See above, my Musicman Stealth Bongo.
When I had the chance to try them, I always liked playing Musicman basses, and whilst searching around for a replacement for my Wal, which (thanks to some negative airline experiences), I temporarily retired from service, I briefly used a very nice natural wood Stingray for a tour or two. However, I much preferred the Bongo as soon as I tried one, it felt more comfortable to play, flexible, expressive and with a very pleasing even response.
I was surprised, in a good way, by the very clearly defined low end, a lot more of it than you might expect, given it's actually quite light. The tonal possibilities make it a very good all round instrument, and I have experimented with different string types from time to time, switching back and forth between round and flatwounds, currently I'm back to using round wounds.
I was lucky enough to get this bass direct from Ernie Ball and along with the simple black "Stealth" colour finish, I opted for dual humbuckers.
Two tone split controls, giving a 4 band EQ, pick up balance and volume control pots.
Distinctive 3 + 1 Musicman Headstock
I believe the design team from BMW were involved in designing the stylistic aspects such as the body and headstock shape, it's certainly a different take on the bass guitar, "marmite" perhaps…..but I like it.
You can see this particular bass getting a workout on the Porcupine Tree "Arriving" Live DVD:
As well as a few other tracks here:
More recently, I have used a (borrowed) fretless Stealth Bongo live with Burnt Belief:
That's a meeeeeeean looking bass. What a piece :^)
ReplyDeleteI keep watching the Rockaplast show on youtube from '05. Damn that bass sound was good. I'm a Spector guy but - that tone was spot on. I wish John Mayung would explore that "type" of sound more with DT. Music man tone gets our of control with aggressive playing.
ReplyDeleteI actually recently purchased a Bongo last Friday and this morning I just found out you use one and I have mad respect for you now.
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