Sandberg appreciation society

[dmccombe7]

32 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

That blue sparkly jacket....

 

Juries out on that!  

70's Glam Rock covers band. Jacket was made by the guy who made Glitter Band, Elton John and few others gear back in the hey day period and is still making some great gear now. Not cheap but its good quality. All part of the show. You should see my boots but that's another topic. 

[dmccombe7]

On 14/05/2018 at 19:13, CameronJ said:

I’m a relatively recent member of the Sandberg club myself. Had this Electra VS4 for a few months and love it. Upgraded with a passive tone knob which works in active or passive. Had the neck sanded down from gloss to satin finish. I invested in some rather nice Delano knobs too. Strung with Labella Black Nylon Tapewounds. Supposedly Sandberg’s “budget” range of basses but my god it’s nice!

 

That's a stunning looking bass. Very rich colour.

Dave

[Al Krow]

Sandberg-experts (S-experts? 😉), and that certainly includes you Mr C(!),  are these the famed 'black label' pups on this VM5?

The retailer provides a pretty useless description accompanying the description on their site!

Edited April 21, 2019 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

[duplicate post]

 

Edited April 21, 2019 by Al Krow

[krispn]

If I recall correctly the black labels have bigger pole pieces!

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, krispn said:

If I recall correctly the black labels have bigger pole pieces!

Ok thanks. In which case they must be the original Sandberg pups.

Just found details of typically used Berg pups from his highness, on a related thread, which is a good summary of the options (although tbf there are a lot of former Delano pup users who would say that the description below is being a little kind i.e. they were sterile / tame. But 'hi-fi' works if one is being too polite which those pups definitely were).

On 07/02/2019 at 07:08, Cuzzie said:

Delano - yes more hifi, but not sterile in anyway, transparent in a good way with plenty of oomph.

Haussel - Little German manufacturer, very meaty and quite hot mid focussed jazz pick up, neck solo’d it’s as close to a P as a jazz pick up will get.

Old Sandberg - more vintage sounding, less output, very very nice pick ups. Especially nice if you like pedals with pre-amps in as they are hot enough to be good on their own, but not too hot that they do not then fight with a pedal to over power it if that makes sense. Very easy to sculpt a sound.

Black labels - blew my socks off - it’s like the Old Sandberg’s with More chutzpah, very punchy, great sound - sort of like all the best bits of the aforementioned ones rolled into a pick up. Played a TM2 before and after - transformed it.

If those had been Black Label pups, I'd have been very tempted to get the VM5 advertised as Bax are currently retailing them for £1,175.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Al Krow

[dmccombe7]

From what i was told (somewhere) that black label pick-upps had twin poles per string rather than the single pole style like delano.

Black labels look more like the pick ups on my Geddy Jazz bass.

Not sure where i heard that from but a quick google search also showed any black labels like this.

Dave

[CameronJ]

As @dmccombe7 says, the black labels have twin pole pieces per string.

The pups in the photo above are definitely Sandberg’s “standard” models, hence the little Sandberg logo (4 dots) on the corner of each pickup.

Black labels look like this:

Edited April 22, 2019 by CameronJ

[krispn]

@CameronJ

I must be confusing the slightly larger pole pieces with another pick up 

[dannybuoy]

Haussel perhaps? Saw a 4 string J set for sale that had pole pieces almost up to the edge of the case.

[GisserD]

On 21/04/2019 at 23:28, Al Krow said:

 

If those had been Black Label pups, I'd have been very tempted to get the VM5 advertised as Bax are currently retailing them for £1,175.

Musik Productive is cheaper. LOADS of sock too.... https://m.musik-produktiv.com/gb/sandberg-california-vm5-rw-nat.html

[DoubleOhStephan]

Just generally, it's also worth checking out Kytary for Sandberg. I picked up a TT4 for £200 under list price. Good range of stock too... 

https://kytary.co.uk/Search/?term=Sandberg

[Al Krow]

I wonder if any retailers would do a replacement with the Black Label pups without charging for existing unwanted / surplus Sandberg ones or Delanos? Anyone had any positive experience of this. 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Al Krow

[DoubleOhStephan]

6 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I wonder if any retailers would do a replacement with the Black Label pups without charging for existing unwanted / surplus Sandberg ones or Delanos? Anyone had any positive experience of this. 

No direct experience but try giving Alan Greensall @ Synergy distribution a shout, he works closely with Sandberg -

http://www.synergydistribution.co.uk/Welcome.html

[Al Krow]

10 hours ago, GisserD said:

Musik Productive is cheaper. LOADS of stock too.... https://m.musik-produktiv.com/gb/sandberg-california-vm5-rw-nat.html

Hmmm...wonder what's driving this 'bargain basement' approach on pricing? I guess the simple answer is in the statement: "LOADS of stock too...."

Must be annoying for anyone who has paid a 'full fat' price for their Berg and maybe also explains the relatively 'good value' pricing for used ones?

If you want to charge a premium price for your product, you can't have half your potential customer base thinking "oh, if only the pups weren't so polite / hi-fi / tame / lifeless**, I'd definitely be up for spending > £1k on one of those".

Maybe time for Berg to up their game? Appreciate this is just one former owner's opinion of course, and should be treated accordingly! 

**delete as applicable

[Cuzzie]

 

21 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hmmm...wonder what's driving this 'bargain basement' approach on pricing? I guess the simple answer is in the statement: "LOADS of stock too...."

Must be annoying for anyone who has paid a 'full fat' price for their Berg and maybe also explains the relatively 'good value' pricing for used ones?

If you want to charge a premium price for your product, you can't have half your potential customer base thinking "oh, if only the pups weren't so polite / hi-fi / tame / lifeless**, I'd definitely be up for spending > £1k on one of those".

Maybe time for Berg to up their game? Appreciate this is just one former owner's opinion of course, and should be treated accordingly! 

**delete as applicable

Stock is dictated by how much the shop buys in and it’s policies on selling - they prob have loads of Fenders in stock - doubt its a fire sale

They that have paid ‘full fat’ have likely done so in the knowledge of other prices but wanted a specific spec/finish/colour etc.

Used ones are great value precisely because of the quality. Yes they take a hit from new to second hand, then it plateaus shame for other quality brands outside of Fender (which is what most people go for) G&L, Schecter, ESP, Yamaha etc.

Doubt half the customers are not happy with Delano’s, you have your experience and that’s fine, but I would think it’s a gross over exaggeration. I think most Nordstands I have played have been utter Gash - still a good pick up.

There are other options of pick ups available from the manufacturer - may cost you more, but if for example you do a Shuker build course and want to install a pick up he doesn’t normally order/have a deal with - that costs you more as well, or you buy it yourself.

Time for Sandberg to up their game.....🤔 constantly tinkering, subtle changes, brilliant QC, innovation about the best customer care you could ever ask for - when a company is emailed and asked where they can buy a tuning peg which broke on their second/third hand Electra (budget range bass) because they dropped the bass - how many Owners of the company would reply personally and send for free.

I think other companies need to up their game

[Opticaleye]

22 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hmmm...wonder what's driving this 'bargain basement' approach on pricing? I guess the simple answer is in the statement: "LOADS of stock too...."

Must be annoying for anyone who has paid a 'full fat' price for their Berg and maybe also explains the relatively 'good value' pricing for used ones?

If you want to charge a premium price for your product, you can't have half your potential customer base thinking "oh, if only the pups weren't so polite / hi-fi / tame / lifeless**, I'd definitely be up for spending > £1k on one of those".

Maybe time for Berg to up their game? Appreciate this is just one former owner's opinion of course, and should be treated accordingly! 

**delete as applicable

The prices look normal to me. The premium prices tend to come with the dot markers, matched headstock, ageing etc. The £ to euro rates are also a factor if buying from a European shop.

My bog standard VS4 (except for dot inlays) came in at just over £940 a few years back and  that was from a UK shop.

[Cuzzie]

I’d argue that value for money the Grand Dark is right up their with what’s packed into it

[dannybuoy]

Still can't believe I snagged my Basic 4 for about tree fiddy. Must be the name - not many people want to spend big coin on something called a 'Basic'!

Edited April 23, 2019 by dannybuoy

[Cuzzie]

That and Ken taylor

 

vastly underrated basses

[PatrickJ]

1 minute ago, dannybuoy said:

Still can't believe I snagged my Basic 4 for about tree fiddy. Must be the name - not many people want to spend big coin on something called a 'Basic'!

I always thought it was a daft name for that exact reason 

 

[Al Krow]

3 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

Still can't believe I snagged my Basic 4 for about tree fiddy. Must be the name - not many people want to spend big coin on something called a 'Basic'!

May just have got lost in translation?

adjective

1. (= fundamental) Grund-

[problem also, reason, issue] Haupt-

[points] wesentlich

[intention, purpose] eigentlich

[indifference, problem] grundsätzlich

there’s no basic difference es besteht kein grundlegender Unterschied

the basic thing to remember is ... woran man vor allem denken muss, ist ...

his knowledge is rather basic er hat nur ziemlich elementare Kenntnisse

the furniture is rather basic die Möbel sind ziemlich primitiv

basic salary/working hours Grundgehalt nt/-arbeitszeit f

basic vocabulary Grundwortschatz m

 

2. (= essential) notwendig

plural  the basics das Wesentliche

to get down to (the) basics zum Kern der Sache kommen

to get back to basics sich auf das Wesentliche besinnen

[dmccombe7]

Must admit to liking the mid punch from my VM4 i'm guessing its the original Sanberg large pole style. For me it sounds like a MM with a bit more smooth low because of the P style pick up. 

I'm still over the moon with mine. The mid punch tone was a pleasant surprise as its a tone i've been searching for, for quite some years. I tend to have my amp reasonably flat EQ with VM4 EQ on half treble cut and slight bass boost with pick up selector set mid point for both pick ups. Superb tone. 

If i bring the treble back to centre it gives a more clicky type tone great for those old Glenn Hughes deep purple tones.

I'm def a convert as i can get a lot of great sounds from this one bass and all the strings have a nice even tone and volume. Compare that to the Fender P/J with Norstand J it just feels inferior altho cheaper to be fair. The fender has imbalance on levels across the strings. Maybe a good professional set up might benefit the bass.

Dave

Edited April 23, 2019 by dmccombe7

[Al Krow]

15 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

I’d argue that value for money the Grand Dark is right up their with what’s packed into it

You've currently got several(?) Bergs, what pups have you got on each of yours?

[Cuzzie]

Not trying to defend Delano’s but it all depends what you want.

For want of a better phrase, if they sit as being ‘neutral’ that’s not a bad thing, especially if you know ‘your sound’ comes from your amp, pedals, coloured cab etc.

Its all just magnets, bobbins and wires and sometimes wax - the right combination is out there, or you adapt with other things what you have