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Sandberg appreciation society


GisserD

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5 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

I think medium scale might be the one for me. 

 

Don't get me wrong I like both my full scale and short scale but from a comfort point of view 32" really appeals. Would want to try and high quality medium scale before ordering a custom Sandberg though! 

Where are you situated?  I have an ACG 32" scale bass that I use a lot!  Weighs nothing, easy to get about on and a great neck (for me at any rate).  You are welcome to come and have a try if you're nearby.

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Friends, I've got GAS for a fiver. Given my experiences with my existing Sandberg I would like it to be Sandberg again. There are some for sale at PMT, but I'm not in a position to pop into their Birmingham store to try them out. I will probably ask if I can have them transferred, but that requires a deposit for each bass and so may get expensive.

 

This is just for curiosity's sake so I'm not going to bass (badum tish) any purchase on the replies here, but which of these would you, sound unheard, pick? Why? Even better, all you Brummies, have you tried them? What were your experiences?

 

63493-168851-Sandberg-Custom-Bocote-5-St

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/sandberg-custom-bocote-5-string-bass-with-gold-hardware64797-168873-Sandberg-Basic-5-String-Bas

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/sandberg-basic-5-buckeye-burl-rosewood-dots-gold-hardware

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On 18/08/2021 at 14:06, ead said:

Where are you situated?  I have an ACG 32" scale bass that I use a lot!  Weighs nothing, easy to get about on and a great neck (for me at any rate).  You are welcome to come and have a try if you're nearby.

Appreciate the offer, but I'm a bit further north of where ACGs are born! 

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2 hours ago, chyc said:

Friends, I've got GAS for a fiver. Given my experiences with my existing Sandberg I would like it to be Sandberg again. There are some for sale at PMT, but I'm not in a position to pop into their Birmingham store to try them out. I will probably ask if I can have them transferred, but that requires a deposit for each bass and so may get expensive.

 

This is just for curiosity's sake so I'm not going to bass (badum tish) any purchase on the replies here, but which of these would you, sound unheard, pick? Why? Even better, all you Brummies, have you tried them? What were your experiences?

 

63493-168851-Sandberg-Custom-Bocote-5-St

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/sandberg-custom-bocote-5-string-bass-with-gold-hardware64797-168873-Sandberg-Basic-5-String-Bas

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/sandberg-basic-5-buckeye-burl-rosewood-dots-gold-hardware

Sorry i cant offer any help here but i prefer the California or Jazz style Sandbergs. Have a VM4 but quite fancy a passive J or even a passive P.

Both are nice looking basses but i reckon you might get more tone choices from the top one.

Dave 

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19 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Sorry i cant offer any help here but i prefer the California or Jazz style Sandbergs. Have a VM4 but quite fancy a passive J or even a passive P.

Both are nice looking basses but i reckon you might get more tone choices from the top one.

Thanks for the input. I have a California JJ (as it was called back then) and absolutely love it.

 

I caved and got my local PMT to order these two instruments in so I can try them. Will be very interesting to compare to one another. I thought I was going to buy the Yamaha TRBX 605 but I really didn't get on with that when I tried it.

 

Will keep you posted.

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1 hour ago, chyc said:

Thanks for the input. I have a California JJ (as it was called back then) and absolutely love it.

 

I caved and got my local PMT to order these two instruments in so I can try them. Will be very interesting to compare to one another. I thought I was going to buy the Yamaha TRBX 605 but I really didn't get on with that when I tried it.

 

Will keep you posted.

I just love the Sandberg necks. Every one i've tried has been top notch and unable to fault.

Yep keep us posted what you think of them when they come in.

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 20/08/2021 at 17:22, chyc said:

Thanks for the input. I have a California JJ (as it was called back then) and absolutely love it.

 

I caved and got my local PMT to order these two instruments in so I can try them. Will be very interesting to compare to one another. I thought I was going to buy the Yamaha TRBX 605 but I really didn't get on with that when I tried it.

 

Will keep you posted.

Any update? I'm keen to know how they sound and play.

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7 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Has anyone changed the stock strap buttons for Dunlop strap locks?

 

I know the Dunlop screws typically tend to be bigger and was worried about paint cracks. 

 

I do this to all my basses, no issues with the Sandbergs.

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1 hour ago, GisserD said:

Any update? I'm keen to know how they sound and play.

 

As it so happens, I've just walked through the door back from PMT after they booted me out at closing time. I got a few minutes on both.

 

I will use the words "Basic" to describe the lighter single pickup bass, and  "Custom" to describe the darker dual XTender bocote bass.

 

Both basses are very good, good enough for me to be happy with either. They're different: the Basic is a wee bit cheaper, is lighter in weight, and dare I say it a little nicer to go up and down the neck. Conversely the Custom has a much larger variation in tone. Comparing these two to the Yamaha TRBX605 also at PMT, there is no comparison. Maybe the Yamaha and I didn't gel but the neck felt all wrong and the sound was not pleasant (even after amateur playing is taken into account).

 

Looks-wise, you can see the pictures for yourself. The maple on the Basic is stunning in the flesh (in the wood?). The Custom has a more functional look. I don't dislike it, but I don't like it either.

 

On the Custom I could get close to a Musicman when leaning towards the rear pickup. Nothing close to a P came out the neck pickup but it was smooth. Perhaps a J with a slight tilt towards the front pickup?

 

I emailed Sandberg to ask them how the wiring of the single bucker was done in the Basic: series or parallel. I never got a reply but based on my playing, I would say they're in series and I was unable to get a Musicman burp from this bass. That's not to say it was bad: if I want a Musicman sound I could just buy one and if it were a SUB I'd have spare change over a Sandberg.

 

For the benefit of this thread I may head in with an audio interface to record a short clip of me fumbling to play something. Could even make a game of it: guess the bass and which pickup 🙂. For me personally I will be back with my wife, whom I've said before has excellent taste in everything. She'll help me decide if either is the one for me, but at the moment both are contenders for augmenting the stable. It's quite exciting as the last bass I bought was probably around 13 years ago (and yes it was a Sandberg.)

 

As an aside, I really do like and recommend PMT Oxford. They're patient and always willing to help me. Must be tough competing with Thomann's prices and service, but I wouldn't purchase an instrument without playing it first. Thomann would get sick of me after the 7th or 8th return.

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I'm listening back to recordings I made today at PMT. Conditions were not great: I had little time and it was bloomin' loud in there (pesky other shoppers) so I couldn't hear myself. One thing's for sure though listening back, you cannot just pick up a 5er and play it like a 4 string. Sympathetic vibrations abound and much of what I recorded is not fit for public consumption.

 

Still, I don't want to make it a wasted trip. Which sample is your favourite? I managed to sneak in the B string near the end of the sample. Three samples are of one bass dialed on different pickups (rear, front and both), one is of the single pickup bass.

 

Edited by chyc
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On 03/09/2021 at 22:09, chyc said:

Still, I don't want to make it a wasted trip. Which sample is your favourite? I managed to sneak in the B string near the end of the sample. Three samples are of one bass dialed on different pickups (rear, front and both), one is of the single pickup bass.

 

Listening back now and sheesh that's some bad playing. Oh well, better get practising. You can probably tell which one is which because I had trouble playing the maple bass.

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First rehearsal with a new punk band today. Started off using my Fender PJ that's been sitting doing nothing since i bought my VM4. Got thru first 6 songs and decided i preferred the feel of my Sandberg. It was like night and day. I was getting a few aches in first 6 songs but after changing to the VM4 i finished the remaining 34 songs without issue. No aches, no pains at all. 

The Sandberg is just so much more comfortable and why its been my goto bass since the day i bought it.

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm now the owner of a Sandberg Custom 5!

 

My wife, the guy at PMT and me all came to the same conclusion: there was definitely a sound in the MM soapbar pickup found on the Sandberg Basic that just couldn't be replicated with the XTenders in the Custom, but the XTenders have a very nice tone, and are much more versatile, and so overall the bass you see in the picture is the one I took home. It responds very well to tweaking, and the default sound suits my style of playing, which is to sit back in the mix rather than cut through it, although with some tweaking you can get a really nice honk out the bridge pickup. My wife said that the XTenders had a much smoother sound, and that the low B string had much better note definition.

 

Listening back to the recordings I made, there were far more mistakes using the Basic. At this level of craftmanship it's so subjective, but it's probably not controversial to say the Custom's form factor suits me better.

 

Surprisingly Sandberg never got back to me after I asked them a few questions, but the bass spoke for itself, and PMT got the sale. Just for the record, the main question I asked them was what type of pickup was in this Custom. There are actually two types of XTender. I have my suspicions I know which one it is, but wanted it confirmed.

 

 

DSC02768.JPG

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I'm so glad you ordered them both to try in Oxford. I had a pocket full of cash at the time and was itching for the basic. But in the end I fell in love with a delightful sei bass. Had you not taken them both off the market (temporarily) it would have likley been a different story.

I'm still a massive sandy fan. But as a studio bass, the sei is fantastic.

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