This German brand has been producing fine basses for some years, including models from 4 to 7 strings, solid or semihollow, fretted or fretless, with a wide choice of pickups and electronics.
This bass is a California JM model, which is the term that Sandberg use for their Fender style basses. JM means Jazz and Musicman style pickups. But there's more than just a splittable humbucker. Read on:
For this model, we chose the brilliant and new Delano Hybrid System. As you probably know, when you have a bridge humbucker and split it, the result is usally far from a punchy Jazz Bass single coil. In this case, this is what the guys at Delano have come up with:
- In humbucker mode, the 3 band onboard preamp is authomatically switched in, so you get the authentic Musicman sound
- When you change to Single coil, the bass goes passive, and the former Treble EQ turns into a Passive Tone Control. Neat!
This means that the gap between a good Musicman and a traditional Jazz Bass is bridged with this system.
To sum up: a well built and finished versatile bass, with a great low B in a standard 34" scale instrument.
But wait...there's more: take a look at the amazing "Hardcore Aged Fisnish"over the Vintage White Finish
We have to admit that is probably the best Relic finish we've seen. To get it right, you just don't simply scratch and stain the bass randomly; you have to do it carefully so that is looks the real thing. The result is a bass with:
- Worn areas (top of the bridge pickup, forearm rest, belt scratches, etc.) as if bass would have been played if it had been made in the 60's
- Scratches and dents from thousands of gigs in pubs, low ceiling rehearsal rooms, etc.
With Gigbag
