When was Bongo born?

[ProgHead]

Hi all.

I own my '78 StingRay since over 16 years now, but only recently I discovered what a precious piece of gear I own, also thanks to this site.

Here I discovered news, history, the pre-EB and EB story, new instruments labeled Musicman, but...

...reading the Ernie Ball company history, all instruments are listed, the concept, the idea and most of the time the origin of the instruments name can be figured out, except for the Bongo!

When was it introduced? What was the driving idea behind it? Why the name "Bongo"?

Greets from southern Switzeland.

Andy

PS: I've never seen a Bongo for real, not on stage, not in a shop, and I'm in the music biz quite a long time (don't tell me I'm old!), it looks like here in central Europe they're hard to find... is it because they're new?

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Andy, the BoNgo was introduced in 2003. "Bongo" was the code name used during it's developement. It was then decided to give the new instrument that name.

Now, over to Jack...

 

[midopa]

Also check out the Bongo video with Big Poppa on Guitar Center's website!
http://www.guitarcenter.com/events/musicman/

 

[Steve Dude Barr]

Jack's BoNgo history page:

http://www.bovinehost.com/bongo/bongoinfo.html