scrumpymike

20 hours ago, ped said:

Recorded a bit of my 66 Mustang today. Backing track is my band, used Moises to remove the bass and put mine over. Backing track is only a demo so not 100% full quality but it gives you some idea. Love the sound of this bass, it just sits and pokes out when needed. 
 

 

That's my favourite kind of bass tone - one you can slice with a carving knife! ☺️

PM sent.

On 11/04/2024 at 18:53, chris_b said:

Has anyone put flats on their Sandberg?

 

If so, which flats did you use.

LaBella 760FS-S on my Cali ll SL TM 4 SHORT. Band plays drop-tuned by a semi btw.

Gigged my recently acquired Cali ll SL TM 4 Short for the first time last night - absolutely superb!!

Away next week but will post mini review when I get back.

34 minutes ago, yangtze2000 said:

Hi all! First post here. Never played a bass before. 60 y.o., bad back, small hands, so short scale appeals to me. I'm thinking Ibanez TMB 30, Ibanez GSRM20B GIO miKro, or Harley Benton PB.

 

I promise I'll try before I buy because it's largely a subjective thing, but with that out of the way, please feel free to tell me what to buy, and/or make any comparative comments. I'm certainly interested in build quality and reliability, but other comments would be gratefully received

Greetings! In the lower price range, I'd recommend the TMB30 as being the best value IMHO and the one you're most likely to find in a shop to try out. You won't get the neck-dive issue mentioned on the 5-string TMB35.

Obviously, the bigger your budget, the greater the choice but I'd recommend starting off at the cheaper end. You'll soon find out whether you enjoy playing and can then trade up and move your first bass on without losing much money (there's always a market for good, used TMB30s). Alternatively, your next move could be to upgrade to a better set of strings.

3 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Thanks regarding the H1. Just about to post it.

 

If the A2S was a steal at £799, the current price of £399 must be complete madness on Vox' behalf!

They obviously need the storage space 🙂

42 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Folks, While contemplating selling my Vox Starstream H1, I had a little look at the Vox website: they currently have offers on the twin pickup models. The passive one is £199 but the Artist A2S (active) is only £399! Given that the A2S has Aguilar pickups and preamp, plus Hipshot hardware, that must be a real bargain. I suspect that you would find it hard to buy those components alone for that money, let alone with a bass attached!

 

Interestingly the single humbucker models are not being discounted and remain at £449 (passive) and £799 (active), which (of course) will make mine a real bargain when I get round to listing it 😀👍.

There's been a few posts on here already from me and others about the Starstream basses. I absolutely love my A2S and consider it a steal for the £799 I paid. The original RRP was over £1300 and even then worth every penny IMHO. GLWTS if/when you get round to it.

23 hours ago, sandbergmarc said:

hi! Marc here from Sandberg!

 

first and foremost, I hope i’m not breaking any rules for the forum/this thread. if I am, someone kindly let me know (or give me a swift kick in the butt).

 

as for your frustrations, I can assure you that it’s not intentional avoidance. some of the insight provided in this thread is spot on, in that we (like many other companies) have had a number of issues with emails either getting to us OR getting to people. anything from spam filters to the email servers people us (eg Google) rejecting our emails entirely for a variety of reasons, most recently the SMTP authentication certificate. these are just a couple very real and often very frustrating things we’ve encountered and are working to fix that!

 

to address your specific concerns/inquiry, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected] (yes, “.com” - I live in Chicago. you are also welcome to CC my personal email at [email protected] to make sure I see it).

 

thanks for bringing this to our attention!

 

-Marc

Hey Marc, full marks for jumping onto this in such a timely way. This is the kind of thing that restores/strengthens our faith in the Sandberg brand.

As someone who spent my working life in sales and marketing, I'm finding this debate over Sandberg's comms very interesting. The bottom line is that every business theoretically needs to communicate effectively with its existing and prospective customers. I say 'theoretically' because the one exception is when a business can't meet existing demand for its products. With a 2-year waiting list for customer orders, you'd have to say that's where Sandberg are at.

However, lifting the lid off that situation is pretty much like opening a can of worms. You could write a book about it - lots of people have. Let's just say that, in business terms, it's unsustainable and will probably bite Sandberg in the bum sooner or later. Certainly over-reliance on social media doesn't help you much when a significant segment of your market demographic doesn't use it, either properly or at all.

Cuzzie, well done for posting your experiences and sticking up for a company you obviously believe in.

I think we are all united in wanting what's best for Sandberg, but I'm not sure they're going the right way to get it.

48 minutes ago, Pirellithecat said:

This is a great shame.
Might be the wrong thread, but is there an equally well built/great playing/well priced alternative with better customer focus??   

Andyjr1515 and Jabba_the_gut of build-diary fame on here - if they're still taking orders 🙂 

5 hours ago, Aidan63 said:

I have made three more attempts to contact Sandberg by email, using their website, service@ and home@ email addresses and still no reply. Why bother having a contact form on the website and hiding your sales phone number ?

Any company that is only open to using social media for customer contact can do one afaic

I'd say it's typical big company arrogance, their way or no way.

What's the point of having a configurator if you won't discuss the details with the customer.

If they can't be bothered to deal with a potential individual customer in order to make a sale they are unlikely to be responsive once they have the customer's money. If they replied and said I need to go through Bass Direct or another dealer they are happy to use as intermediary I'd understand that but no reply at all ? wtf

I love the Lionel fretless but they won't be getting my money for a fretted one, they have lost a sale, I'd much rather give my money to a UK luthier who will actually appear to be interested in making me an instrument, or even give Fender too much money for a JMJ with a finish I hate but a pickup and neck I like 😲🙃

Good for you mate - couldn't agree more and I wouldn't put up with it either!! Luckily for me, those nice (and responsive!) folks (or should that be Volks?) at Thomann had what I wanted in stock.

A couple of observations:

Following my initial skirmish with the user-unfriendly Sandberg website, I ended up contacting the lovely guy at Classic and Cool. At the end of our nice long chat, he confessed that it's hardly worth his while spending time on the Sandberg brand any more because prospective customers disappear when they find out there's an 18-month waiting time on orders (he was surprised when I told him that it's now 2 years!!). I'd say it won't be long before Sandberg's distribution network is reduced to one company, namely Thomann. There's obviously a special relationship there, presumably based on the fact that they're both in Germany and that Thomann have the funds to buy for stock. 

Comms with Maruszczyk are similarly dire!

The only reason they can get away with it is that their products are of consistently high quality and generally don't need after-sales support.

4 hours ago, Paul S said:

 

Sounds like some sort of euphemism - following the court case, he expressed regret at flogging his lionel in Sainsbury's.  

Yet another one to add to the already long list for what Basschat calls the 'pink torpedo'!

6 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Right. I am definitely attending this one, hopefully, unlike 2 years ago, I won't have to leave after 30 minutes rather than punching someone!

No, this time you can punch someone AND leave after 30 minutes.

3 hours ago, Buddster said:

Don't tell Santa you're selling it! 

She may not do the buffet again! 

This is a used one I bought off here a year back. The new one Santa brought is a keeper!

On hold subject to receipt of payment.

15 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

Absolutely lovely @scrumpymike.

Body looks sooooo lush  with a lovely maple neck. 

I'd be really interested to hear how the mix of the single coil neck Pup blends with the MM Stingray Pup. Congratulations on your latest acquisition,.

BTW

Have told Mrs Scrumpymike or are hiding it under the bed when it's delivered while she's out shopping?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 

I'm the one hiding under the bed 🙃

16 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

I knew you could spec the Cali for short scale, but didn't realise retailers were ordering them for stock. Looks good!

It just appears to be Thomann who are doing this. Jump on their UK website and search Electric basses > Short scale > Sandberg and you'll get around 20 basses with delivery times ranging from 'stock' to a number of weeks / months or 'to order'. What I like is that the selection isn't limited to what you might call standard basses. There's always a few SL and roasted maple necks in amongst what's on offer. This makes a lot of sense given that the waiting time for special orders is now 2 years!! I was lucky enough to find ex-stock almost exactly what I had recently designed on the Sandberg configurator, which would have cost me around £600 more and been subject to a 2-year wait. The only thing I configured that mine doesn't have is a roasted maple neck, but now I've got it I really like the mix of the lighter maple neck with the green burst and gold hardware.

Short-scale Sandberg basses at Thomann UK

33 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

That is bloody gorgeous!

 

Nice one!

 

Now, throw away the god awful strings that come with them!  

Just about to open a new pack of La Bella s-s flats 🙂 

NBD!!  After much deliberation, finally decided to take the plunge on this drop-dead-gorgeous (IMHO) Cali ll TM SL 2-band active that Thomann had in stock. Only just unpacked it but I can report that the build quality and playability are spot on - as I expected, having owned a Lionel. Thanks to its paulownia body and lightweight machine-heads, this one weighs next to nowt and still balances perfectly on the strap. I'll post more feedback when I've got to know it properly.

NBD!!  After much deliberation, finally decided to take the plunge on this drop-dead-gorgeous (IMHO) Sandberg Cali ll TM SL 2-band active that Thomann had in stock. Only just unpacked it but I can report that the build quality and playability are spot on - as I expected, having owned a Lionel. Thanks to its paulownia body and lightweight machine-heads, this one weighs next to nowt and still balances perfectly on the strap. I'll post more feedback when I've got to know it properly.

12 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Odd - I went to my calendar to put it in, and for some reason, it was already there 😮

 

You're probably not the only one as I posted the '24 date at the end of the '23 topic 🙂 

OK, so this is me starting a new topic for

This year's Bash🥳

The hall is booked from 10am to 4pm on

Sunday, October 13th, 2024

so put the date in your diaries NOW!

Just follow this topic for more details!

The Memorial Hall, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Rowford, TAUNTON, TA2 8JY  https://www.cheddonfitzpainevillagehall.co.uk/

(The picture below shows the entrance to the hall driveway but the old lodge pictured is a private house)

On 04/02/2024 at 13:32, Blues Rock Dawn said:

I can do a bigger event than that. The hall I can use has a 100 capacity, there is a free car park and it is a lovely friendly pub with food etc. There is a stage and I have all my own PA and backline + drums, strat guitar, 2x4-string and 1x5-string bass guitars

Just GO FOR IT!! You'll be glad you did. When Mrs Scrumpy and I decided to re-start a S-W Bash back in 2017, little did we know that we were about to become local legends in our own lunch-time 🙂. That's largely down to the catering expertise of Mrs S of course, and the lesson is a valuable one: make sure you put on the best food and drink you possibly can! The rest will happen automatically. The great (and honestly unexpected) joy for us is that we've now got our own local 'Bash family' within the broader community of this wonderful Basschat forum. Here's some pic's from 2023:

15 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

Recent convert to LaBella low tension flats (think they only do the one gauge).

 

Love them on my long scales, but thought they might be a bit floppy on my short scale.  Bought a set anyway…

 

Thankfully they feel as great on the short scale as they do in a long scale!  Thought I’d mention it just in case anyone else was wondering the same.

I would have tried these but my band plays drop-tuned to Eb. The normal LaBella s-s flats are perfect for this but I'm not sure the low-tension strings would.

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

 

Me too. I'm a 40-100 on a long scale, but 45-105 at least on a shortie.

+1