Sandberg appreciation society

[mattpbass]

41 minutes ago, juanbcn83 said:

I have read that Sandberg has made a new bridge with more mass to increase sustain. Do you know anything about this?

 

In terms of sound, how does this new bridge affect in the sound? Yes, more sustain but anything else? closer to a vintage sounds?

Being as they only announced it a couple of days ago it’s very unlikely anyone has used one. From their post it looks like they’ve just made it simpler to adjust, can’t imagine it sounds any different. 

[warwickhunt]

Unless it were made from something other than some type of metal, I'd not imagine sonic improvements would be any different to the majority of bridges on solid bodied basses.  Even high mass bridges gain you fractions of 'sustain' and tbh 1/2 of the bass playing population go out of their way to avoid sustain!  LOL

[LeftyJ]

At first glance I thought they only changed the saddle design, but I see they went with intonation screws instead of the free sliding saddle that locked in place. Interesting choice. 

[tempo]

Just thought I would add to the thread with this Ken Taylor 5 that I bought last year. I got it new from BAX for an absolute steal, prior to them going bump.

It's not fashionably light (9.5lbs), but I'm not too bothered - (it's much lighter than my 6 & 7 strings!!) The main thing is it sounds absolutely immense, love the growl of the humbuckers, the EQ and blend can get a great variety of tones, and almost plays itself. Build quality is as good as anything else I've played. 

[Naigewron]

Modded my VM5 with a split coil switch for a bit more of a P/J tone. Works pretty nicely, I must say.

It switches between full humbucker and front coil.

 

[colleya]

Does anyone have any experience with swapping the preamp in a VM5?

 

I bloody love the bass, it plays like a dream but the tone isn't as 'alive' as my Fender jazz 5. It feels a little sterile to me.

 

I'm thinking of popping an East pre in there and was wondering if anyone else has done the same. YouTube has an example done on a TT but no VM.

 

Cheers!

[Paddy777]

2 hours ago, colleya said:

Does anyone have any experience with swapping the preamp in a VM5?

 

I bloody love the bass, it plays like a dream but the tone isn't as 'alive' as my Fender jazz 5. It feels a little sterile to me.

 

I'm thinking of popping an East pre in there and was wondering if anyone else has done the same. YouTube has an example done on a TT but no VM.

 

Cheers!

I had a VM5 with a Nordstrand preamp and it sounded fantastic - had tone control in passive & active and was much better than the stock pre. John East stuff if pretty hard to come by at the mo, bot sure what’s going on with him but almost everything is showing as out of stock on his website and he’s not responding to emails, BassDirect dont have any in either. You can get 4 pot Nordstrand preamp in 2 and 3 band, which would be my next choice 

[colleya]

11 hours ago, Paddy777 said:

I had a VM5 with a Nordstrand preamp and it sounded fantastic - had tone control in passive & active and was much better than the stock pre. John East stuff if pretty hard to come by at the mo, bot sure what’s going on with him but almost everything is showing as out of stock on his website and he’s not responding to emails, BassDirect dont have any in either. You can get 4 pot Nordstrand preamp in 2 and 3 band, which would be my next choice 

This is really helpful, thanks!

[juanbcn83]

On 10/12/2025 at 22:39, Naigewron said:

Modded my VM5 with a split coil switch for a bit more of a P/J tone. Works pretty nicely, I must say.

It switches between full humbucker and front coil.

 

Sandberg has an special edition in Capuccino burst, my favourite finish ever, that has this possibility. I can't understand why the TM models has this option but the VM don't, it would be better.

 

[Naigewron]

2 minutes ago, juanbcn83 said:

Sandberg has an special edition in Capuccino burst, my favourite finish ever, that has this possibility. I can't understand why the TM models has this option but the VM don't, it would be better.

 

 

Even the VM2 has this, and it uses the same body style, same bridge pickup, same everything. I don't know why they don't do it for the standard VM either.

 

One possible reason that occurs to me now that I've done it: The P pickup in the VM5 is extremely powerful and cuts through just about anything, so Sandberg may be worried that users would complain about a perceived volume drop when using both pickups and splitting the humbucker. On the TM basses, I assume the neck pickup might be a little weaker, and therefor balances better with both the full humbucker and the split one.

 

I haven't done any proper analysis yet though - I'm not sure if there is an actual volume drop between the P/humbucker combo and the P/split combo. It might also be that it's just a perceived volume drop because a lot of the midrange gets scooped out in that center position. Most likely it's a combination of both.