehost, I am slowly but surely becoming a gear whore. While my SR5 with TI-flats suits to most of the songs that we play (we play classic and modern rock covers), for certain ones I just cannot do without my '70 RI Japanese precision (TI-flats as well). We play a couple of songs tuned down half-step (thanks to our lead vocalist's limited range), I also carry around my new Reverend Brad Houser 5, since being a 35" it gives the best result when tuned down (for normal tunings I don't care about 35"). BH5 also has that undescribable huge sound - very unlike my SR5. Then I have two Bass Collections, which seem to get less and less play but I can't get rid of them, I have an emotional connection since they're my first and second bought basses. I am also itching to get a Fender Roscoe Beck 5, a CIJ Fender Jazz, another SR5 with rosewood fingerboard (mine is maple), a CIJ '57 Precision, perhaps a Japanese SR5 (just because I'm curious) and a Sadowsky Jazz5, and a Mike Lull P5 and so on and so forth before I die eventually (talk about gear whore).

If you'd tell me to live with a single bass, it'd be a difficult choice between Precision, SR5 and BH5; and eventually I'd keep my SR5 but I'd be a very unhappy person.

My 2 cents.

 

[Morrow]

I love my Stingray, in fact I probably put in more time with that bass than any other , but there are a number of other basses that I love just as much. I bought a Fender 51 re-issue ( strung with flats) when they first came out and I generally gig with that.SCPB's have a different sound . I think Leo got it right the first time.There are a lot of great basses out there - I have buddies that are into Laklands, Warwicks, Dingwalls,Rickenbackers etc. They are beautifull instruments. I think it's better to have a variety of instruments that have different sounds and feels.I have not found one bass that can do it all...nor would I want to.

 

[JB1]

Yo basadm, Reverend have discontinued their basses.

I wish I'd seen them earlier, they look very nice.

Now I'll have to find a used one....

 

[Psychicpet]

I still wouldn't mind getting my Anthony Jackson presentation model Fodera 6, mainly because that'd mean that my income would have increased sunstantially seriously though,` a year and a half ago when I did some gigging out in Atlanta I had a chance to finally try out some Warrior basses of which I was convinced in my head I was going to get.All I wanted to do was to hold them carefully in the store, there was no real connection but when I got back home I had to do `some work and went to my local guitar shop and picked the 2yr old natural/rosewood with tort SR5 off the shelf and haven't looked back since.... and now with my Bongo5 I'm really sunk!Thankfully I haven't been limited to just one but if I was it'd be my upright but as for electrics it'd definitely be my Bongo. I too am hopelessly hooked on Musicman.

 

[spectorbassguy]

I want a Bongo but every time I play my SR 5 I have to ask why? I am quite sure this wonderful piece of equipment will outlast me.


I may only have and play the one EB my whole life.

tk

I started with my SR5 Fretless. Then caught Bongo Fever thanks to all you guys. Then got my GrapeRay 5. Funny the Bongo usually sits now as the GrapeRay 5 is my main bass. Something about that tone.....

 

[bovinehost]

Jack - what's the deal with these NOS basses? Are they new basses made from old parts?

Nope, more like new basses made with new parts that are as close as possible to old parts. Weird concept, but that's America for you.

 

[cgworkman]

I play a Bongo and a SR5 - and I actually perfer the SR5. But they're both great!!


Of course, next week this may change.....

 

[tkarter]

The testaments here convince me I better just stick with my SR 5. I wouldn't ever want to put myself in a position to have to choose between good sounding basses.


tk

 

[bovinehost]

I wouldn't ever want to put myself in a position to have to choose between good sounding basses.

Aiyyyyyy, 'tis a horrid thing, lad.

 

[tkarter]

In my mind it would be like loving two women.

tk

 

[bassmonkeee]

In my mind it would be like loving two women.

tk

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[tkarter]

Not bad but certainly not healthy if you take your mother out of the loop of loving two women at once.

tk