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NBD: A surprising tone in a VERY playable bass.

tb-player

tb-player

Why so serious?
Mar 6, 2019
6,715
30,007
East Coast, USA
#1
So this happened yesterday. After months of GASsing over this gorgeous Sandberg California TM5, and after the CITES law was softened, with regard to rosewood necks on instruments, I was finally able to get this gem shipped from Morten Ehlers at Bass Buddha in Denmark.

After a string change and a quick setup (great factory plek’d neck & action), I plugged this in and was pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of tones. The coil-tap humbucker allows me to dial in a classic jazz tone as well as a thicker jazz-type tone. Because of the positioning of the humbucker, I can’t quite get that Stringray sound, but it’s still reminiscent of that, in the full bridge position.

Big plus: Passive mode has no volume drop. That’s huge!!

In addition to a very tasteful relic job (I’m not a big relic guy, but this one’s well done), this bass also went through Sandberg’s heat/vibration treatment, which makes it play like a well-aged instrument, right out of the box. I assumed that was just a sales pitch, but I was shocked at how nice it felt, in-hand (or maybe I’m just a confirmation-biased sucker for the power of suggestion and well-placed marketing hype... lol).

Either way, this is definitely the nicest bass I’ve ever played at this price point. If you’ve ever been curious about Sandberg, count this as a vote in favor. Really nice bass.
313C3CC9-677B-4879-8483-443B82E31348.jpeg 9622405F-ADC0-4228-81E4-100B7114C754.jpeg F1582E4B-7AA1-468E-92AF-B9BA45511575.jpeg 9750219B-E6FA-482C-AA69-046D24BEEB2F.jpeg
 
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#4
wow, impressive ax! it looks like the fingerboard radius is very accommodating, too. i'm glad you're pleased with the various options on that pickup arrangement --- it looks like it's built for business! congratulations on your new instrument! :thumbsup:
 
#5
JRA said:
wow, impressive ax! it looks like the fingerboard radius is very accommodating, too. i'm glad you're pleased with the various options on that pickup arrangement --- it looks like it's built for business! congratulations on your new instrument! :thumbsup:
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Thanks man. I’m very pleased. I think this may be a keeper, simply because it doesn’t sound like many basses I’ve heard. Unless I decide to get it in a 4-string.
 
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#19
tb-player said:
...this bass also went through Sandberg’s heat/vibration treatment, which makes it play like a well-aged instrument, right out of the box. I assumed that was just a sales pitch, but I was shocked at how nice it felt, in-hand (or maybe I’m just a confirmation-biased sucker for the power of suggestion and well-placed marketing hype... lol).
Click to expand...
I don't believe it's just a sales pitch. One of the reasons I have veered away from buying new, to buying used, is because there seems to be a difference in the necks that are new, and ones that are 5, 10, 15, and on one of my basses, 35 years old. I've never had to let an old neck settle in, but I have had to let a new neck settle in and it took several weeks of gigging it to do it. New necks are kind of like strings sometimes and you have to break them in.

Yamaha is changing the molecular structure or "aging" the wood for some of their necks and bodies too. And I suspect we will see more and more of this in the "new instrument" industry in the future.

 
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#20
tb-player said:
So this happened yesterday. After months of GASsing over this gorgeous Sandberg California TM5, and after the CITES law was softened, with regard to rosewood necks on instruments, I was finally able to get this gem shipped from Morten Ehlers at Bass Buddha in Denmark.

After a string change and a quick setup (great factory plek’d neck & action), I plugged this in and was pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of tones. The coil-tap humbucker allows me to dial in a classic jazz tone as well as a thicker jazz-type tone. Because of the positioning of the humbucker, I can’t quite get that Stringray sound, but it’s still reminiscent of that, in the full bridge position.

Big plus: Passive mode has no volume drop. That’s huge!!

In addition to a very tasteful relic job (I’m not a big relic guy, but this one’s well done), this bass also went through Sandberg’s heat/vibration treatment, which makes it play like a well-aged instrument, right out of the box. I assumed that was just a sales pitch, but I was shocked at how nice it felt, in-hand (or maybe I’m just a confirmation-biased sucker for the power of suggestion and well-placed marketing hype... lol).

Either way, this is definitely the nicest bass I’ve ever played at this price point. If you’ve ever been curious about Sandberg, count this as a vote in favor. Really nice bass.
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these are awesome basses. Huge regret selling mine.
 

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