Sandberg California VM-5 5-String Left-Handed Bass, Cherry Sunburst

Music Store Live is proud to be an official Sandberg dealer! Made in Europe, with the finest German engineering, this bass will slap a smile on your face that you just can’t shake. We figured we’d show some love for our lefty friends out there so we had Sandberg build this beauty for us.

Sandberg basses are already very well known over in Europe and are now gaining popularity here in the U.S. for being some of the finest hand-made boutique basses available. The playability is just simply off the charts. Whether you’re a 4-string player or used to 5-strings, you’ll feel right at home on this one. The flat 14″ fretboard radius is a joy to maneuver on and the neck is thin enough to maximize comfort without feeling like you’re playing a toothpick. The B-string, even though this is a 34″ scale bass, is incredibly tight and punchy.

As well as being effortless to play, this Sandberg VM-5 comes loaded with some powerful and thoroughly kickass electronics. The first thing you’re likely to notice are the huge pole pieces on the P-style pickup. Next you’ll probably notice that the split-coil pickup is placed in the opposite orientation that you might traditionally find it. This is a brilliant adaptation of a tried and true design. By placing the B, E, and A string pole pieces closer to the bridge you end up with a tighter, punchier, and more focused tone on the bass strings while having a slightly fuller and rounder sound out of the D and G treble strings. It’s subtle… But we definitely dig it. The resulting tone is one that will sit perfectly in a mix, no matter how many other instruments are playing along with you, and will never be muddy or indistinct. Add to that, the zero fret, and you truly have a bass with even response across all strings AND fretted as well as open strings.

Rest assured, you can still achieve some pretty traditional P-bass tones with this as well. The orientation of the P pickup will always give it a bit extra tightness and growl, but it’s pretty easily tameable. Overall, along with tightening up the bass response and providing fuller treble response, the giant pole pieces on the pickups help produce a powerful tone that is rich with just enough mid-range while still having loads of that P-bass wooliness we’ve all come to know and love. Located directly behind that is a big MM-style humbucker to add bite, growl, and attack to your notes. By adding that humbucker close to the bridge, you can achieve super growly and barky tones that compliment the P-pickup or stand out on their own with the pickup soloed. The ability to run this in active or passive mode only further adds to the immense versatility found here.

A simple 2-band boost/cut EQ allows you to tweak your sound on the fly, without ever having to turn around and fiddle with your amp knobs. For a more vintage sound, just pull the volume knob to disengage the preamp and you’ll instantly be transported to bass sounds of the 60’s and 70’s. With the preamp engaged, you can really dial in a huge array of tones ranging from modern hi-fi to old-school and vintage.

Sandberg Guitars was founded back in 1986 by Holger Stonjek and Gerd Gorzelke. Since then, they have been producing hand-made instruments at the highest quality. This bass features Sandberg’s newest version of the California body shape along with Sandberg pickups and preamp that Glockenklang helped them develop. The reverse-P pickup and MM-style bridge humbucker combine to provide anything from familiar vintage tones to uniquely modern and hi-fi sounds. This is an extraordinarily versatile bass.