Subbeh Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 My new bass turned up today, Sandberg California TM4, the old shape, which might explain why the price was so good. Righty and lefty models were around £750 at Thomann and I couldn't turn it down at that price. [url="https://flic.kr/p/vHLCRu"][/url] [url="https://flic.kr/p/vHLoAd"][/url] Finish is black burst, looks a bit lighter in the pics and I like it a lot more than I thought I would, especially with so much of the grain coming through. I also really like the nice clean look of the fretboard without markers. The setup was surprisingly good out of the box, lovely action and no buzzing and there are so many usable tones, neck pickup has a nice modern jazz feel and the MM has bags of punch to back it up, or you can run that in single coil mode to complement the neck pickup nicely. Then you've got passive mode which tames it a bit but still has more punch than I'm used to with the passive basses I've had before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Phwoor... Looks fantastic.. Happy nbd Sandbergs really are cracking basses and great value. Enjoy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Cheers! It really is good value, Owned a good few basses but never had one without a solid finish before It just feels so good! Don't know if its because of the plek fret job but Ive never had such a low action buzz free setup, the videos of the Machine in action are pretty neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiliwailer Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 That looks great, love the burst and strong grain showing through. Awesome value you got there too, enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veils Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I had a blackburst JM4 many moons ago, beautiful finish, you've got a cracker there mate!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Really nice. But why is the chrome green? Is the bass surrounded by foliage, or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I was wondering about the green too! Looks lovely. What model was it? I only saw the fretless on thomann for that price? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 I'll have another look when I'm on my desktop but I swear they were doing the r/h version for the same price last night. Took the pictures under cover as it was raining, cover was indeed green. That's why I normally get the other half to do it, she's a photographer, I can barely figure out how to turn the camera on! Must change the strings as well, they sound nice but even for stainless rounds I've never encountered strings that feel so coarse. My finger tips feel like they've been sand blasted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 [quote name='Subbeh' timestamp='1437000645' post='2822816'] Took the pictures under cover as it was raining, cover was indeed green. [/quote] Just curious really, still looks amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassman Sam Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 I like green. Nice bass at a good price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 (edited) Gah! not really used the Sandberg until recently and much to the surprise of myself and my tech it seems they installed the bridge too far back, not enough travel in the saddles to intonate it correctly. Thomann concur and they've sent it back to Sandberg for correction or a possible refund. Three Sandbergs in a row and an issue everytime! this is getting bloody annoying. I think they must have the YTS kid doing QC on the lefites On the bright side I dug out my first bass, my Encore E83 precision copy. Hadn't touched it in maybe sixteen years. Stripped it down, cleaned it, tweaked the truss rod, set the intonation and wow, I can't believe a bass that was only £130 to begin with that hasn't seen the light of day in so long feels and sounds so good! Edited November 25, 2015 by Subbeh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 (edited) [quote name='Subbeh' timestamp='1448479436' post='2915813'] Three Sandbergs in a row and an issue every time! I can't believe a bass that was only £130 feels and sounds so good! [/quote] I can't help but think that there's a lesson here somewhere... Edited November 25, 2015 by discreet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 Weird. I've had 3 and they've all been lovely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted November 26, 2015 Author Share Posted November 26, 2015 To be fair the first two were damaged/used and sold as new by Thomann, only this one seems to be Sandberg at fault. I figured I couldn't possibly get three duff basses in a row from Thomann, you have to look pretty hard to find many people who've had bad experiences with them. Just lucky I suppose! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naetharu Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 Beautiful - the wood grain looks superb on that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted November 27, 2015 Share Posted November 27, 2015 Great looking bass. I've got a California TT4 ( a straight passive jazz bass basically) and its a thing of wonder. the plek'd fret thing means mine also has the lowest action of any bass i've played, with no buzzing and spot-on intonation throughout. Surprised to hear about the bridge being wrongly placed - quite a major mistake really, and not what I'd expect from Sandberg, who seem all about German efficient engineering. good luck - hope you get to sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted November 27, 2015 Author Share Posted November 27, 2015 (edited) I was pretty surprised too! Thomann were great and said it'd be a two-four week turnaround via Sandberg with no communication update expected from Sandberg. That bit seems much less great. Hopefully they can put it right and then I can sell it and buy something else, I just can't seem to own any bass for too long without getting GAS for something else! Edited November 27, 2015 by Subbeh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Sandberg are doing really well at the mo- 5 month wait for a custom order, up to 18 months now for the hardcore aged ones. Can't make them fast enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 (edited) Maybe it'd help if they went a tad slower, maybe put bridges in the right place I would love another PM4, ideally I'd swap this bass for one of those. I really do like the TM4 but the Precision variant is even better. Despite the issue I've had with this bass the pickups/eq are really, really good. Stupidly easy to dial in huge range of sounds and the passive mode is just as nice. Edited November 28, 2015 by Subbeh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M@23 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I've only got experience of my current Sandberg. It's immaculate. But, I've had two experiences of Thomann sending me 'new' basses which are quite obviously damaged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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