Opticaleye
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I have 2 Sandbergs with flats on at the moment. My passive VS4 has Dunlop flats and sounds really woody. It took a while to break them in and get to that sound though. One of my Umbos has the Galli Synthesis flats on and they are very similar in character to Thomastik Jazz Flats in tone and consruction but are less floppy and more even in tension. These are now my favourite flats although the Dunlops sound great on the VS4.
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Sold a EQ pedal to Etienne who was excellent to deal with.
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For sale (accidentally closed the previous listing) RMI Basswitch pedal. Extremely high quality, no longer made as the designer has retired. In excellent condition including original box and manual. RMI Classic Boost £125 incl. P&P This is more vintage sounding than the other RMI EQ pedal (the clean boost). which was more for active type bass sounds. The frequencies on the EQ are great for vintage passive basses with Alnico pickups. This is built like a tank by Lehle using high quality components. It has Velcro on the bottom ready for fitting to a pedalboard. The pedal accepts a wide range of power supply voltages from 9-15v AC and DC. It does not have onboard battery capability . I have effectively retired from gigging, as things stand, and can't see myself using this despite its quality. -
Two RMI Basswitch pedals- Dual Comp and Classic Boost. - *SOLD*
Opticaleye replied to Opticaleye's topic in Effects For Sale
I have a Basswitch IQ DI too. The dual comp sounds great mixed in the effects loop of the IQ DI to create a parallel New York style compression. It really thickens the tone up. -
For sale Two RMI Basswitch pedals. Extremely high quality, no longer made as the designer has retired. They are both in excellent condition including original boxes and manuals. 1) RMI Dual compressor** SOLD ** £150 incl P&P Bass specific unit that can work as a single band compressor also. The manual (included in the box) explains it better than I can but the gist is that you can set a frequency below which the compressor treats the signal separately and with different ratios and attack/release settings. There are 4 knobs on the top that intelligently interact so that you don't need the 12 or more knobs that a dual compressor would normally have.There are suggested settings in the manual and it's quite easy to grasp. 2) RMI Classic Boost £125 incl. P&P This is more vintage sounding than the other RMI EQ pedal (the clean boost). which was more for active type bass sounds. The frequencies on the EQ are great for vintage passive basses with Alnico pickups. Both pedals are built like a tank by Lehle using high quality components. Both pedals have Velcro on the bottom ready for fitting to a pedalboard. They also accept a wide range of power supply voltages from 9-15v AC and DC. They do not have onboard battery capability . I have effectively retired from gigging, as things stand, and can't see myself using these despite their quality.
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Markbass LMII bass head. 500w into 4ohms. Class A/B Made in Italy. I had been using this as a backup to my other Markbass TTE heads so haven't really used it for years. I'm not gigging anymore unless something unforeseen happens, so it has made it onto my list of items to be sold. I have tested it and it works fine and still sounds great. I would prefer a pickup from York so you can see it working, but could arrange a meeting or would consider sending (UK only). -
Having just looked it up, apparently the preamp in the 76 model is different to the 1978. I'm not sure in what way though although there were 3 revisions between 77-78 . I also read somewhere that the bass control might have been boost only (or 10% cut 90% boost) and the treble was boost/cut which kind of fits with my recollection. With no centre detent on the 2EQ though I may have just assumed. I doubt it's a huge market but, since the 90's (yes, I had a TE bright box), some of us went back to liking a variety of more classic tones. 😁
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I've owned a few active basses. My first was a Stingray when they first came out in 1976! I decided that as much as I liked playing that bass I didn't like the preamp. It was boost only and the bass boost just sounded flubby to me. After that I had passive basses until I bought a Warwick Fortress passive that I didn't like the sound of so I thought I'd try an active circuit to see if they'd improved. I sold that and owned Fenders until I tried Sandbergs and at one time I owned 3 active basses of theirs. I mostly played them with the actives bypassed though and I've ended up with 5 passive Sandbergs and plug them into a high quality outboard Pre like my Basswitch or one of my valve Pre's.
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Yeah, I realise that they will customise most options that don't involve altering the CNC programming (and some that do). Luckily my Umbos have the the tones in the videos covered and as the Florence is only available in short scale (I'm far too big to wear something so dinky) my bank balance is safe as things stand.
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Personally, I'm not a fan of the quality of onboard electronics. There's a purity of tone that you get with the passive cutting of frequencies that I've not heard in a 9v onboard pre and I prefer not to introduce bloat into the signal purely for the inconvenience of having to run a shorter lead for a passive signal. Luckily my Sandberg Umbos have a fairly elaborate passive circuitry with a varitone-like filter switch and choke coil that enables a wide variety of sounds without having to reach for my amp or pedals. I also have a (made passive) Sandberg VS4 fitted with a Tonestyler and a G&L L1000 with both treble and bass cut and a clever 3 position switch for more pickup options. I would say that all these basses use electronics regardless of the voltage applied to the circuit. As for the Florence I prefer the mahogany headstock on the mahogany option as the maple headstock looks plain wrong (It reminds me of the Fender Coronado). If there was an option of a black headstock it would be better I think.
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It's unlikely to be heavy. The mahogany that Sandberg use is very lightweight ( I have a mostly mahogany bodied longscale TT4 at 7.5lbs) and it states in the video that the hardware is from the Superlight basses.
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It has a wider frequency response and faster attack. The VS's (mostly) have the pickup in the conventional arrangement, the VM and VT (mostly) have the P pickup in the reverse configuration. I couldn't get a traditional P tone out of my old VM4 even with a Fender pickup in it. I changed the Sandberg PU in my current VS4 for a more vintage sounding alnico one.
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There's other videos for that bass where it sounds more typically Stingray-ish to my ears. It's a shame they only offer it in two types of black.
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I've played through Vanderkley cabs and I'd be happy gigging with them again but I think that there's a lot of downplaying of Markbass cabs, perhaps because of the aesthetics. I have owned a number of MB cabs and I've liked most of them. I was previously using an Eden 410XLT and preferred the Markbass. I currently use TKS1126's and whereas the Markbass cabs maybe don't sound as smooth as the full range TKS, they perform well in a band mix. In the old days Markbass used OEM B&C speakers (very good quality) and moved over to Indonesian stamped construction about the same time that B&C discontinued the chassis that Markbass's speakers were based on. B&C's recommended replacement for the original driver was also stamped but people perceived this as a drop in quality. I've owned Italian and Indonesian MB speakers and I'm just as happy with either. The new stuff looks interesting.
