Sandberg Basic VM 4String Bass Cherry Sunburst w/ Matching Headstock

Sandberg has been a by-word for quality and innovation for more than 30 years now - only the best is good enough, so they continually strive to improve upon what they've produced previously. That's most certainly the case with the awesomely versatile, modern looking Basic VM4 bass. Having played a number of Sandberg bass guitars during my time, this particular model was certainly one of my favourites to play-test.

Modern looks and high-quality sound

Whilst the Basic VM4 looks like a slightly more modern take on a Stingray bass, only with a different pickguard, there are many differences. To begin with, there's a Split Coil P-Style pickup in addition to the usual Humbucker, both of which have nice fatter-than-usual poles in them; there's the specially designed Sandberg bridge, and even a nice 2-Band Active/Passive EQ system. But first, let's discuss the pickups.

The Pickups

The Basic VM4 features a familiar looking split coil pickup as well as a beefy Sandberg Powerhumbucker. Both pickups house larger-than-usual poles to accurately grab and process all string movements with zero loss. Just imaging: a meaty P-Bass style tone with an in-your-face Stingray type attack and you'll get an idea of just how awesome the Split coil pickup is. Then there's the awesome humbucker. This humbucker is based heavily around the popular Stingray style humbucker pickup shape, with a fat and grinding tone.

Use both pickups together, or individually, to produce a wide array of excellent tones, and explore their sonic possibilities further with the onboard Preamp system.

Sandberg 2-band Preamp

The preamp circuitry on the Basic VM4 is just as crafty as the pickups. What initially looks like a standard setup has a clever little surprise in store, in the shape of a push/pull Volume control knob that allows you to set the preamp to Active or Passive. Next to the Volume control you have the Balance control, which acts as a nice pickup selector "Blend" option, where you can determine the level of each pickup in the mix (centre position has both pickups running at 100%, or turn the control in the direction of the pickup you want to be at the forefront to make it so). The Treble control allows you to either boost the Treble or cut the tone. And finally there's the Bass control, which works in the same way as the Treble control but for your low-end frequencies. Exciting stuff!

Made to be Played

With the ergonomic and solidly constructed chassis, this guitar is most certainly one that you could grace a stage with. The curvature of this relatively lightweight body rests comfortably against you as you play, making even the longest of shows and studio sessions pass by that bit quicker. Add that to the perfect sounding tonal spectrum supplied by the solid wood body and awesome electronics system, and you will fast be running out of reasons NOT to buy it.

Features

• Neck: 6 bolted Canadian Hardrock Maple
• Fretboard: 24 frets, Rosewood, Pearloid Block Inlays
• Scale: 34"
• Finish: Matt Cherry Sunburst
• Hardware: Sandberg
• Pickups: 1 x Sandberg Split Coil "P" Style, 1 x Sandberg Powerhumbucker
• Preamp: Sandberg 2-band, Active/Passive