1st time playing a Sandberg

[oldslapper]

In a studio yesterday. I noticed a Sandberg hanging on the wall, black with maple board, active P, 2 band less expensive Electra series. 
Asked the artist if they minded if I used a different bass to the ones I brought, and they were fine. 
Well I have to say, I loved it, despite the poor set up. Very comfy and well made neck and even though I’m  not normally a fan of active basses, the 2 band eq was very useable. Although I ended up keeping t&b on centre indents. 
Sounded great recorded too. 
 

I now have gas for Sandberg but have absolutely no money. Don’t see many come up for sale on here, but I may be keeping an eye out. 
Sandberg, lovely surprise. 
 

[Terry M.]

Wait till you play one of the German made ones.

There's a Sandberg Appreciation Society thread on here started in 2018 by GisserD and still going strong 😉

Edited Sunday at 15:51 by Terry M.

[TrevorR]

I’ve never played a Sandberg that I didn’t love! I finally relented in January and brought this home from Wunjos… absolutely fabulous instrument and it sounds so good in active or passive mode.

 

[oldslapper]

I do like their relic’ finishes. 

[AlexDelores]

Funnily enough I tried my first ever Sandberg today at the Bass show and I was actually Surprisingly underwhelmed. But, it was during the amp less period so it was unplugged. Perhaps It’s unfair to judge it on this basis. But, it didn’t feel incredibly inspiring to noodle on. 

[Terry M.]

36 minutes ago, AlexDelores said:

Funnily enough I tried my first ever Sandberg today at the Bass show and I was actually Surprisingly underwhelmed. But, it was during the amp less period so it was unplugged. Perhaps It’s unfair to judge it on this basis. But, it didn’t feel incredibly inspiring to noodle on. 

In my experience a bass that feels uninspiring to noodle on will feel that way regardless of being amped or not. What do you feel was missing or was it just the general vibe? 

[AlexDelores]

Very true. In honesty I thought it was a very nice bass. But, it didn’t feel like I was playing a £2k instrument. It felt no more inspiring than playing my Fender Mustang. Which, is a lovely bass to play. But is around 1/4 of the price.
 

I also think the set up wasn’t amazing on the specific bass I played, even though it was on the Sandberg stand.

 

[fretmeister]

My favourite bass brand.

 

I love my two.

[Terry M.]

18 minutes ago, AlexDelores said:

 

I also think the set up wasn’t amazing on the specific bass I played

 

That makes sense to me. I've picked up many an "amazing" bass in stores with shoddy setups and couldn't put them back on the wall fast enough 👍

[MichaelDean]

2 hours ago, AlexDelores said:

Funnily enough I tried my first ever Sandberg today at the Bass show and I was actually Surprisingly underwhelmed. But, it was during the amp less period so it was unplugged. Perhaps It’s unfair to judge it on this basis. But, it didn’t feel incredibly inspiring to noodle on. 

I felt a bit like that when I tried one for the first time at the last South West Bass Bash. A Limelight p bass that the same owner had was much more up my street. The Sandberg wasn't a bad instrument, but it was just missing something that I can't quite explain. 

[Terry M.]

10 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

I felt a bit like that when I tried one for the first time at the last South West Bass Bash. A Limelight p bass that the same owner had was much more up my street. The Sandberg wasn't a bad instrument, but it was just missing something that I can't quite explain. 

In my experience of both owning them and playing them in stores I can say that sometimes I experience a feeling of sterility. They are clearly well engineered but sometimes weirdly that can lead to a disconnection. This is only my opinion of course. 

[warwickhunt]

I have 4 of them (2 long scale, 2 short scale Lionels) and they are superb BUT with 45 years of playing / owning a lot of basses I'd never assume that because 1 (or 4) were great, that they'd all be the equal.  I have a vivid memory from maybe 30 years ago of talking to a friend who was the manager of a large retail store and he was describing how he assisted in the unboxing of instruments from a large manufacturer; of 20 USA guitars he might have played unamplified each time, there'd likely be one you felt was great, the rest ranged from 'Meh' to awful.  He felt that if an instrument didn't work for you unamplified then there was no point plugging it in.

[Terry M.]

2 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

He felt that if an instrument didn't work for you unamplified then there was no point plugging it in.

I have to admit to not fully understanding this as the instrument was designed to be plugged in. I've heard it said before however and I'm not suggesting there's nothing to it. Just my understanding. 

[TrevorR]

1 hour ago, Terry M. said:

I have to admit to not fully understanding this as the instrument was designed to be plugged in. I've heard it said before however and I'm not suggesting there's nothing to it. Just my understanding. 

I guess the idea is that playing isn’t just an aural thing, it’s visual and tactile. If you don’t like the look or feel of a bass then you probably won’t be won over just by the sound. Also, a lot of folks say you can tell a lot about the resonance if a bass unplugged which then feeds through into the amplified sound. That gets wrapped up in that statement too. 
 

For example, I love the look and sound of Ricky’s but hate the feel on the body and the neck. Their distinctive sound doesn’t change that. Similarly I hate Warwick necks - I absolutely know a W is not for me before plugging it in!!!

[warwickhunt]

1 hour ago, Terry M. said:

I have to admit to not fully understanding this as the instrument was designed to be plugged in. I've heard it said before however and I'm not suggesting there's nothing to it. Just my understanding. 

 

My understanding was that it was the resonance of the whole instrument.  HOWEVER... that is a whole can of worms explored on every guitar/bass forum ever!  Does an amplified instrument need to have any particular properties to sound good/better than another.  I certainly think that one of my 4 Sandbergs just feels intrinsically nicer to play (taking strings out of the equation and all set up similar by me) and it likely has the best amplified tone... but am I un/subconsciously playing it different because it 'feels' different?  I do know that I've had dozens of vintage Warwick Streamer basses through my hands and some have been better than others; I have a 91 bass at present that I'll not sell on because the amplified tone is like no other.  

[Terry M.]

30 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

Also, a lot of folks say you can tell a lot about the resonance if a bass unplugged which then feeds through into the amplified sound. That gets wrapped up in that statement too. 
 

Similarly I hate Warwick necks - I absolutely know a W is not for me before plugging it in!!!

Totally agree on the looks and feel aspect but it's the sound aspect I'm not too sure about. Especially when preamps are involved as they all colour the sound differently. Not to mention amplification with different sized drivers,tweeters etc. 

 

Ironically I'm a huge Warwick fan 😊

Edited yesterday at 12:27 by Terry M.

[Killerfridge]

11 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

Totally agree on the looks and feel aspect but it's the sound aspect I'm not too sure about. Especially when preamps are involved as they all colour the sound differently. Not to mention amplification with different sized drivers,tweeters etc. 

 

Ironically I'm a huge Warwick fan 😊

I think Roger Sadowsky explained it in a way that I understood the best. If an instrument feels like it resonates more/less, will the audience hear it? Probably not, but it will affect how you play it, and that effect the audience will hear.

 

If something feels nice and resonant, maybe I will be a bit more dynamic with my playing. Does that resonance make it out of the amp? Probably not, but my change in playing will, which I might then (possibly mistakenly, depending on your interpretation of the explanation) attribute to the resonance of the bass

[LeftyJ]

23 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

Totally agree on the looks and feel aspect but it's the sound aspect I'm not too sure about. Especially when preamps are involved as they all colour the sound differently. Not to mention amplification with different sized drivers,tweeters etc. 

 

Ironically I'm a huge Warwick fan 😊

 

I always feel that you can't amplify what isn't there in the first place. Resonance and decay time of a note can't really be added with a different set of pickups or a different preamp.

 

The irony in this is we're all looking for basses with endless sustain, only to put much (if not most) of our playing effort into muting 

 

I love my 2023 Sandberg Lionel. It's surprisingly heavy for its diminutive size (I have one with an ash body) but it feels great to play and sounds fantastic. 

[oldslapper]

I didn’t play it before recording with it. I was intrigued as I’d not played one before. It was poorly set up with a higher and uneven action than I normally like, strings were not in great condition. But once I plugged in, and flattened the eq, I really liked how it recorded and the neck/ board felt comfortable in my hand. 
 

I was just curious. I’d definitely try a German made one with a better set up to see how consistent their quality is. 
 

[Killerfridge]

I played my first (and last so far) Sandberg about 13 years ago at GuitarGuitar in Epsom. I was so excited and expected to love it, but it was just "meh". I gave a couple of them a go (P, J, PMM etc.). I went home with a Sadowsky Metro Jazz, which absolutely defied expectations and has been my main bass since then.

[fretmeister]

16 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

I didn’t play it before recording with it. I was intrigued as I’d not played one before. It was poorly set up with a higher and uneven action than I normally like, strings were not in great condition. But once I plugged in, and flattened the eq, I really liked how it recorded and the neck/ board felt comfortable in my hand. 
 

I was just curious. I’d definitely try a German made one with a better set up to see how consistent their quality is. 
 

 

 

I've owned 5 over the years and they've been consistently great.

 

I do think they do themselves a disservice with the stock strings though, I like steel rounds but the ones they fit are horrible! I don't know who makes them for Sandberg but they come straight off.

 

I like quite an extreme set up too so I always have to tweak. When I've got the truss rod set where I want it I can't even get a business card between the string and the frets when the string is held at the first and last frets. With the 2 I have currently (Superlight TT4 and Superlight Lionel) I don't have to tweak it in the summer or winter, it's rock solid. I only change it if I change string type.

[Reggaebass]

I’ve had sandbergs and they are superb instruments, especially the build quality, I had a custom one made too which was very nice, mine all setup with a really low action and lovely necks and a great sound , I would say the only reason I didn’t totally gel with them was because I always reverted back to my fenders, nothing to do with the basses themselves, it’s just me, I was tempted by the Ida Nielsen signature but I don’t think I’d stick with it 

[Urban Bassman]

I'm on my 3rd and I think they're fabulous.  It don't think it'll be long before there's a second one in The arsenal.

Edited yesterday at 14:05 by Urban Bassman
Typp

[Terry M.]

1 hour ago, Killerfridge said:

I played my first (and last so far) Sandberg about 13 years ago at GuitarGuitar in Epsom. 

I've literally just left there. I didn't play any Sandbergs though 😊

Would love a Sadowsky one day based on what I've played in stores in the past including Guitar Guitar Epsom.

Edited yesterday at 14:12 by Terry M.

[Terry M.]

1 hour ago, LeftyJ said:

 

The irony in this is we're all looking for basses with endless sustain, only to put much (if not most) of our playing effort into muting 

 

I often wonder why sustain is so important to us bassists sometimes. How long do our notes really ring out for in the average song.