Sandberg 48 Zebra. My first Sandberg! Can I have a number?
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Pretty wild. Wish it was a better camera. How are you digging it? Tell us more
- Apr 15, 2010
- 3,914
- 7,324
- Disclosures
- Spector Artist
Guys, those of you who own or owned California VM5... does it sound in the MM ballpark with the bridge pickup soloed or anything close? I like MM tone but settled with Sandberg for long I believe so I’m curious if it can sound close? Also I’m a big fan of the reverse P pickups so VM5 looks like smth I need. Currently own VS5 and TT5 passive. Thanks!
VM4 owner here...
By MM sound you mean Stingray-esque? If so, the answer is absolutely not. It's a great sound, but the pickup is too close to the bridge to have that kind of sound.
- Apr 15, 2010
- 3,914
- 7,324
- Disclosures
- Spector Artist
Exactly, I meant Stingray. Thanks for your reply! I now own VS5 which I am very happy with and TT5 which has less play time cause it sits not as confident in a mix as my VS5. I like TT5 soloed but it is not as good as my VS5 in a band setting. I guess I am more of a P or a PJ guy (played Spector PJ basses before) so the reverse P and a bridge humbucker looks pretty close to what I am looking for apart from my VS5 which is a keeper for sure. So I am looking at selling my TT5 and buying VM5 now.
I love the PJ configuration but I always feel the J alone is imbalanced. In fact, I pretty much ignore the possibility of using it alone, and I adjust its height so that it sounds great with both pickups on, then I just use either the P alone or blend both.
For that reason, I started favouring fatter humbuckers at the bridge position. A P/JJ or a P/MM is, to me, a great combination. That's one thing I like about the VM4: both pickups are well matched, and I generally prefer a reverse P configuration too. It's like they were in my head when designing that bass
I have some experience in looking for a StingRay sound in Sandberg.
After almost give up, I changed the preamp from stock to the Darkglass Tone Capsule 3EQ (2 mids and a bass).
The results in ''StingRay'' sound is more than anyone can expect with humbucker at Sandberg bridge position.
Decreasing Darkglass 500Hz and increasing 70Hz and 2.8kHz gives the unbelievable ''StingRay like'' sounds with Delano humbucker at the TM4 factory position.
This can be tried without installing a preamp, with some good EQ that has the mentioned frequencies. I first tried it with a Darkglass Vintage Ultra V2 and stayed speechless. Ordered a Tone Capsule next morning.
Hope this helps in the re-story of ''Sandberg sounds like StingRay'' that haunted me to for a while
.
Otherwise, you can always buy a Ray...
After almost give up, I changed the preamp from stock to the Darkglass Tone Capsule 3EQ (2 mids and a bass).
The results in ''StingRay'' sound is more than anyone can expect with humbucker at Sandberg bridge position.
Decreasing Darkglass 500Hz and increasing 70Hz and 2.8kHz gives the unbelievable ''StingRay like'' sounds with Delano humbucker at the TM4 factory position.
This can be tried without installing a preamp, with some good EQ that has the mentioned frequencies. I first tried it with a Darkglass Vintage Ultra V2 and stayed speechless. Ordered a Tone Capsule next morning.
Hope this helps in the re-story of ''Sandberg sounds like StingRay'' that haunted me to for a while
.Otherwise, you can always buy a Ray...
From what has been said man
I have some experience in looking for a StingRay sound in Sandberg.
After almost give up, I changed the preamp from stock to the Darkglass Tone Capsule 3EQ (2 mids and a bass).
The results in ''StingRay'' sound is more than anyone can expect with humbucker at Sandberg bridge position.
Decreasing Darkglass 500Hz and increasing 70Hz and 2.8kHz gives the unbelievable ''StingRay like'' sounds with Delano humbucker at the TM4 factory position.
This can be tried without installing a preamp, with some good EQ that has the mentioned frequencies. I first tried it with a Darkglass Vintage Ultra V2 and stayed speechless. Ordered a Tone Capsule next morning.
Hope this helps in the re-story of ''Sandberg sounds like StingRay'' that haunted me to for a while
Otherwise, you can always buy a Ray...
That's great! Any recordings of that sound? thanks
Stingrays have Alnico pickups and the Sandberg big poles are Ceramic I believe?.
I had an early VM4 with Delano pickups and tried replacing the MM with a Haussel Alnico which pleased me a bit more.
I could get it more Stingray-ish by mixing a little P pickup with the MM. The difference was marginal though IMO with the MM that close to the bridge and I didn't like the sound of the reverse P solo'ed either so I sold the bass.
I'm a fan of traditional tones though.
I had an early VM4 with Delano pickups and tried replacing the MM with a Haussel Alnico which pleased me a bit more.
I could get it more Stingray-ish by mixing a little P pickup with the MM. The difference was marginal though IMO with the MM that close to the bridge and I didn't like the sound of the reverse P solo'ed either so I sold the bass.
I'm a fan of traditional tones though.
Hi guys! I was thinking about changing the stock strings on my Superlight TT and put a set of Dr flatwounds (45-105). I have never set up the bass on my own (although I've been told how to do it a million times), is it feasible or there's a high risk of damaging it? My Sandberg is my most precious possession, I don't want to mess it up xD
String change there is very little danger of damage, unless you actually scratch and bash and hammer it whilst doing it.
DR’s are the best strings on the market - you’ll have fun
DR’s are the best strings on the market - you’ll have fun
Little risk if any at all, but you may need a slight tightening of the truss rod to compensate for higher string tension.
I will respectfully disagree with my esteemed colleague @Cuzzie and say that Labella strings are the finest that money can buy
.
I have some experience in looking for a StingRay sound in Sandberg.
After almost give up, I changed the preamp from stock to the Darkglass Tone Capsule 3EQ (2 mids and a bass).
The results in ''StingRay'' sound is more than anyone can expect with humbucker at Sandberg bridge position.
Decreasing Darkglass 500Hz and increasing 70Hz and 2.8kHz gives the unbelievable ''StingRay like'' sounds with Delano humbucker at the TM4 factory position.
This can be tried without installing a preamp, with some good EQ that has the mentioned frequencies. I first tried it with a Darkglass Vintage Ultra V2 and stayed speechless. Ordered a Tone Capsule next morning.
Hope this helps in the re-story of ''Sandberg sounds like StingRay'' that haunted me to for a while
Otherwise, you can always buy a Ray...
Colour me sceptical
(I wish we were face to face, I'm not trying to be a dick and I can convey a friendly tone in person by in writing everything looks so damn serious
)Do you have any recordings? I'd be curious to hear.
My personal experience has always been negative. The closest I got was with a Lakland 5502, with the pickup split so that I was using the neck-facing coil only (closest to the SR position) and messing with the preamp and external EQ. At a pinch, in a mix, it was passable, but you could always tell it was not a Stingray. Not better or worse, just different. IN general I find that pickup positions tend to be dominant: I can't get a P pickup to sound anything like a Precision unless it's relatively close to the Precision position, and so on (as a poor student I wasted many evenings messing with this kind of thing).
Anyway, I don't mean this as a critic or telling you you're wrong (if you like it, that's all that counts). I'm just curious about how close you got and see if I can learn something, that's all.
Colour me sceptical
(I wish we were face to face, I'm not trying to be a dick and I can convey a friendly tone in person by in writing everything looks so damn serious
Do you have any recordings? I'd be curious to hear.
My personal experience has always been negative. The closest I got was with a Lakland 5502, with the pickup split so that I was using the neck-facing coil only (closest to the SR position) and messing with the preamp and external EQ. At a pinch, in a mix, it was passable, but you could always tell it was not a Stingray. Not better or worse, just different. IN general I find that pickup positions tend to be dominant: I can't get a P pickup to sound anything like a Precision unless it's relatively close to the Precision position, and so on (as a poor student I wasted many evenings messing with this kind of thing).
Anyway, I don't mean this as a critic or telling you you're wrong (if you like it, that's all that counts). I'm just curious about how close you got and see if I can learn something, that's all.
I completely understand you and I did not misinterpret or negatively interpret you
.At no point did I say it sounded identical. Sounds as close as possible with a humbucker close to the bridge. More than with a stock preamp.
Yesterday I was visited by a friend with EBMM StingRay from 1989, and we compared the sound on the GK MB212 II, and I tell you that the possibility of a solo humbucker on Sandberg with Darkglass preamp is very close to a Ray with the EQ combination I described earlier.
Will send You a personal message with a video. I found it very bad to upload personal videos here, since it will become the subject of a wide-ranging debate that I would not like.
Cheers
I completely understand you and I did not misinterpret or negatively interpret you
At no point did I say it sounded identical. Sounds as close as possible with a humbucker close to the bridge. More than with a stock preamp.
Yesterday I was visited by a friend with EBMM StingRay from 1989, and we compared the sound on the GK MB212 II, and I tell you that the possibility of a solo humbucker on Sandberg with Darkglass preamp is very close to a Ray with the EQ combination I described earlier.
Will send You a personal message with a video. I found it very bad to upload personal videos here, since it will become the subject of a wide-ranging debate that I would not like.
Cheers
Thank you, on all counts!
I already replied to you directly, but for the public record: I listened to it and I have to admit it was way closer than I ever expected to hear. Impressive!
Do you think the MM pickup on the TM4 is a bit farther away from the bridge than on the VM4? I'm not exactly a Sandberg 'connosseur' (I just tried a handful, liked them, and I bought one, but I don't have direct experience beyond the VM and 48 ranges) but it looks a bit like that, however it could be the angle on the video.
I hope the answer is "no, it's the same" because otherwise, a TM4 would tempt me a lot in the future. Yes, I have a Stingray, and Precisions, and of course the VM4... but the TM4 seems to have something else too going on that I like a LOT from your video.
Update, for those interested in this kind of thing.
Well, it seems that no, the MM pickup is on teh same spot in the TM4 and VM4. That's impressive @Obrad Lacarac I never heard anything as close from a bass with the pickup so close to the bridge.
I'm happy with my TM4, but now that I know I can even squeeze out some stingrayness from it, I've got an itch I need to do something about
Of course, I turned to check the Darkglass preamp... how did I not know about this??? I had heard about it, of course, but I thought "yet another preamp, ok".
It has the bass control higher than usual (70 as opposed to the most common 40 Hz), which suits me very very well.
It has no treble control, which is fine, as I can't say I found any active treble control that I really liked.
It has two midrange controls, which are far more useful in my opinion... and after hearing what you did with them, yup, I like that very much.
I never really enjoyed the original 2 band preamp, so I think I'll end up trying one of these Tone Capsule ones, not because of the ability to get closer to the Stingray vibe (that's just a curious bonus to me), but because it makes a lot of sense to me. I'll see if I can easily fit in a passive tone control before the preamp, to get the best of both worlds as I really like how passive controls roll off the treble, a bit like a LPF...
Once again, thank you @Obrad Lacarac, you're going to cost me a little bit of money but I'm very happy to admit I'm no longer sceptical. I learnt two things today: 1) well, you CAN get very close to a Stingray vibe from these basses, and 2) That Darkglass preamp is pretty cool. Glad they didn't just released another preamp like dozens out there, but they thought about it and came out with a different take, which happens to make a lot of sense to me. Awesome. 
Well, it seems that no, the MM pickup is on teh same spot in the TM4 and VM4. That's impressive @Obrad Lacarac I never heard anything as close from a bass with the pickup so close to the bridge.
I'm happy with my TM4, but now that I know I can even squeeze out some stingrayness from it, I've got an itch I need to do something about
Of course, I turned to check the Darkglass preamp... how did I not know about this??? I had heard about it, of course, but I thought "yet another preamp, ok".
It has the bass control higher than usual (70 as opposed to the most common 40 Hz), which suits me very very well.
It has no treble control, which is fine, as I can't say I found any active treble control that I really liked.
It has two midrange controls, which are far more useful in my opinion... and after hearing what you did with them, yup, I like that very much.
I never really enjoyed the original 2 band preamp, so I think I'll end up trying one of these Tone Capsule ones, not because of the ability to get closer to the Stingray vibe (that's just a curious bonus to me), but because it makes a lot of sense to me. I'll see if I can easily fit in a passive tone control before the preamp, to get the best of both worlds as I really like how passive controls roll off the treble, a bit like a LPF...
Once again, thank you @Obrad Lacarac, you're going to cost me a little bit of money
but I'm very happy to admit I'm no longer sceptical. I learnt two things today: 1) well, you CAN get very close to a Stingray vibe from these basses, and 2) That Darkglass preamp is pretty cool. Glad they didn't just released another preamp like dozens out there, but they thought about it and came out with a different take, which happens to make a lot of sense to me. Awesome. 
