Q for BP

[PzoLover]

Now, bearing in mind that I'm really stuck on my SR5s and never until now thought of switchhitting, Psychicpet has inspired me to lay awake all night gassing for a new '07 LE BONGO5, and I find myself drifting over to Bass Central to screen some shots, thinking "My word, what a beautiful instrument that BONGO5 looks to be!!!
So, now, BP, I'm curious to hear from you, what, including anniversary and BFR versions, has been your most exciting electric bass guitar design and development project over the years, and why is it so, was it the Sterling, BONGO or Sterling5 ...

/PL

 

[adouglas]

...and which one turned out better, Brian or Dargin?

hehehe

I suspect "all of the above" might be the most accurate answer.....

 

[carpedebass]

This is probably analagous to choosing which of your children you love more...

 

[Big Poppa]

That is really interesting to ponder........ ON the surface the above responses are the easiest...but for you pzo I think that you deserve a deeper answer......

For each of those basses were a time and place in my life and sort of serve building blocks of my career.......(please all dont take this as selfserving or pompous....Im really trying to go back and reflect for my buddy Pzo)

First off the Stingray. As Ive mentioned many times before Tommy Walker my godfather was a great and large man in my life. Pretty safe to say that none of the Ernie Ball family success would have been possible without his undying faith and belief in my Father. The support that he showed me as his godson was like a second father and in some ways stronger.

Realize it is 1951 and my father is a talented steel guitarist that had a passion for the guitar and a real affinity for what Leo Fender was doing. Remmeber tradionalists thought he was a crack pot. Jazzers laughed at him. The oiginal studio master jack Marshall used to have Telecaster throwing parties on his lawn with Howard Roberts and all the cats......Jack would bring his ele to Japan and have it set up leaning on a chair plugged in with the amp up and walk onto the stage and "accidentally" trip on the Tele...the crowd would be shocked and then the roadie would bring out the ES 175. Sorry for the diversion but this is the terrain of the guitar in the early fifties.

SO you have this Texan in Tommy as my Dad's rep when nobody wanted Fender. My Dad thought that you could teach more effectively and that you should be abole to buy your strings in the gauge combination you desire that picks should be other colors instead of shell and the list goes on.

WHy is this importANT PZO? It is oimportant in that it got me a ring side seat into the development of the Stingray. It had me going toe to toe with Leo as a seventeen year old to full of fire to understand the magnitude of it. Ater the development (which is Leos bass with Tommy's preamp )....I did help tweak somethings and bring other artists in.... Think about it....what made the Stingray special? The bass or the preamp? My vote goes to the preamp first and the bridge second.

Now it is 1983 Im 27 and think that I can rescue Music Man. My Dad supported the idea but was not interested in anyway.......Now we own the Stingray......How can I not put that first? I dont though. Maybe if I was 53 and got the opportunity to own one of Leo's top 5 lifetime designs I would act as a curator, but that wasnt my mindset at the younger age. I was focused on the Bass and trying to make it better. I didnt feel the burden of Leo or pressure, I felt the excitement of forming a team with Dudley and Dan Norton and kickin some ass.

So we made the changes that we did and the market accepted them and so did artists. I felt at one point in the early nineties that we had to stop futzing with the Stingray and let it be what it had become and apply what we had learned along with some ideas we all had rattling in our heads and make some new stuff.

The idea was that we had established what Music Man was and any new models had to make sure that they had to stay within a design signature. So then comes the SR5.

We were listening to current music along with our artists and knew that a 5 string was the logical step. Up to then they were boutique as the big boys had no idea. The first proto was a defining moment for Dudley and I. We talked and wanted to include the bevels and the pickguard shape from the Silhouette alon g with our truss rod design. I remember Dudley showing me the first proto. It had a Bad ass bridge and a Bartolini pickup. I said "What are you thinking?....we get to evolve and build on what we have in herited and added. He was concerned with tooling costs. I said BS tool up for the bridge and lets make a great pickup and preamp which Dudley did. In hind sight we should have kept the oval pickguard...... Who wouldn't love that bass as it is the standard which all other 5 strings are judged. I truly believe that. but it's not......

Now comes the Sterling. To show you how whacky my mind was I named it the Sterling because the concept for pretty much all mine and we needed a name that began with an "s" WE had the Stingray Stingray 5 and the Silhouette. I said " Lets call it Sterling. It means quality and nobody but a few dealers will connect it to me...... I love the Sterling bass. I love the preamp and the pickup and the body shape and neck proile. We got smart and made the pickguard very Music Manish but different...but you knew it was a MM. Desert Island bass for me....maybe but then there is the Bongo

The Bongo was an accident., It was the oops!. It just happened. Ok it just didnt happen but it kind of felt the suprise baby. I was very very frustrated with the bass world. Still am. How friggin boring is it to go to a store and see row after row of either P, J, PJ or MM pickuped basses? I was focused on the design and the renewable materials and the controlling of resonance and at the same time Dudley discovered neodynium magnets from hiw work with Marco from mark bass who was making the Music Man Audiophile amps. He was wood shedding and tweaking this massive sounding pickup and preamp. I was working with BMW without any of them knowing. It was not out of disrespect that I didnt initially involve them..... it was me needing to shake things up first with me and then I would involve the team.

So Dudley shows me the massive new electronics in a Stingray body and I show him the drawings I had and said these electronics need to have their own home and we went to work with Hans who was a young engineer with us. In the end it was Dudley and I once again doing what we had done for so many years.

Im very proud of the Bongo., We got to mess with heads, and once again get laughed at the same way we did with the introduction of the Silohouette and all but a but a few truly got it (thanks Jack amongst others) We got to design a new bass that was radical but you could see the roots and see it was ours (that is the design brilliance if I do say so myself) but it rocked you one way or another.....

So is it the Bongo?........


No. Is it the next one?....until the next next one?......(I getting the itch at this very moment.)

I think I may like the itching and scratching part the best except....

The beauty of advancing age is the perspective and appreciation I have for my lifes opportunities.....I didnt know any better or different I just fired away without thinking that it may someday be important to a select few. I get the responsiblilty part now and am embracing and relishing watching my sons.

You know that Im probably more proud of what they are doing than anything that I may have done. I never gave them lessons. What are doing comes from absorption, environment, along with their own unique passion and drive.

Statistics say that a family business has a 34% chance of prospering into the second generation and 16% into the third. Does it surprise any of you that know me that I really also love beating the odds?

Im now trying to pick my spots and stay out of their way!

My favorite is the sum total of what the team that started with three has evolved into.

Which one would I buy? Single H Bongo.... then a HS Sterling.....then a three band Stingray because you have to have the classic.....

Thanks for reading ....rant over.

 

[Oh! Henry]

Wow! very interesting, it was a very enjoyable read. Now I'm gassing for a Sterling HS!!!

 

[mammoth]

quality reading, cheers BP. always great to know I own one of your top 3 too!

 

[Retrovertigo]

Thank you for sharing that. I now have an even deeper appreciation for my MM bass. It is great to see that so much care went into it's production even before it was dreamed up.

...and you got me GASing for a Bongo 4H and SR4 even more now.

 

[timmy5strings]

Great read as always, just knowing what has gone on behind the scenes then and now, is just another reason when I walk out the door to buy a bass, it will be EBMM

 

[mynan]

Thanks BP.

 

[Oldtoe]

Thanks for the read, Boss!

 

[T-bone]

My favorite is the sum total of what the team that started with three has evolved into.

Now that a brilliant equation!

Thanks BP.

tbone

 

[Smakbass]

Great post BP....Pzo I just saw that Bongo 5 HS over at Act1...it looks very nice, very nice indeed.

 

[TSanders]

Thanks for the words BP.

Such a cool read.

 

[fly]

great.......i'm in the process of buying an SUB.........and all of a sudden,i read a great story like that........and that damn Sterling HS gas has resurfaced.


what's a guy to do.........?

 

[Smakbass]

buy both.

 

[Smellybum]

i don't venture over here very often (mainly 'cause I don't understand) but that was amazing poppa, I was glued to my screen...

For 08 PLEASE write a book.....

Thanks again.

 

[strummer]

As always, I love it when you write stuff like this, Sterling, thank you for actually being here with us all!
Reading this once again reminded me of why this is my www living room: The best host, the best buddies and all round the best stuff too

 

[carpedebass]

Nice read, BP! Man, where else can you go chat directly with the chief of a company that is world-renowned for being the best in the industry? This is awesome!

 

[bovinehost]

I love reading when you feel like writing.

Thanks for taking the time to share that with us. Always educational and always inspirational. If everyone had your sense of family, this world would be a better place indeed.

Jack

PS: Finding my name in there still makes me feel extremely, amazingly fortunate. Thank YOU for building the bass that I love so much.

 

[UKFIN]

Awesome read BP. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks for the day you "reversed" your thinking and made them available to us lefties...