I've been drooling over these for a while, and a few months back I was finally in a position to make the order. Last week, it arrived:
Haven't had time to really put it through its paces, and won't for another few weeks yet, but my impressions so far are:
- That neck is fantastic!
- It sounds great.
- The onboard preamp is the best I've used yet. There's a slight difference between active and passive modes. If anything, it sounds a little more "present" with the preamp on, but that's about it.
- It's not for the short of arm, especially if you balance it with the belly-cut actually against your belly. I'm 6 feet tall and moderately long-armed with it, and it's just at the edge of a comfortable reach for me.
- As others have said, fret access is limited above the 17th. But really, who plays that high on a bass like this anyway?
- Did I mention the preamp? I didn't expect to get such a reggae-ready tone out of roundwounds.
- The curved ridge makes for a surprisingly good thumb-rest.
- The finish has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
Thanks to Dub56 for the pointer about modifying an Epiphone Thunderbird case - that worked nicely.
Funny thing: I knew it was due around this time, and I've been looking more and more at my SR370, thinking "but this is already a nice instrument. Did I just do something stupid?"
Nope. This is so much nicer.
You'd expect so, from a custom build at several times the price, but Sandberg delivered.
Haven't had time to really put it through its paces, and won't for another few weeks yet, but my impressions so far are:
- That neck is fantastic!
- It sounds great.
- The onboard preamp is the best I've used yet. There's a slight difference between active and passive modes. If anything, it sounds a little more "present" with the preamp on, but that's about it.
- It's not for the short of arm, especially if you balance it with the belly-cut actually against your belly. I'm 6 feet tall and moderately long-armed with it, and it's just at the edge of a comfortable reach for me.
- As others have said, fret access is limited above the 17th. But really, who plays that high on a bass like this anyway?
- Did I mention the preamp? I didn't expect to get such a reggae-ready tone out of roundwounds.
- The curved ridge makes for a surprisingly good thumb-rest.
- The finish has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
Thanks to Dub56 for the pointer about modifying an Epiphone Thunderbird case - that worked nicely.
Funny thing: I knew it was due around this time, and I've been looking more and more at my SR370, thinking "but this is already a nice instrument. Did I just do something stupid?"
Nope. This is so much nicer.
You'd expect so, from a custom build at several times the price, but Sandberg delivered.
)
