mcnach

Cool, thank you! That's the guy from O'funkillo. I don't like everything they do, but they have some nice stuff

You can't easily EQ the complex cancellations that are going one when you use both pickups on. I've had both types. Mostly 60s, but I was curious about the 70s, so I ended up with a couple. Yes, there is a difference but it's not huge. I prefer the 60s one, but the difference wouldn't bother me if I found a 70s spacing Jazz that felt better.

I posted this on the 'now listening' thread... but I'm enjoying it so much that I thought I had to post it here too

Cool! Check the rest of the range out, Joyo & Harley Benton seem to produce the same units under slightly different model names, and Boss have a few too. There are some pretty sophisticated units that include MIDI and all kinds of other things, as well and many more channels, and some pretty basic but still good if all you need is a handful of presets.

I don't have GAS... but if I did...

Oh THAT is a really sexy looking bass! I thought that Sandberg simply made good basses, but after being forced by circumstances to try a few (honestly, I didn't want to! ) and eventually buy a VM4, I'm saying that these basses are pretty special. The build is superb. I was not in love with the preamp in mine (I didn't specify anything and went with the stock one to start), maybe I'm a little picky, but it is a fabulous bass regardless. If the 'basics' are good, and they are VERY good, then it's very simple to modify any bits you'd like different. It's just hard to say what to change when you order a bass, as you can't try it before you buy. In case it sounds like the bass wasn't that good... I've pretty much gigged with it exclusively (a few gigs with the Stingray, but >90% were with the Sandberg) since I bought it without any modification. It's still in my to-do list to remove the preamp and have it set fully passive (I like passive tone controls) and probably use a Tonestyler in it. The forced lockdown might just be the time I needed for it, however with one of my bands we're doing a lot of "remote song writing" recording etc and I keep using it... It's just soooo nice to play.

and as others have said... great customer service.

Not sure about that... there's a lot more to a bass than the type of pickups and their location. But it's probably a very decent bass. I used to own a Vantage (double MM on a Ric/Jazz hybrid type of body) that was pretty cool.

Ouch, a SBMM Ray34 costs £1076 these days???? They do have a few interesting instruments, 'though. Decent price on some Sandbergs indeed.

I travel to Madrid often, how is it possible I didn't know about them???

Do you mean something like this?

I love this one. Not exactly traditional reggae or anything, but it's a great tune and I love that bass...

+1

I use double sided sticky tape. Rests stay firmly attached but they can be removed cleanly.

They're nice (I owned one for a while) but they're often quite heavy and it doesn't do the Stingray thing very well... although I do like what it does.

Some bars, now closed, may allow you to use them for practice or more. Worth asking. One of the main music bars in town contacted me earlier today asking if we'd like to do some live-stream 'gigs'. We've got a new album out and we cancelled the album launch party. This could be a cool way to bring our new music out, while helping the bar a little.

I'll just add that my ideal 'reggae tone' is not what many assume it is, all low end etc. For me it's the low mids. I go for definition, without zing but without a lot of deep bass. For funk, the zing often comes back. The active treble control just boosts a region that is not pleasant, to my ears, and it's too narrow to work well when cutting it. It works better for me, on this bass, to let the passive sound be the brightest, and cut down from the top as required. I only ever used the bass tone control to balance the treble and get the mids where I wanted them. Lots of people like setups like this. Just not for me.

I play all sorts. Most of my gigs involve ska, reggae and funk. But there's some rockier stuff too, not just the RATM band. I find that when I switch to passive, there's a 'clarity' that I really like. I want a passive tone control because I like being able to remove the top end that way, it doesn't mean that's how I always use it. I find the active treble control pretty useless.

March was marking the beginning of what looked like a busy season for me, having only played three gigs since January. But of course, we've had all cancelled with the earliest ones being in May, and those are not safe either. I imagine a lot of the May ones will also be cancelled. We've managed to reschedule many of them starting in September, which should be ok, but anything until June or so is going to be uncertain...

Keep the faith I never had issues with, it was in fact one of the first basslines I ever learnt (after many years as a guitarist, so I was not exactly a newbie). Indeed, using that open D is what makes it sound right without much effort. RHCP's Parallel Universe I struggled sometimes live. Not complicated, but to keep it going thoughout the song... I was doing it fingerstyle and I sometimes just used a pick (like Flea does, I think) to make it easier. One that often trips me up live is the intro to RATM's "Calm like a bomb". It's, again, pretty simple... but I used to forget it when we first started to play it and that left a mark. I can play it with my eyes closed half asleep... but because of its history, I'll often get the guitarist giving me a funny look or the singer might even announce it as my favourite song, putting me on the spot... and then I'll either forget or miss a note or something. Unless you're a RATM fan you might not notice as I just play "a solo bass intro", but not THE solo bass intro I think I'm more likely to fail at the easiest ones. The hard ones I practice. The easy ones I don't, and then I go "hmmm, is this one in Bb or A?" just before we start 😛

I can't speak for others. For me, it's a combination of two things. I didn't love the EQ that this preamp provides. I don't have anything against 2-bands, some work very well for me (Stingray, for example), but this one... the treble control in particular wasn't doing it for me. I like to be able to remove a fair amount from the top, and I really like passive tone controls for that... so between not loving the EQ plus missing a passive control... I will just remove the preamp and make it work passively instead. The way it is set up, it DOES have a passive tone control when in passive mode (the treble control is wired that way) but it's rather subtle. I have been a big fan of *some* preamps, in particular the John East J-Retro/U-Retro and teh MMSR (Stingray, the 3-band with semiparametric mids). But I find the stock on in my Sandberg not suitable for my needs. If it were a 'meh' bass, I'd live with it. But it's a GREAT bass... so I'll just make a great bass even greater (for me).

That sounds really good indeed... Ufff... I need a band in which I can play this kind of stuff :D

You can also drastically change the effect you get with both pickups on by changing the pickup heights. Not just relatively to each other, but if you bring both down or up, keeping them balanced, the mids will be affected differently. It's been a couple of times the difference between me going "ugh" and "oh yes"... Experiment! Nice looking bass.

I play my VM4 in passive form exclusively and I'm about to remove the preamp because I much prefer it that way. I have the stock Sandberg pickup, whatever that is... and if you're looking for classic Precision, this is not it. It's lovely, but it's not the classic P sound. How much that is due to the pickup and how much to the reverse configuration, I am not entirely sure. It definitely has a Precisiony kind of sound, but it's quite different. I also have a reverse P Maruszczyk which is also Precisiony but not quite (although in that case the pickup is a tiny bit closer to the bridge, a Delano of some sort with big polepieces). I think it would complement very well your delicious collection of classic sounding Precisions