NBD: Sandberg Lionel

[dmckee]

In my ongoing (ahem) “investigations” of short scale basses, I finally buckled and bought a Sandberg Lionel. It’s a lovely bass. Feels great ergonomically and balances perfectly despite being very light (not much more than 7lbs). Narrower/thinner neck than I’m used to but it’s growing on me. 

 

A few thoughts though I’d been keen on hearing other Lionel owners’ opinions on, mainly around tone. 

 

I’d read some folk saying the pickup is more modern / less vintage sounding than your average P bass. That may or may not be true, but my overriding feeling tonally is that it sounds much less like a 30” than I was expecting. 

 

My experience to date with 30” basses is that you get a more even tone across all the strings, so (for example) in areas like the lower frets of the D string, those notes just sound a bit thicker than they might on a 34”, and conversely, the E and A strings are possibly a little less deep, making the bass seem overall better balanced across the strings. 

 

But not on this bass. The E and A strings seem massive and the D and G strings seem thinner sounding. Ie much more like a 34”. 

 

Anyone else have that experience and/or any thoughts on why? (BTW I’ve got D’Addario Chromes on it, as I have on most of my other basses). 

[fretmeister]

Mine is passive. I swapped the pickup for an Aguilar AG-4P for more vintage tones.

 

I've had other basses with the Sandberg 2 band EQ and I've never thought that the detent position was actually flat - more like a little boosted on both knobs. Just back the bass knob off a bit if you need to. It's a P pickup so it's also very easy to balance output by adjusting the pickup height on one side or the other. Makes a big difference.

 

I also think that the "30 inch sound" is a myth. There are sounds for particular 30 inch basses - like a Mustang with it's unique pickup, or the woody thud of a Hofner Beatle bass - but after owning 3 shorties all with P bass pickups in them (a variety of passive and active pickups) - they all sound like a precision and different string choices have just as much impact as on a 34 inch precision too. They sound so much like "proper" precisions that I got rid of my proper ones as the shorties are so easy to play. If there was a 30 inch sound then there would be a 34 inch sound too - and just listening to a P and then a J shows that's not true.

 

If you take out the Lionel's pickup and preamp and put a Mustang pickup and passive loom in it, and a set of La Bella Mustang flats - it will sound very close to a Mustang and not the same as a P bass anymore. IIRC the Mustang pickup is not quite in the same place as on a P so there will be a little difference for that.

 

[fretmeister]

Congrats on the new bass BTW - it's a lovely colour!