CyberBass Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 (edited) It's my 50th Birthday this month and tried out a Sandberg California Umbo Bass and was totally blown away with it, so much so that I sold my much loved CIJ Jaguar Bass and put birthday money with it and ordered one, which will be with me next week: Here is the spec: [b] Sandberg California UMBO 4[/b] [b] Colour virgin white Construction Solid body Neck construction Bolt on neck Number of strings 4 Number of frets 22 Measure 34"/ 864mm Body material ash Neck Maple Fretboard Rosewood Pick-up neck Häussel Pick-up bridge Häussel Pick-up type Single coil J - style Control possibilities 2 x volume, 1 x tone Hardware chrome [/b] And here are some pics: [attachment=99188:umbo.jpg][attachment=99189:umbo 2.jpg][attachment=99190:umbo 3.jpg][attachment=99191:umbo 4.jpg][attachment=99192:umbo 5.jpg][attachment=99193:umbo 6.jpg][attachment=99194:umbo 7.jpg] I will hopefully give it a review in the very near future along with soundclips :-) Edited February 5, 2012 by CyberBass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Wazoo Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Lovely bass and congratulations, but please explain what is that strat type switch by the lower horn purpose if you have 2 individual volume what would be the point of a 3 position switch unless it is there to perform other electric trickery such as in / out phase / passive / active / series / parallel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Congratulations, it's a beaut! I've become a massive Sandberg convert in the last year, and it resulted in me selling my trusty old Jazz of 14 years last year too. In fact I've changed all three of my main basses for Sandbergs now! They really are great quality instrumemts for the money. Fran, this is what the spec on the website says: NECK 6 x bolted / canadian hardrock maple FRETBOARD 22 frets or fretless SCALE 4-string: 864 mm / 34", 5-string: 889 mm / 35" BODY OPTIONS european ash, mahogany with rarewood top highgloss finish: alder, swamp ash FINISH OPTIONS matt, aged, selected highgloss colours HARDWARE sandberg PICKUP 2 Häussel special designed J-style single coil PREAMP passive, treble cut, [b]3-way switch for tone preset selection[/b] Don't know exactly how that works though......! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 According to the electronics guide, this is what happens: Three way switch for passive tone level: 1) bypass 2) ultra clean / mid cut 3) dirty mid / oldschool Motown Still don't know exactly how that works..... I guess maybe sends the signal through different capacitors or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Or maybe it is an active preset eq: "Input Jack: Please make sure the instrument cable is set in correctly (clicked two times), otherwise the bass will not work in active mode." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberBass Posted February 5, 2012 Author Share Posted February 5, 2012 It's a totally passive bass, no active electronics. The switchable pre sets are for mids to give the Jaco sound, not that would influence me, however in the bypass mode the tonal qualities are fantastic :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocco Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 [quote name='CyberBass' timestamp='1328463003' post='1527451'] It's a totally passive bass, no active electronics. The switchable pre sets are for mids to give the Jaco sound, not that would influence me, however in the bypass mode the tonal qualities are fantastic :-) [/quote] That's pretty cool. Let me know how useful it is in the real world. I was eyeing one of these up last year. I love the styling and they said they could do me one with a P neck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kostas Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Sandberg is an interesting company. I like how many options are availiable for the customer and their pricing is good. I read they have very thin necks, can you confirm this guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender73 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 sure it plays and sounds great, but that slanted neck pickup just looks...erm...wrong to me personally. Congrats on the new bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender73 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 oh and Happy Birthday too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBboy Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 [quote name='Kostas' timestamp='1328521371' post='1528277'] Sandberg is an interesting company. I like how many options are availiable for the customer and their pricing is good. I read they have very thin necks, can you confirm this guys? [/quote] They are great quality, hand-built instruments for not too much money. I noticed on Thomann the other day that their Sandberg prices have dropped considerably recently..... seems like a good 15-20% less! The necks are very comfortable. The necks on the Californias are slimmer and more modern feeling than a Fender, and the necks on the Basic/Basic Ken Taylor is super skinny! Most comfortable bass I've ever played. The easiest way for me to describe them is that they are like the bass version of an Ibanez RG guitar; very skinny and comfortable, with a slight flatness down the centre line of the neck. If you've never tried one I strongly suggest you do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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