Single pu Bongo... Will I like it as much as my 4HH?

[Quadrogong1111]

Yeah, the HH is full, tight and active sounding, but doesn't have that "loud aggressive" bite like a single pu stingray does. It's fill,smooth and the lows and low mids seem perfectly eq'ed for a modern, full range bass tone.
My soundman calls it the most " musical" sounding bass he's ever heard..
To me, those two neo buckets and the basswood body are perfect, in a way, it's depressing, because since I've found a bass that does it all so well, I have no reason to keep buying new basses.,

 

[MrMusashi]

the h is growing on me.. i didnt like it much at first but it is getting better and better.
and like they said on the last page: dont be fooled by the 3 band eq. it responds to the tiniest adjustments... ive found i love to add a lil tad of bass to it. just a tiny lil twist does it

try one if you can, it really is something of its own

MrM

 

[OldManMusic]

My old SR4 H would be the choice of my MM if I was playing that selection of music. Granted its pre EB, but it gets the tones for that style of music perfectly, IMHO. I love my HH and HS' but Jack's got a great point about the knobs - I do tend to tweak them at gigs more than my old trusty SR4 H. She is definitely plug (in) and play.

 

[Old_Guy]

Yeah, the HH is full, tight and active sounding, but doesn't have that "loud aggressive" bite like a single pu stingray does. It's fill,smooth and the lows and low mids seem perfectly eq'ed for a modern, full range bass tone.
My soundman calls it the most " musical" sounding bass he's ever heard..
To me, those two neo buckets and the basswood body are perfect, in a way, it's depressing, because since I've found a bass that does it all so well, I have no reason to keep buying new basses.,

..which is kind of the conclusion I came to as well - thanks for everyone's input. Ordered a Carbernet Pearl 5HHp from Apple in Fredrock this week...

 

[shakinbacon]

..which is kind of the conclusion I came to as well - thanks for everyone's input. Ordered a Carbernet Pearl 5HHp from Apple in Fredrock this week...

Nice choice! I love the piezo on mine

 

[MingusBASS]

..which is kind of the conclusion I came to as well - thanks for everyone's input. Ordered a Carbernet Pearl 5HHp from Apple in Fredrock this week...

You made the right decision and that color is SWEET!

 

[adouglas]

Still trying to figure this out as I get ready to go to a Bongo 5 - So I'll repeat the question, but here's what I play; forum tell me?
- It's a DANCE (Wedding, Corporate) band; 4 horns, full rythym section, couple of vocalists.
- We run all the way from Temptations, 4 Tops, James Brown, Etta James (ballads), Blues Bros, Huey Lewis & News, Donna Summer, Wild Cherry...if you can't dance to it, we don't play it.
- Also, we only stop between sets - eg, hit the last "C" in "Diggin on James Brown," immediately slide to "A" and start "Brick House," ... for an hour at a whack. So there's not a lot of time to dork around,which is why I'm using the Bongo 4 for all this stuff now, it does it all. But since everything seems to be in B or E flat, I've capitulated and decided to go for a 5.

So for those kind of tunes...would the single H be too aggressive sounding? (Already know I need the piezo to cop the upright sounds in the traditional ballads)

I know that the horse has bolted, but I've been away riding my motorcycle. Just got back.

My band plays pretty much exactly what you play and I use my 5H rather than my 5HHp.

It works fine, and I prefer it for gigging for precisely the reasons that Jack stated in his first post, plus the fact that it's MUCH lighter and that is nice at 2 am. The HHp has wonderful subtlety of tone and tremendous versatility, but when you're cranking and sweating and the dance floor is hopping none of that stuff really matters very much IMHO. For gigs, point and shoot simplicity wins.

Look, most people listening to a live band can't even tell when you screw up massively. Do you really think they're going to care about a subtle difference in tone?

To get an old-school R&B tone I roll off the highs a fair bit, add a touch of mid and a touch more of bass. For the funk stuff I just do a (very) mild smiley face EQ (a little goes a long way).

Moving your hand and changing how you pluck gives you big variation in tone. If you want it to come out soft and mellow, pluck with the fleshy part of your fingers (instead of the tips where your calluses are) and move your hand up over the fretboard.

BTW, for the slow, trad ballads I use fretless exclusively.

Check my band website for some recordings. All were done with a 5H. The quality is mediocre because I'm certainly no recording engineer and these are all just live practice cuts (no overdubs, all in one room), but they'll give you a rough idea.


PS: Gigspam... White Plains NY, this coming Saturday, SOMA107 on Mamaroneck Ave. Be there or be a right equilateral quadrilateral.

 

[Old_Guy]

My band plays pretty much exactly what you play and I use my 5H rather than my 5HHp.

...now he tells me...
Not a biggie; I would switch to the Sterling for the truly funkalicious slapfests, a fretless or uprights for the ballads..etc., but this band literally leaves no airspace in between numbers. I'd probably be fine with the 5H, but had a few recommendations for the HH, and I simply wanted the p once I'd heard what it could do on a borrowed instrument.

 

[shakinbacon]

...now he tells me...
Not a biggie; I would switch to the Sterling for the truly funkalicious slapfests, a fretless or uprights for the ballads..etc., but this band literally leaves no airspace in between numbers. I'd probably be fine with the 5H, but had a few recommendations for the HH, and I simply wanted the p once I'd heard what it could do on a borrowed instrument.

You won't regret your choice once you experiment with it a bit. If you're like me you'll go through the following:
1) What did I buy???
2) What do all these knobs do?
- a couple of weeks go by -
3) This sounds fantastic, why didn't I buy this earlier?

 

[Duarte]

Any Bongo decision is the right desision...next time however, consider HS too.

 

[MK Bass Weed]

Just re-reading the post...need a video comparison shoot!