Sandberg California VS-5 Active/Passive 5-String Bass, Gold

Music Store Live is proud to be an official Sandberg dealer and offer up this beautiful VS-5 in a metallic gold finish.

When we discovered them at NAMM several years ago, Sandberg quickly became a shop favorite. We just felt they provided tremendous value and, before you know it, many of the employees here at our store were ordering these basses for themselves. The craftsmanship is absolutely top-notch. It's something you'd expect out of a custom shop that might cost a decent bit more than this, even. The feel of the instrument is incredible and we've always felt that these have some of the tightest B-strings you'll find on a 34" scale 5-string.

The Sandberg pickups are phenomenal and their simple 2-band preamp gives you everything you need and nothing you don't. The bass and treble knobs can boost or cut the perfect frequencies and can get you a nice scooped sound or you can emphasize the mids by dialing back the bass and treble, too. If you're after a more traditional tone, you can disengage the preamp and just play the bass in passive mode with a push/pull knob. But one of our favorite under-the-hood features is that the treble EQ knob works as a passive tone control when the preamp isn't engaged. This really lets you dial in anything from a dark Jamerson style tone to a bright rock sound, and that's just with the passive tones. Engage the preamp back in and the tonal options are really phenomenal.

A beautiful mix of modern and vintage, this 5-string p-style bass has all of the beautiful and precise German engineering we've come to know and love from Sandberg.