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!

[LeftyJ]

Mine is passive too, and with the much heavier ash body. I do feel the pickup in mine sounds fairly modern and powerful. In fact, the previous owner sold the bass for sounding too modern. He tried a different pickup in it (Fender Custom Shop '62 P reissue) but that didn't give him the desired results either. The ash body is very dense and incredibly heavy, even when compared to some of my longscale basses with fullsize bodies.

When I bought the bass there was a set of flatwounds on it that I didn't like at all - they were very boomy, and very unbalanced (the E was overly loud and thuddy even after adjusting pickup height, the rest was more or less OK). I played it with Ernie Ball shortscale Slinkies for a while, and currently have LaBella 043-104 on it which are perfect. 

 

I think the E and A sounding bigger than the D and G might be due to it being a shortscale: since the pickup is the same size as on a longscale bass, the treble coil is closer to the bridge relative to the scale length than it would be on a longscale. With the LaBella's it's not an issue for me. 

[fretmeister]

Pickup coil width is a fascination to me! (I know, I know: get a life!).

 

I'd like a shortie stingray, but with a pickup that is smaller so all the relative dimensions are the same. I'd love to find out if I can hear a difference. With the usual pickup on a shortie the pickup is sensing a higher percentage of the string than on a 34 scale.

 

Aguilar and Nordy do thin Bart sized soapbars with separate lines of polepieces, although they are doubles and not the 1 large pole as on a 'ray pickup.

 

Maybe one day I'll get someone to make one... and then discover I can't hear the difference and I've wasted £500 on a custom pickup!