New Sandberg model revealed today: The Florence (now with video demo)

[fretmeister]

13 hours ago, NickA said:

Looks awful doesn't sound any better.  Why would a good company like Sandberg make such a thing?

 

 

 

People like different things. Plenty of comments on social media from people who want to buy one.

 

I want one, but in contrast to that there are people who think tort pickguards are nice and that using them shouldn't carry a punishment of public flogging.

 

Nowt so queer as folk!

[Old Horse Murphy]

I like them and have been playing around on the configurator. I'm not sure I'd ever buy one but it doesn't stop me window shopping 

[msb]

I prefer a preamp you plug into , in fact I use one , even if I might pick up and play an “active” bass. Mine has some tubes so it’s not going to work inside a bass.

 

I prefer passive basses and have no problem with the term. And I’m one that enjoys short scale , passive , set neck , single humbucker in the sweet spot , two knob basses. This one here is probably my favourite bass to play.  
 

So I was quite happy to see Sandberg release this.

[Trueno]

If I wasn’t bandless… and if I didn’t have two short scale basses which are honed to (my version of) perfection… I would seriously consider one of these. Not a fan of the headstock. 3+3 would look better… I also think a tele style would look good.

 

The sound in the demo also floats me aural boat.

[fretmeister]

1 hour ago, Trueno said:

If I wasn’t bandless… and if I didn’t have two short scale basses which are honed to (my version of) perfection… I would seriously consider one of these. Not a fan of the headstock. 3+3 would look better… I also think a tele style would look good.

 

The sound in the demo also floats me aural boat.

 

 

3+3 would be a guitar and thus a crime!  

[fretmeister]

 

 

[Trueno]

18 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

3+3 would be a guitar and thus a crime!  

No wonder I’m having a bit of bother with me low end!

[Opticaleye]

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.

[fretmeister]

54 minutes ago, Opticaleye said:

 

If there was an option of a black headstock it would be better I think.

 

There will be an option for a black headstock, but you'll have to order it like that and wait a year.

 

They'll do pretty much anything you want.

 

 

[Opticaleye]

2 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

There will be an option for a black headstock, but you'll have to order it like that and wait a year.

 

They'll do pretty much anything you want.

 

 

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.

[NickA]

5 hours ago, Opticaleye said:

Personally, I'm not  a fan of the quality of onboard electronics. 

 

 Nerd alert!  Dont read if you are set on vintage passive basses 🙂

 

The on board electronics work pretty well in my Wals and in the ACG-EQ-01 bitsa Jazz bass.  The advantage on those is that the two pickups can be seperately filtered .. which you can't do with an external preamp without two preamp channels and a stereo wired bass.  Even on the Warwick which has bass and treble cut and boost which the amp could do; Warwick would argue that the bost/cut frequencies are carefully chosed to match the bass ...which maybe true.

 

On a single pickup bass it's not so much of an issue; though it's still nice to know that your cable and amp input impedance aren't affecting the sound. 

Still, I noticed this rather tasty MusicMan Joe Dart bass (https://www.music-man.com/instruments/basses/joe-dart)  I could quite fancy one of those for some reason. Nowt but a volume knob and no "electronics" at all.  Maybe becasue the stingray pickup is good and the body has some contours.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by NickA

[Opticaleye]

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.

 

 

 

[NickA]

The warwick sounds very thin in passive mode as there is no bass or treble boost (though it's not quite passive due to the pickups having little buffer amps in them - and needing a battery even in "passive" mode)... I always play it with the bass and treble turned well up; thin sounding MEC pickups I think.  I could put a "smile" on the amp's EQ, but it doesn't seem to work as well.  I did nearly buy a Sandberg California and that sounded the same in active and passive modes.

 

If passivle, combined with a favourite amp, floats your boat then great.  And there is a particular sound you get out of a standard Jazz bass due to the pickups loading eachother so that the output of the parallel pickups is something like tha average of the two; whereas on an active bass (Foderas aside) the pickups are effectively in series whether you like it or not.

 

Still don't see the point of the slab bodied, chrome pickupped, thumpy sounding, passive "Florence" though.  The world has moved on. 🙂

 

 

[pineweasel]

5 hours ago, Opticaleye said:

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.

A lot of people seem to think this is the case but according to the the original Stingray manual both controls are boost and cut: http://www.musicmanbass.global/1978-hangtag-manual/

[Opticaleye]

6 hours ago, pineweasel said:

A lot of people seem to think this is the case but according to the the original Stingray manual both controls are boost and cut: http://www.musicmanbass.global/1978-hangtag-manual/

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.

 

12 hours ago, NickA said:

Still don't see the point of the slab bodied, chrome pickupped, thumpy sounding, passive "Florence" though.  The world has moved on. 🙂

 

 

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. 😁

[Jonesy]

14 hours ago, NickA said:

 

 

Still don't see the point of the slab bodied, chrome pickupped, thumpy sounding, passive "Florence" though.  The world has moved on. 🙂

 

 

 

 

According to the Reverb list of most popular basses sold in 2022........

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2022/11/10/reverb-releases-list-of-best-selling-basses-of-2022/

 

Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI

Fender Player Precision Bass

Fender Offset Series Mustang Bass PJ / Gretsch Junior Jet II

Squier Affinity Precision Bass PJ

Rickenbacker 4003

Sterling StingRay Ray4

Fender American Professional II Precision

Squier Affinity Bronco Bass

Fender Player Jazz Bass / JB-62 Jazz Bass

Ibanez GSRM20 Gio Mikro

Squier Affinity Jazz Bass

Ibanez SR300E Soundgear Standard

Hofner Ignition Pro Violin Bass

Fender Precision Bass (1970-83)

Fender Standard Jazz Bass / American Professional II Jazz Bass / Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Jazz Bass

Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Precision

Squier Classic Vibe ’60s Jazz Bass

Squier Classic Vibe ’60s Precision Bass

Fender Player Mustang Bass PJ

Squier Classic Vibe ’50s Precision Bass

 

 

 

.........I don't think it's moved on as much as you think!

 

There's a lot of classic designed passive basses there. Personally I'm not a big fan of active basses. I've never owned one and whenever I've toyed with buying one I just haven't gelled with the tone or looks. Still doesn't stop me wanting a Stingray though, but they're not exactly new or modern.

 

But each to their own etc...

[Aidan63]

On 22/02/2023 at 12:18, Old Horse Murphy said:

I like them and have been playing around on the configurator. I'm not sure I'd ever buy one but it doesn't stop me window shopping 

 

 

not much choice on the configurator and frell me they are expensive, are they made by elves out of unobtanium in a magic castle ?

Do you think they will ever make it to an Electra version ?

I guess Friday's Bass the World will be all about it

[NickA]

😁😁😁 It's an age thing maybe:

 

In the 80s we'd all moved on from guitar bands ( and the word "cool" ), having discovered synths, sequencers, Wals and Alembics. 

 

In 1981 I really wanted a sunburst fender jazz bass and an Ampeg amp.  By 1985, following 4 years of post punk funk & indie and a degree in electronics, I really wanted a Wal and a trace gp12smx.  Not a passive bass in the house now ( double bass aside).

 

Now ( passive instruments &  cool )..THEY'RE BACK.

 

Actually, the word "cool" ( briefly supplanted by "stealthy") has now been back for longer than it was ever away.😁. Same likely true of Fenders. 

[greentext]

Basstheworld demo of the Florence, some great tones in this one!

 

 

[fleabag]

Fugly looks, fugly tone.

 

But hey, what a boring world if we all liked the same thing.

 

One man's beef crumpet is another man's rycin brioche

[msb]

It’s a crime that Gibson discontinued their little DC Jr Les Paul bass , but this pushes many of those buttons despite being a bolt on neck. 
I’m one that appreciates two knob simplicity and a single big humbucking pickup in the classic sweet spot.  And I like the push/pull feature , although I rarely use it on my Jr. I would probably prefer the mahogany body because I love the Jr. I’ve pretty much become a short scale guy , and it’s nice to see something like this. 
I’m good for now , but wouldn’t be surprised to see one at my door sometime in the future. I like the promise of this bass , and this demo vid is excellent! 

[martthebass]

I still kinda like it but just think it's a bit on the bass heavy side (or is that just how they've recorded it?).  I'd have thought at that price point they could've done more with the humbucker like the coil-tapping in the Fallout bass to give it a bit more flexibility.

[msb]

It is pretty pricey.

[greentext]

1 hour ago, fleabag said:

Fugly looks

I agree it is an UGLY bass 

[msb]

This is what Gibson EB0 basses looked like before they switched over to the SG style in 1961. The shape was from the LesPaul Jr guitars that were made after 1958.

 

This looks like an updated take on a classic design to me.