Sandberg California VS-5 Active/Passive 5-String Bass, Transparent Black

Music Store Live is proud to be an official Sandberg dealer and offer up this beautiful VS-5 in transparent black over a highly figured ash body.

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 3-band eq gives you control over a wide frequency spectrum. This bass absolutely rocks and is versatile enough for a wide range of genres. Hard rockers and metal players will love this, but also so will funkers who like a bit more presence and growl in their tone. If you're after a more traditional p-bass type sound, 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.