Sandbergs - post your thoughts

[Cuzzie]

So......

DK is old Sandberg pick ups

TT Haüssel 

This is the most difficult of questions for me. The DK really is the most wonderful of basses, and so easy to play and the pup nearer to the bridge gives it the bite you want.

On it’s own, no pedals it’s brilliant, but it also takes a pedal probably better than any bass I have played. It is punchy enough to be on its own, yet subtle enough to allow for tone shaping you desire.

The White TT has big balls - the pick ups are hotter and the neck pick up solo’d is about as close to a P sound as you can get on a jazz. You have to remember this bass has a thicker neck, so will thicken the sound. The signal is hotter and great on its own, but, if you like a pre amp you have more trouble dialling in a sound as everything becomes very pushed and it’s almost too much at times so switching basses you have to be wary of this.

For these reasons i use rounds on the DK and flats on the TT - the flats just tame it enough to give a fantastic sound. I did have rounds but didn’t quite like it, could have been the make of them that were not my usual.

DK I play bridge blend favoured, TT I play Neck favoured or all the way

Which do I prefer.........this really is just a smidge and it’s more based on playability - DK wins.

Looks - TT

Pick ups alone - would not want to do without either!

[dannybuoy]

43 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

The new shape was forced on them when Fender rung distributors and shops and threatened to remove all of their basses from any shops that also sold Sandberg’s.

I didn’t like it at first, but have grown to like and is better in the flesh and just sets them apart subtly

I didn't know this, what about the other 500 manufacturers that copy Fender shapes?!

New shapes have grown on me though, especially the P style. I prefer then now that they stand out a bit more, they look more modern without overstepping into ugly territory.

[Cuzzie]

That is gospel

so far as others I don’t know - how many companies do Fender have financial fingers in pies?

Its not worth going after Harley Benton selling basses for a packet of Pork scratchings, and possibly they are made in factories owned by Fender.

For example CORT and Schecter share similar facilities if I remember right.

To my mind, it must be because they are genuine competitors so far as the quality and price point they are at - and personally - they slay a Fender.

Thats market force pressure, not as bad as the mad owner or Warwick who rings up normal guys on the shop floor and shouts at them for not selling enough of his basses. Don’t get me started on him smashing the Buzzard bass mould and then Building a horrific boat anchor......

Edited April 26, 2019 by Cuzzie

[DJ '65]

Thanks for that Cuzzie. The reason I ask is this...

tonight i rehearsed/ jammed with my mates doing our 3 piece blues rock thing, ZZ, Gary More, Black Crowes etc and I recently bought a H&K bass combo that sounds pretty darn good just for this situation. Anyway, last time I used my TT4 and was very happy it’s the sound. Tonight I used the VM4 which is my number 2 and I have to say I really don’t think the P bass type sound is for me. I was left a little disappointed but then I have to say I wasn’t really focused, work problems, sons wedding coming up etc etc. Anyway, it really has dawned on me that my current TT with Delano’s was is easilymy current favourite and now I’m thinking of selling my VM4, VS4 and KT and just getting another TT4 and dropping some Haussel’s in. I’m almost kind of fed up with having too many options and just want to have 2 basses and 1 really good bass amp. 

Maybe I’m just being hasty but I’m kind of hacked off that I didn’t take the TT to rehearsal?

[Cuzzie]

Don - that’s entirely sensible.

Go passive and pop Haüssels in and you will have a great sound and 2 lovely basses that will compliment each other.

Of course I think the new DK’s have black labels in.....

[prowla]

I've seen a number of Sandbergs, but I've never been inclined to pick one up and play it.

[Cuzzie]

@prowla it’s never too late, what’s the worst that can happen....??!!

[thisisswanbon]

My main bass is a VT4, plays like a dream, super light, but I have a love hate relationship with the tone... I HATE the preamp (glock?), the pick ups (delano) fare better in passive, but that being said I'm dying to swap them out for something a bit more traditional...

 

I quite like the shape of if, but to me their new jazz shape just looks awful! 

[Cuzzie]

Swap em!!!

[prowla]

2 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

@prowla it’s never too late, what’s the worst that can happen....??!!

I might give one a go one day.

They're a bit too Fender-a-like for me (though I see they do some Ibanez inspired models too).

[Cuzzie]

You could try it one by one

Keep it in passive - nowt wrong with that - 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, thisisswanbon said:

My main bass is a VT4, plays like a dream, super light, but I have a love hate relationship with the tone... I HATE the preamp (glock?), the pick ups (delano) fare better in passive, but that being said I'm dying to swap them out for something a bit more traditional...

I quite like the shape of if, but to me their new jazz shape just looks awful! 

Does seem to be a lot of divided opinion amongst folk who have owned Bergs, but I'm sure that's also true for many basses!

The Berg 'marmite' is a very consistent one though, it seems to me. Boils down to:

Finish - lovely. 

Electronics - can be meh. 

[dmccombe7]

Does seem to be pick-ups or pre-amps that are the common complaint with them.

Never hear anyone complain about build quality and finish and the necks always seem to get high or at least good comments.

Its difficult for me to comment on that as i still have the new bass euphoria syndrome and it usually takes me a few months of rehearsals or gigs with a bass to find its weaker points.

Oddly enough the Fender PJ i own the complaint i have is opposite from what band members tell me. I think it sounds weak and lacks depth but they say the opposite. Only had the opportunity to do one gig with the Sandberg and loking forward to a rehearsal next week with it altho not my own amp so that wont help.

Sometimes its a good thing to use a strange amp with a new bass to see if you can actually get "your sound" thru it.

Dave 

[Cuzzie]

56 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Does seem to be a lot of divided opinion amongst folk who have owned Bergs, but I'm sure that's also true for many basses!

The Berg 'marmite' is a very consistent one though, it seems to me. Boils down to:

Finish - lovely. 

Electronics - can be meh. 

It’s not Berg electronics it’s Glock plus or minus Delano’s electronics.

Easy to have different pick ups, pre amps if you want them- not so easy to make a fantastic bass

[dmccombe7]

is the Glock preamp the standard fit one ?

 

[Cuzzie]

Yep 2 band for active basses as far as I know except for the Grand Dark Which is the DG tone capsule

Edited April 27, 2019 by Cuzzie

[mcnach]

Electronics do not bother me one bit.

If the basic instrument is well made, I'll find a pickup and/or preamp (or different circuitry, does not need to be active) that works well with it.

I have to say that I have not been able to love any Delano pickup in any instrument I tried, although the two Sandberg 48 that I tried last week seemed pretty decent and had Delanos of some description in them, according to the guy at Guitar Guitar... I think it will depend a lot of each individual instrument (+ amplifier used).

When you order new, you don't have the chance to try it until it's made, and then it's yours... so it's always nicer if you can find what you want in the second hand market, but that's not always an option.

I've only tried Haussels once (Jazz), in a Maruszczyk I owned. They were ok, but I can't say I felt they were any better than say a common DiMarzio Area J set, or even Model J (different sounding entirely, but still quality sound).

[Cuzzie]

You have to also remember that even Sig models that ‘appear’ the same configuration have their own unique pick up placement for example  TT, TSBS, DK very similar will sound different even accounting for now the TSBS no longer uses Duncan pick ups.

VM, Nighthawk, Rammstein sig, 48 being another example

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

It’s not Berg electronics it’s Glock plus or minus Delano’s electronics.

Easy to have different pick ups, pre amps if you want them- not so easy to make a fantastic bass

Yeah - fair point, I should have more correctly said that it's the electronics that Berg use as 'standard'.

Not sure I entirely agree about the second point. There are a lot of great basses out there with dedicated followings ranging from the more marmite ones (Rick, Warwick) to the very widely admired (Fender P).

I accept that electronics can be swapped out. But I've shared my views on this: on a >£1k bass I shouldn't expect to have to be thinking about spending another up to £500 to replace pups and / or EQ. In my case it's not something I need to give second thought to on my Yammys and Ibbys SR Pemiums - they just work for me (and, for sure, they're not going to be for everyone) straight 'out the box'.

I would have thought that Holger Stonjek might have seen enough threads like this one to have taken the feedback on board? The quality of his finish is really very good. If he produced an 'out of the box' bass with electronics to match, he would have a killer product and I, for one, certainly would be very open to returning to the fold. 

[dannybuoy]

Tonal quality is subjective though isn't it - he's not fitting them with Glock pres and Delano pups because they are cheap and cheerful, he probably thinks they sound great.

It seems to me that rather then say Yamaha, who have a few set finishes and specs, every time I look at the Sandbergs on Bass Direct they are different. Perhaps the dealer orders a big batch and specifies which colours and pickups etc they want in? It would certainly be worth asking Bass Direct what it would cost for a standard model with Black Label upgrades without going to the additional expense of a fully custom bass via the configurator. There's a 5 string superlight TT5 with Black Labels up there now btw!

Edited April 27, 2019 by dannybuoy

[Cuzzie]

8 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yeah - fair point, I should have more correctly said that it's the electronics that Berg use as 'standard'.

Not sure I entirely agree about the second point. There are a lot of great basses out there with dedicated followings ranging from the more marmite ones (Rick, Warwick) to the very widely admired (Fender P).

I accept that electronics can be swapped out. But I've shared my views on this: on a >£1k bass I shouldn't expect to have to be thinking about spending another up to £500 to replace pups and / or EQ. In my case it's not something I need to give second thought to on my Yammys and Ibbys SR Pemiums - they just work for me (and, for sure, they're not going to be for everyone) straight 'out the box'.

I would have thought that Holger Stonjek might have seen enough threads like this one to have taken the feedback on board? The quality of his finish is really very good. If he produced an 'out of the box' bass with electronics to match, he would have a killer product and I, for one, certainly would be very open to returning to the fold. 

Yep true - you have shared your views on paying >£1k for a bass and not wanting to swap the electronics.

You can also pay >£1k and around about the same price as the previous paragraph for a bass from Sandberg with the electronics that you want for example Sandberg own or black labels.

You can also get an excellent second hand deal on a Sandberg, pop in the electronics you want, sell the old ones and come in <£1k after all wheeler dealings and we know you like a deal!

Not sure how you can not agree with it not being so easy to make a fantastic well engineered and finished bass or guitar if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it! You only have to look at @mcnach and his recent experience. He found a neck he preferred on a 48 in a store in Glasgow- didn’t want that bass but wanted a different model. Using the serial number the store will contact sandberg and will be able to find out as reliably as possible what the exact neck proportions of that neck he played were, and will try to accurately replicate it for the customer. I haven’t heard of many manufacturers going to those lengths and I know of more examples.

The crass point about Hölger not listening is absolute tosh and balderdash, he listens closely to artists and customers. You are basing opinions on a very small snapshot of people and magnifying the result exponentially. I would call that perfunctory and otiose.

As you have said - may not be for you and that’s fine. I’d prefer to eat the peanuts out my own poo than use some of the ‘throaty’ nordstrand pick ups - but that’s me.

[mcnach]

21 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

Tonal quality is subjective though isn't it - he's not fitting them with Glock pres and Delano pups because they are cheap and cheerful, he probably thinks they sound great.

 

 

That's my take too.

There's a lot of love for Glock preamps in Talkbass, you'd think that it's a great and widely love preamp. I had one with superb specs (3-band, with additional passive tone, etc etc), but I didn't feel it was all that. It's all pretty subjective and when you look at it, the sample size making 'noise' against or in favour is relatively small.

When I bought my Classic 50s Fender Precision I was ready to replace the pickup as at the time I read lots of "great bass, if only had a better pickup". I was on a Precision quest at the time and I had a few pickups in my drawer to try. But I loved it as it was and never changed a thing.

We're talking nuances here, it's not like Sandberg stock pickups are bad, I'm sure (I have zero experience on this: I have only really properly tried 2, and they didn't have Sandberg pickups)

[dannybuoy]

I had a Classic 50s P also and it was hands down the best sounding P I've ever laid hands on, it peed all over my Am Std and Roadworn. Just the neck was too wide with sharp edges, I wish I'd kept it and got a luthier to reshape it!

[Cuzzie]

Believe me, chatting to Hölger he has put a lot of thought into pre-amp and pick ups and feels that they work overall as a balance of allowing the bass to shine through and to manipulate your sound how you want.

He is a bass player of some repute himself, so he knows a thing or too

[mcnach]

All this talk of the pickups seems, to me, a bit like not buying a certain car because the stock tyres are not your favourite.

I separate the basic build from the electronics, maybe because I got used to mess with the electronics of my guitars when I was younger and poorer, and found it was a great way to change the sound of an instrument you loved to play but didn't love soundwise. I understand that others want an instrument 'just so' from the start, and that's ok too, but they'll be missing out on some great stuff, in my opinion.