Recent content by kasbrey

+1 on the strings. However I'm not sure about some of the other observations. Passive Sandbergs, imo, are similar to the better examples of passive Fenders (without graphite rods) in response and the Alnico pickups in the TT passive are exceptional (and I've tried a lot of pickups). I have 5...

My '81 L1000 does a great P tone but maybe my 44 yr old Wunkays' MFD pickup has mellowed with age. The SB-1 MFD pickups are very aggressive in my experience. I bought a set to put in a P type bass but took them out because I couldn't get a Precision tone out of them.

That depends on the pickups. I have 5 passive Sandbergs all with Alnico pickups and they can all cop the Fender sound. The big pole ceramics are never going to sound vintage but there's nothing inherent in the rest of the bass design to prevent this (apart from maybe the tighter bottom end in...

Hi, nice bass. I have 3 Umbos, 1 very early one (2009), a 2015 and newer California 2 series. That does look like it might be ebony, I'm sure it was an option then. The pickups are made by Haussel, they are a special design made with Alnico 2 magnets, a little thumpier than a regular Jazz. I'm...

The Sandberg P pickup, at least, is a radically different sounding pickup to the Delano (much more open sounding) so I'm sure the motive was not just to produce an "own brand" cheaper version. They did carry on using Delanos in the TM and other non-California basses.

I had a VM4 with Delanos and I found the P pickup very nasal sounding with the reverse style position and ended up putting a Sandberg big pole in it which I much preferred. I have a (probably wrong) theory that the Sandbergs are made by Delano to Sandberg's spec to suit the pickup layout. The...

I never noticed any white noise from my TTE 500 and my TTE 801 certainly does not have any (preamp looks the same part).

Sorry wrong link.

I used a Gator GP66 Dual bass pedal bag for my old TTE500. It still fits my slightly larger TTE801. The Stairville SB120 also fits but isn't quite as padded.

This is probably a better video for the Alnicos. The pickups might be in different positions though. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sandberg+california+tt4+marlowedk

Those are Alnico and in real life are vintage sounding (sorry about posting that video). Obviously strings will make a big difference too. When I got my my passive TT4 I had to adjust the pickup height quite a bit to get that vintage alnico feel. The Delanos are not quite as fussy about height...

I'm pretty sure that those are not the Delano's and CME have just copy pasted some blurb. They also say it's active/passive The small pole pickups are usually Alnicos on passive TT's unless they're Superlights.

Yeah, I listened to it again after I posted it and it sounded more mellow and polite than I remembered! I can only assume that it's the signal chain. My own TT4 passive sounds very vintage (I've owned many Jazzes) and also has tones between front and both pickups that remind me of a Gibson...

You've probably seen this but it is accurate tone-wise,

Is your TT4 passive then?