Neptune Blue Edition vs. Stock

[Meypelnek]

Hi,
I have a beautiful Bongo 5 H Neptune Blue with mahagony body and roasted maple neck. I haven't had the chance to a/b it to a stock Bongo 5 H since they are very very rare in my region. However, I assume that the tonal difference is significant. I notice that my Bongo has a lot of attack, sounds "crystal clear", is very resonant and emphasizes the high mids at around 1 kHz.

I'd be happy to hear your experience with your model (whatever it is: StingRay, Bongo, etc.) vs. its stock counterpart.

 

[sanderhermans]

The most significant difference between my neptune and all other sr4 basses i've owned is that the stainless steel frets make alot more fret buzz than the regular frets. The basic tone is more mid boosted aswell. While the standard stingrays sound more mid scooped. Having said that, my neptune blue is propably my most beautifull bass but certainly not the best sounding bass i have. That would be the classic stingray. There is nothing like a good ash body (on a bass) for me.

 

[Meypelnek]

So I am even more curious what a Bongo with an alder body will sound like ... I'll tell you in December ;-)

But back to the Neptune Blue series: Do you make any efforts to tweak the sound?

My Bongo is (to my taste only of course) so mid-rangy that I found out that it works best for me to put a graphic eq in my signal chain and to lower the high mids a 1000 Hz (-10 dB) and the low mids at 250 Hz (-6 dB).

Now, someone could of course come and say: "A bass has to sound good to my ears without engaging an additional EQ to it."
My answer to that: Hey, it is an active bass and the preamp was actually designed for another combination of woods (basswood body, rosewood board). So why not give it a tweak. Now it sounds perfect to my ear!

 

[sanderhermans]

I'm not sure that when designing the pre-amps they where designed for that specific wood type. Bp actually stated here before that with the bongo they chose a basswood body, because with a active pre-amp the actual tone of the body wood is less significant. And when designing the bongo, weight relief was more important, so they ended up using basswood. Also the stingray has the same pre amp for maple and rosewood boards.

As for tweaking the neptunes: i find myself setting up my neptune blue with higher action because the fret rattle really is way more noticeable with the stainless steel frets. When playing with a pick, it really gets too much, this isnt the case with normal frets. Also i use thicker strings to counter this "issue"
The different tone is just part of this bass wich makes it unique, so i dont take anny measures to counter this. Sounds verry well for a mellower rock tone.

 

[Meypelnek]

Any other proud Neptune Blue edition owners out there?

 

[coyoteboy]

Yeppers. See sig. Need to still bring the action down a bit, but happy so far. Not too buzzy for me, but we'll see when thye strings come down. Contemplating a .090 shim. Yeah, the G is that high with a bottomed saddle.

 

[muggsy]

I'm not sure that when designing the pre-amps they where designed for that specific wood type. Bp actually stated here before that with the bongo they chose a basswood body, because with a active pre-amp the actual tone of the body wood is less significant. And when designing the bongo, weight relief was more important, so they ended up using basswood. Also the stingray has the same pre amp for maple and rosewood boards.

I agree with this, not sure the body wood really makes a difference with active preamps. That said, I have three EBMMs with mahogany bodies (Neptune Blue Bongo, 30th Anniversary Stingray and Big Al), so I'm obviously a fan of that particular wood. In any event, I used to own a stealth Bongo 4HH, and I've played a few others, but my Neptune Blue is the best Bongo I've tried. I have not noticed any additional fret noise, but then again I've got flatwounds on mine.