Pickups and Preamp for Sandberg TM

[darkinners]

I recently bought a Sandberg TM-4 Custom, while the bass is very good.
The neck is one of best feel of all my basses and the fit and finish is sublime
It has Delano JMVC4FE + MC4FE pickups and Glockenklang 2 band pre in it.

But the tone is a bit too deep too bright for my taste, it just has a very deep and pronounced low end and very glassy high end. I am not sure if this is caused by Pickup or Preamp or the pickup position or all of them and the Glock preamp EQ is very hard to adjust, boost or cut change too much by a little tiny adjustment .

I want a lot more mid, I had to boost wideband 4-6db@800Hz-3kHz and cut around 3db@30-100hz to offset it now (even both treble and bass on the bass is in center detent position)


Anyone change their Sandberg can share your experience on pickups and preamp? Thanks!

 

[Marsik]

Anyone?

 

[Mepelsteeltje]

Interesting... I have the same bass and I'm wondering if it's a good idea to swap the Delano pickups for Bartolini's? Or should I focus on the preamp?

So, like my predecessor said: anyone?

 

[bassyogi]

I haven't changed the pre in my TM5, but I did put a 4band Audere in my TT5 when the glock pre died. Having hi and lo mid helped alot in that bass. Much more versatile now. Not sure what it would do in a TM though. You might get a little more mids by switching the coil switch to the back coil. They are wired either both coils or front coil from Sandberg. Have you tried Cobalts on it yet? My TM5 sounds great(to me atleast) with those on.

 

[Mepelsteeltje]

I haven't changed the pre in my TM5, but I did put a 4band Audere in my TT5 when the glock pre died. Having hi and lo mid helped alot in that bass. Much more versatile now. Not sure what it would do in a TM though. You might get a little more mids by switching the coil switch to the back coil. They are wired either both coils or front coil from Sandberg. Have you tried Cobalts on it yet? My TM5 sounds great(to me atleast) with those on.

Cobalts! Nice. I haven't tried those. Altough I had a lot of trouble lately with the sound and the strings. I put the original Sandberg strings on and got a totaly dead E-string and a strange 'boinky' A-string, especially in the first five positions. Even with other strings (Rotosound) the A-string problem persisted. So I'm still looking for a solution for that. (Maybe it's the bridge saddle. The little screw to lock the stringspace adjustment is a bit wacky.) Any tips?
Changing the coil-switch to the back coil is also a good idea, worth a try!
But apart from that, I really want to change the overall sound. I have a MIM Jazz Bass with EMG's that has a beautiful 'zing' to it. All the harmonics fly around like a Star Trek space shoot out. So the Sandberg is to be the growl and 'pump' bass. With nice low mids and a tight low end (sounds like a good woman to me!). So how about swapping all the electronics for Bartolini, including the preamp? That might just move the Richter scale!
I will do some experimenting and than post my findings here...

 

[superheavyfunk]

Cobalts! Nice. I haven't tried those. Altough I had a lot of trouble lately with the sound and the strings. I put the original Sandberg strings on and got a totaly dead E-string and a strange 'boinky' A-string, especially in the first five positions. Even with other strings (Rotosound) the A-string problem persisted. So I'm still looking for a solution for that. (Maybe it's the bridge saddle. The little screw to lock the stringspace adjustment is a bit wacky.) Any tips?
Changing the coil-switch to the back coil is also a good idea, worth a try!
But apart from that, I really want to change the overall sound. I have a MIM Jazz Bass with EMG's that has a beautiful 'zing' to it. All the harmonics fly around like a Star Trek space shoot out. So the Sandberg is to be the growl and 'pump' bass. With nice low mids and a tight low end (sounds like a good woman to me!). So how about swapping all the electronics for Bartolini, including the preamp? That might just move the Richter scale!
I will do some experimenting and than post my findings here...

Did you do the work? Anything to report?

 

[Mepelsteeltje]

It has been quite a while... but the only thing I figured out is the strings. I tried a set of nickelwound Elixirs and that did a lot to the overall playability and sound. I also changed my amp. I went from EBS to Markbass and that also did some real miracle work to the feel and sound. It gave me a lot more 'punch' in the mids and the highs are much less harsh. Still I'm looking for some warmth. So eventually the Bartolini's might still be the solution. I wonder if I also have to exchange the preamp. A friend suggested the Aguilar instead of the Glockenklang. To be continued...