Sandberg Basses TM5 Creme Masterpiece

TM5 Creme Masterpiece

A week on one bass

This is the TM5 in Creme from Sandberg, out of Braunschweig, Germany. It weighs 4.06 kg. In fact, Sandberg builds every bass there. However, the Masterpiece tier is where they stop being efficient about it, because one luthier spends a week on a single instrument.

Specifically, the finish is aged by hand down to bare wood in the places a bass actually wears. In addition, the hardware and the fingerboard get aged too. Finally, the whole thing goes through heat and vibration treatment before it ever leaves the shop.

Creme worn to raw alder

The result is what you see here. For example, the Creme is worn through to raw alder along the forearm and the back. At the same time, the control plate has lost its plating and the tuner buttons have gone soft and grey.

The pearloid pickguard has yellowed the way pearloid does after thirty years of sweat. In my opinion, nothing about it looks manufactured. In fact, it looks like it has already done the work, right?

Body, Neck & Woods

Treated alder body

The body is alder, and on a Masterpiece it’s heat and vibration treated before assembly. In other words, it’s the same idea as a bass that has spent decades absorbing string energy, just compressed into the factory.

Alder is already the most even-handed of the classic body woods. For example, you get a strong fundamental, warm lower mids and no spike anywhere in the range.

Furthermore, the treatment opens it up. As a result, it takes a little of the tightness out of the attack, and the notes bloom the way they do on an old bass. You feel it as much as you hear it, because the body resonates against your ribs before the amp gets involved.

Roasted maple and rosewood

The neck is roasted maple, bolted on, with a rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets over a 34″ scale. Because roasting drives the moisture out, it stabilises the neck. Therefore it stays put through a Danish winter and a summer festival stage, without you chasing the truss rod.

For me personally, the rosewood on top is a big part of it. Basically, it adds the softness that keeps this bass from ever sounding brittle. In fact, it rounds the front of every note and takes off the glassy top end a maple board would give you.

The fingerboard is aged too. As a result, it already has that dark, oiled, slightly worn feel under the fingers.

45 mm nut and 34″ scale

A 45 mm nut and a 34″ scale mean this plays like a familiar 5-string. Consequently, the B is warm and vocal rather than piano-tight.

Admittedly, you give up a little of the focus a 35″ bass gives you. However, you get a low string that sits in the track. Moreover, it matches the other four instead of standing apart from them.

In addition, bridge spacing is adjustable from 18 mm to 19.5 mm. Therefore you set the string spacing to your right hand instead of adapting to the bass.

Electronics, Sound & Feel

Delano J and Power Humbucker

The TM configuration is a Delano J-style single coil at the neck and a Delano M-style Power Humbucker at the bridge. In fact, that pairing is the whole point of this bass.

The neck single coil gives you the round, breathy, hollow-in-the-middle voice, kind of like a Jazz bass. As a result, it carries a song without crowding the vocal.

The bridge humbucker, on the other hand, is fat, loud and aggressive in the mids. Basically, it has the kind of grind that sits on top of a loud band. Roll the balance between them, and you cover the whole range a modern 5-string is asked to do.

2-band preamp with passive tone

The Sandberg 2-band preamp runs active or passive. Moreover, in passive mode you still get a working tone control, which means it’s an actual filter and not a dead knob.

That matters live. If a battery quits mid-set, is that a problem? Not really, because you just lose the boost and not the gig.

In addition, the humbucker splits, which turns the bridge position into a tighter single coil bark. Furthermore, it gives you a really convincing Jazz-bass blend with the neck pickup.

What’s not to like?

I would say this is the Sandberg for players who want one bass on the truck. For example, it covers old-school warmth, modern slap and rock grind without needing a pedal to get between the positions.

Besides, with the Masterpiece work you’ll never have to worry about the first ding, because someone already put it there for you. In short, it looks like it has a history and plays like it’s been set up every week since. So, what’s not to like?