New Bass Day, a heartfelt story about a Sandberg Patchwork TM5

[Henrythe8]

TL/DR : I bought a bass. 

 

I have been on the hunt for a Warwick Buzzard 5 strings for a long time and finally bought one about a year ago. 
It took me a few months to realize I couldn't quite get used to it, the string spacing was too narrow. 

I finally traded it againt a Sandberg TM5, custom made for Fernando Mainer, bassist for the Spanish metal band Mägo de Oz. 

At first I din't quite like it, the neck was not an immediate match. But the sound, the wide array of tones that you can get out of this bass and the sheer coolness of the Hardcore Aged treatment, mixed with 10 years of professional playing made me stick to it. 
And I finally end up playing this bass a lot. To the point where I thought of ordering a custom made one. 

And, browsing through the wonderful ads we have in this Parrish, I stumbled accross this one, proposed by the great @Fettsman

 

I've seen the bass for sale by the BassCenter, but missed it (and of course, being located in the distant and exotic country of France, transport and taxes just killed me)

 

Intereste'd, I was. But needed to find a way to let this bass escape the UK to come to me. I have a few friends in London, but alas too far from the bass. 

Thanks to this wonderfull forum spirit, I was quickly helped by @walshy, that already used the service of a trusted "Man In A Van". I contacted Tim, the Man in the Van, that offered to deliver the bass directly to France at my door. The fee was not ininteresting, especially when factoring the taxes and VAT costs. 

 

So the bass traveled a bit through the UK, crossed the channel, traveled to the south of France, and then back in the NOrth where Tim The Man In The Van droppe dit at 2AM (yes, he kind of had a rough traffic and had to be on the Ferry at 7 in the morning so we managed a drop-off in my garage). 

 

And this morning, I experienced the only real annoyance of this transaction, as the pack Fettsman made was really difficult to open. 🙂 But then the bass was there, in my hands, still perfectly set up and IN TUNE 🙂 

And then came the second annoying thing, I had to go to work so I'll play it tonight. 

 

I wanted to thank Fettsman, Walshy, and the very good spirit of this forum to make this happen. 

You already have photos in the ad so I'll post some more when I'm able to properly review this bass.  

 

[Fettsman]

I’d like to say a big thank you to @walshyfor getting the bass to France in tune. A fantastic service. 
I hope you get on well with this unique instrument @Henrythe8  

cheers

Andrew

[ped]

Great stuff, that's what this place is all about. Awesome looking bass.

[walshy]

Always a pleasure and happy to help out anyone looking to move a bass safely. My couriers are excellent, reliable and suitably priced for a peace of mind service. Glad it’s in France mate, must be why my bass delivery to me is slower than normal 😂

[Henrythe8]

Don't you hate it when your job takes too much time and doesn't allow you to play properly ? 

I do. 

I've been able to take the Patchwork for a little drive around the music room, and especially playing it against my TM5 Hardcore Aged. 

First impressions - that I will corrpborate later with some clips and verified facts : 

The Patchwork is significantly heavier than the Yellow. Not absurd for a 5er, and still lighter than my Dolphin. 

The neck feels chunkier. It is not according to rough measurements made. 

Sound wise they are of course in the same ballpark (especially for me, as I think all bass sound "boom boom" in the end). 

The Patchwork however has a distinct quality that I have difficulties transcribing into words. The first qualificative that popped in my mind was that it sounded more authoritative. 

Tighter and punchier comes to mind, too. Of course the electronics makes it easy to find a sweet spot whatever your style is, but the "Classic Passive P-Tone that is easily found on the Yellow selecting only the neck pickup is not found on the Patchwork, that gives it a modern quality. 

I really believe the very special construction increases the stiffness of the instrument, giving it a very particular, commanding tone. 

Of course for the ToneWoods afficionado, this concept of bass is a vast piffley gobbledegook, however my beliefs have been reinforced by this bass. I have been proven that two identical instruments made of the same wood from the same tree will sound differently if the wood comes from the top or the bottom of the tree. Same applies here where it's not the essence of the woods that will produce the tone but the overall density and construction. 

 

More to come. 🙂