The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[BassApprentice]

I realise I phrased that badly 😅 I meant what @martthebass said. 

 

The pickup changes seem to lean towards a more vintage sound, which you can get from any number of Fender basses at this price point but the build quality and finish of Sandberg is above them. So you'll happily spend a touch more on pickups.

[Muzz]

I put a Dimarzio in a bottom-of-the-line £140 Squier Sonic, and it's my main gigging bass...

[fretmeister]

16 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

From reading here, it seems a few have changed pickups. Surely changing the pickups speaks volumes about the build quality and value of Sandberg versus other Fender shaped basses? 

 

 

I've changed the pickups in almost every bass I've ever owned. Especially the Fenders. Most of my basses end up with EMGs or Aguilar.

 

The Sandberg P pickup is a high quality unit. Zero hum. Well potted. Solidly made. It is higher output than almost every passive pickup I've ever tried over the years - in fact it might even give the Dimarzio Relentless some competition in the output stakes. That was the issue for me - I was playing in a Jazz Big Band.

 

I wanted a vintage toned / traditional sounding pickup for my Lionel. That's why I changed it.  I put in an Aguilar AG4P 1960s wind pickup. I could have got the same tone area buy putting in a Fender pickup as well, but the polepieces on Fender P pickups stick out and annoy me beyond reason. The Aguilar's polepieces are very slightly lower than the surrounding plastic so I never get any string on pole noises.

 

When a customer puts in an order for a Sandberg they can specify any pickup they want. Some cost more, others less.

 

I thought the Sandberg VS pickup sounded better than the Relentless for a high output P, but neither was what I was looking for in the end.

 

No concerns about quality / value at all. Just a matter of taste.

 

 

 

 

[fretmeister]

15 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

I realise I phrased that badly 😅 I meant what @martthebass said. 

 

The pickup changes seem to lean towards a more vintage sound, which you can get from any number of Fender basses at this price point but the build quality and finish of Sandberg is above them. So you'll happily spend a touch more on pickups.

 

 

Perfectly put! 

[fretmeister]

24 minutes ago, Muzz said:

I put a Dimarzio in a bottom-of-the-line £140 Squier Sonic, and it's my main gigging bass...

 

I've got £130 of Aguilar pickup in a £100 Jim Deacon P bass, and an EMG P-X in another one of them. One of them also has £100 of Hipshot Ultralites too. The other will get the same when I find some money.

 

I put £300 of Aguilar DCB 6 string pickups into an Ibanez medium / short fan fret

EMG J set with BQS into a Sandberg TT4 Superlight.

 

But the best fun I ever had with a pickup swap was firstly swapping pickups in an EBMM Stingray 5 - putting in a set of EMG MM5TW, then taking that out and turning the bass into a Precision (Aguilar narrow spaced P5), then into a PJ with stacked knobs.... but the very best bit of that process was posting on the official EBMM forum about it...

 

The response from the fan boys was epically predictable. And it got more hilarious as they became more unhinged when they realised I just didn't care they were "offended" by what I did with my own instrument. 

 

Happy days.

 

[scrumpymike]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

I put in an Aguilar AG4P 1960s wind pickup. I could have got the same tone area buy putting in a Fender pickup as well, but the polepieces on Fender P pickups stick out and annoy me beyond reason. The Aguilar's polepieces are very slightly lower than the surrounding plastic so I never get any string on pole noises.

 

 

 

 

 

The '70s-wound Aguilars that came as OE on my active Vox Starstream A2S are absolutely killer.

[Obrienp]

I just had a Rickenbacker post appear on my Facebook feed (they have obviously profiled me) about a short scale solid body bass they were sending out to a US dealer. It was called the 4030. I did a bit of online research and apparently it is 31” scale on a 4003 body. The bridge is stranded well up the body. The pickup placing also looks a bit odd. It turns out it is a full size body and it has a 24 fret neck, hence the very forward positioning of the bridge. The fingerboard looks like ebony but is in fact Richlite. I found a US dealer online with one from 2022, that was a special order, going for 3,500 USD. Makes you wonder what they cost new but still a bit cheaper than the anniversary special semi they did recently.

 

I have always wanted a Rickie simply because Chris Squire was one of my bass hero’s as a kid. I could never afford it and still can’t. Plus I couldn’t manage the weight, or the nut width now. I got all excited at the idea of a short scale version but not if it has the same size, bulk and weight as a long scale version. I can’t help but feel they missed a trick here. A genuine short scale (in proportion) solid body variant would probably sell well, especially as shorties seem to be a bit trendy at the moment. 

[RichT]

@Obrienp I recall seeing on a thread somewhere that you have a Sire U5 fretless? I'm having to come to terms with there being something about the ergonomics of my 34" fretless that leaves my shoulder in pain despite it not being that heavy, so I've been considering the (very limited) ss fretless options out there.

 

How have you found the U5? I hear Sires can be quite heavy generally, how does yours stack up weight wise? It seems to be the only affordable ss fretless I can find, and apparently exclusively available from Thomann with about a 3 month wait time. They don't make them easy to find! 

 

More widely, does anyone have any other suggestions for a ss fretless that won't break the bank?

[BassApprentice]

The thing is, they have the template for smaller body as they made the 481G for the guy in Kasabian.

 

Would be far better tweaking that than shoehorning a short scale on to a full scale body. 

[Obrienp]

@RichT I’m not sure I’m the best judge of fretless basses TBH. I have only owned 1  other, which was an acoustic short scale Guild but a huge bodied instrument.

 

I find the Sire to be pretty close to perfect for me. I haven’t weighed it but it doesn’t feel heavy to me. The body is scaled down and quite dinky. It fits nicely into a Thomann guitar gig bag. I would say weight is on a par with other short scale basses I have played: Mustangs and the like. It’s a pretty looking thing, with a flamed maple top and a brown back. It has bound body edges as well, rolled finger board and some contouring (so better than a lot of shorties). The back contouring is a bit strange because it has a belly bulge rather than a cut but it seems to work fine. 
 

The board is maple, which is a bit unusual for a fretless and lined (good for newbie fretless players like me). It all seems to work though. The neck is definitely a Jazz bass style, which suits my arthritic left hand but may not be for everybody. Pickups aren’t the most aggressive I’ve come across but they are noiseless. TBH I hardly use the Jazz. I might eventually get round to replacing them with something with a bit more grunt but they are adequate so I’m in no rush. The same applies to the bridge and machine heads. The bridge is a variation on the BBOT theme but much better than some I’ve seen on other instruments in this price range and has ridged saddles, which I like. It comes with D’Addario flats that I haven’t seen the need to change.
 

In short, I’m very pleased with it. It seems like a well made instrument for not a lot of money.

[RichT]

@Obrienp Thanks for the detailed run down, the U5 certainly sounds worth a shot, especially given the lack of anything else anywhere near it in price. Jazz width necks are my preference, and amazing to hear that the pickups are noiseless, I just can't do single coil hum! I also saw a Low End Lobster video which indicated that Gotoh GB528 lightweight tuners will fit the U5, so nice to know that option's there if an upgrade is needed.  We'll have to see about the 'belly bulge' (there's one of those round here already 😁...) Cheers! 👍

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, RichT said:

@Obrienp Thanks for the detailed run down, the U5 certainly sounds worth a shot, especially given the lack of anything else anywhere near it in price. Jazz width necks are my preference, and amazing to hear that the pickups are noiseless, I just can't do single coil hum! I also saw a Low End Lobster video which indicated that Gotoh GB528 lightweight tuners will fit the U5, so nice to know that option's there if an upgrade is needed.  We'll have to see about the 'belly bulge' (there's one of those round here already 😁...) Cheers! 👍

That’s what I understand about the pickups. I certainly haven’t noticed any hum from the Jazz. I wouldn’t expect it from the P anyway. I would imagine that it would make a great modding platform. Everything seems fairly standard fitting, so there must be a lot of aftermarket stuff available but caveat: I haven’t tried replacing anything so far. I’ll post some pics when I get a chance.

[AlexDelores]

23 hours ago, Obrienp said:

I just had a Rickenbacker post appear on my Facebook feed (they have obviously profiled me) about a short scale solid body bass they were sending out to a US dealer. It was called the 4030. I did a bit of online research and apparently it is 31” scale on a 4003 body. The bridge is stranded well up the body. The pickup placing also looks a bit odd. It turns out it is a full size body and it has a 24 fret neck, hence the very forward positioning of the bridge. The fingerboard looks like ebony but is in fact Richlite. I found a US dealer online with one from 2022, that was a special order, going for 3,500 USD. Makes you wonder what they cost new but still a bit cheaper than the anniversary special semi they did recently.

 

I have always wanted a Rickie simply because Chris Squire was one of my bass hero’s as a kid. I could never afford it and still can’t. Plus I couldn’t manage the weight, or the nut width now. I got all excited at the idea of a short scale version but not if it has the same size, bulk and weight as a long scale version. I can’t help but feel they missed a trick here. A genuine short scale (in proportion) solid body variant would probably sell well, especially as shorties seem to be a bit trendy at the moment. 

Retrovibe do some really nice looking Rick-esq short scale copies at decent prices. 
 

I’ve no experience of the brand but I’ve only read good things on here. 
 

 

[Obrienp]

I promised a couple of pics of my Sire U5 SS fretless. I’d forgotten it has a string through option. Correction: BTW controls are VVT rather than VBT. Sorry got my abbreviations back to front first time.

 

 

Edited 42 minutes ago by Obrienp