The BMG Bass is a strikingly cool, medium scale instrument made in the same spirit as the iconic Red Special, with a compact, bound, double cutaway, Indonesian mahogany body finished in a rich Antique Cherry, a one-piece, black pickguard, 31.5” scale mahogany neck, and a smooth, 20 fret Coromandel ebony fingerboard.
With a pleasingly aggressive low-end growl and a punchy mid-range thump, the bass delivers tight, bright highs with plenty of note definition and clarity that make it great for retro rock and blues, oceanic dub reggae and trip-hop, fingerstyle funk, soul and R&B. Played with a pick, the medium scale neck is great fun to dig in on, with a dynamic, crisp attack and a reassuringly tight, solid presence that will sit perfectly in the mix for a whole range of vintage and modern rock and pop styles.
Tone is supplied by twin vintage styled, chrome covered pickups, a fat Gibson-esque humbucker up front providing an earthy, low end counterpoint to the bright, cutting response of a bridge position Tri-Sonic style single coil. Onboard electronics feature a classic, no-frills passive circuit, with individual pickups volume and master treble roll-off controls.
Hardware comprises a heavy-duty, chrome, hi-mass roller bridge, BM style, aluminium "top-hat" control knobs, and state-of-the-art Hipshot Ultralite© open gear tuners.
The BMG Bass comes complete with a premium quality padded gig bag made from hardwearing shower-proof material featuring twin, rucksack-style shoulder straps, side and front grab handles, dual, zipped front pockets and a stitched Brian May Guitars logo.
Gareth Morgan » August 2014
Gareth Morgan, one of the UK's foremost 4-string experts, found plenty of fun to be had with the BMG Bass in his glowing appraisal of the instrument for the August 2014 issue of G&B.
Gareth rated the playability of this medium scale beauty and, construction-wise, gave particular credit to the "expertly applied" antique cherry finish and "comfortable and highly playable" matching neck.
Sonically, he discovered even more to be excited about... "The basic sound — both pickups on, with the tone knob at full — is excellent: nice and fat with growling lows and an overall feeling of controlled aggression".
In summary, we think Gareth was right on the money when he declared the BMG Bass "an unusual and fine-looking beast with a heap of ’60s flavour which harks back to wilder times".
Better still, he found it "highly playable and great fun to whizz around on" — Isn't that what bass playing should always be about!?
Download the full review
Roger Newell » September 2012
Whilst Roger Newell admitted that he initially found the concept of a Brian May style bass "a somewhat curious design choice", the Guitarist Magazine veteran and bass guru certainly seemed to warm to the idea, discovering that the BMG Bass is "well styled", "nicely built" and delivers an "unexpected variety of solid sounds".
In this 4 star review, Roger concluded that "If you want something off the beaten track, the Brian May Bass has a great deal to offer".
Read the on-line version on Guitarist Magazine's Music Radar website
I'm a big fan of active electronics but this thing has some great sounds!I'm a fan of the mudbucker and my old EB3 copy is active. This littlemonster sounds great as it is! Great range, comfortable scale for my arthritis, and fun to play. From a low end thump to a crisp high, this bass does great.
To say that the BMG Bass is unique would be stating the obvious. Unfortunately, this bass not being as well-known or widely distributed as its cousins from Fender, Gibson, et. al., means that there is a dearth of demonstration videos on the internet to display to the public the sonic properties of this instrument. I concluded that if I wanted to know, I would have to buy it myself.I was not disappointed. To begin with, the bass ships in a high-quality gig bag that will do almost as well as a hard-shell case in all but the most extreme of circumstances. She was smaller than I had expected, but the diminutive size translates well to portability, and does nothing to diminish her sonic power. Fit and finish were superb, and she was set up right out of the box; intonation and string height were perfect. The neck is a little thicker than I would prefer, but by no means uncomfortable. I was surprised as well that she does not amplify the string whisper one gets when playing round wound strings. Her aesthetics hearken back to Gibson's early EB-style basses, the EB-3 specifically. However, unlike the Gibson, which had a rotary-style selector switch for the pickups, the BMG bass relies entirely on two volumes and a master tone. The side-wound neck pickup--very much like Gibson's famous "Mudbucker--" does indeed provide a very muddy basic tone. In order to get any clarity from this pickup alone, one must crank the master tone to maximum. Cutting in the single-coil bridge allows for tonal variation that can answer almost any demand, though; even rivaling some of the burpy tones of a Fender Jazz Bass. This little contender can dial up the burp even farther for a high-definition sound guaranteed to dominate in any mix. Adjusting the volume knobs reveals a mobile "sweet spot," giving a wide variety of useful tones. I ran into a problem taking her out for the first time; halfway through rehearsal, I started to get a lot of hiss, pop, and cutout. Tapping the pots would resolve the issue for a few seconds, then she would act up again. I opened her up to have a look, and shot the pots with Deoxit. This solved the problem for all except the bridge volume pot, which I had to replace; and here I found the only real complaint that I have: the interior wiring was not neatly done. I guess roughly 80% of owners will never have to deal with this, but I had a time sorting out what was connected to what. Additionally, there was not a great deal of slack in the wire, greatly reducing my margin for error. Fortunately, I was able to work with what was there, and I replaced the bridge volume pot without undue difficulty. She now works as intended, and sounds just as sweet as she's supposed to.To sum up: this bass, while not likely to be your main axe, is still an excellent purchase. She's perfect for early 60's inspired British blues rock, and doesn't do too badly re-interpreting later tunes. I have a great deal of fun playing her; her shorter scale length means easier playing, and she can be just as burpy or boomy as the Fender Jazz Bass. She can even push both burp and boom to obnoxious lengths, if you require. Even with the difficulties I had with her, I'm glad I bought her--no danger of buyer's remorse here!
The BMG Bass is a finely crafted bass guitar with a smooth, deep tone ideal for those classic British sounding songs. It is well balanced with nicely fitted quality hardware and two classic style pickups. Finished in glossy red it really does look the part. Comes with a very cool practical gig bag. Excellent sales and service by the Brian May team, I ordered this on a Saturday morning and was delivered to my residence in Brisbane Queensland Australia 10 days later. Outstanding in every way. Cheers.
As a short scale bad, it's very playable but it sounds so much bigger. The tone range is excellent. The case is well made. Overall, it's a quality instrument and a great value
Exceptional bass that is made in Korea. Nice neck and playability. Also the finish is just like the BMG Special guitar. I have 2 negatives to point out :1. Not a fan of Volume/Volume but a Master Volume and Blend Control. Actually I think the wiring is out of phase. As soon as I backed off of the neck pickup, the audio disappeared. 2. The Neck pickup should have been full range, it almost is a Mudbucker. I was happy they used Hipshot Lite Tuners but they should have used their bridge as well.
I find this bass to be very nice with a great tone and low action. The finish is beautiful. The only issue I have, which is minor, is that the knobs are not level. In other words, when holding the bass and looking down at the knobs, they are tilted, higher on one side than the other; not flat with an even amount of space between the underside of the knobs and the top of the guitar. When you look from the front you don't notice it, but I rarely look from the front as I am playing it. Are they just press fit knobs that I can reseat? I've never seen this before and I own 26 basses. Other than that, the bass is very nice
Response:
Hi, RandallApologies for this.The control knobs are not 'press-fit knobs'. They are removed by using one of the allen keys provided with the instrument to loosen the grub screw in the side of each knob. It is then possible to re-seat.Otherwise, glad the bass has found favour.The BMG Team
As a bass player for a long time and fan of Dr. May, I was interested in this beautiful instrument.When I opened the box it was a good surprise, as beautiful as my BMG Special. The knobs look better! No trouble with the weight! The scale is good and playing with pick-up knobs can give you a good sound between the hell of the humbucker and the sharpness of the single.The width of the neck is quite huge but doesn't give me any trouble. Mine had been shipped without flatwound strings, I changed the roundwound for flats and it's really better, smoother.The electronics are also good quality - no noise, no scratches. Plugged in my fuzz, I can have a bigger feedback on my amp than my guitarist. I really enjoy this bass... if you're thinking about something different in shape with an amazing groove, buy it.Greetings from Limoges, France !
Just a personal observation... I recently bought a BMG Bass and really love the the sound and medium scale. If I'm being honest, coming from playing a Fender Jazz, with its 38mm neck, if the BMG bass had a tad narrower neck (45mm is a bit wide) to me, it would be the perfect bass.As said, just a personal preference. It's the only thing to me that lets it down. Love it otherwise!
