Sandberg Basses TM5 3-Tone Sunburst Masterpiece

TM5 3-Tone Sunburst Masterpiece

Holger Stonjek is a man that lives and breathes bass guitars and has been building basses since 1986. He has done it with such massive success that Sandberg is now one of the biggest brands in the bass community.

The focus from Sandberg has always been to produce high-quality instruments at an accessible price point. Hence you get a great and well-balanced bass for the money every single time when you choose Sandberg.

The TM5 Masterpiece is Sandberg’s top tier take on the classic bass in 5-strings, built in Germany and aged to feel and sound like an instrument that’s already lived decades of music.

This one comes with an alder body paired with a maple neck and Rosewood fingerboard—a timeless combo that delivers punch, clarity, and just the right amount of warmth in the low end.

Electronics are handled by a set of Delano singlecoil and Humbucker, this particular TM5 setup delivers a wide tonal spectrum that covers just about every genre you can throw at it. The neck single coil gives you a warm, rounded tone with just the right amount of midrange clarity—perfect for fingerstyle grooves, laid-back soul, or warm jazz lines. It brings out the sweetness in your playing without getting lost in the mix.

Move to the bridge humbucker, and things shift into high gear. It’s fat, focused, and growly with a defined mid-push that gives your tone that aggressive edge—ideal for funk, fusion, and rock. It has that unmistakable power of a Music Man-style humbucker, but voiced with a more hi-fi clarity and tighter low end thanks to Delano’s signature articulation.

The onboard Sandberg 2-band EQ is incredibly musical. In active mode (volume knob pushed) , the bass control adds low-end heft without boominess, while the treble brings out string definition and shimmer without going brittle. In passive mode (volume knob pulled), you get a traditional tone control with a beautifully voiced roll-off that gives you instant vintage flavor. It’s all intuitive, effective, and built for players who want to shape their tone quickly on the fly.

A highly skilled artisan is responsible for the relic work on the Masterpiece basses, meticulously crafting each instrument’s unique wear and tear. This process is made on every bass with its own distinct history, detailing the origins of each scratch and dent.

A key feature of the Masterpiece series is Sandberg’s heat and vibration treatment.This is not just some marketing voodoo, the technique ages the wood, enhancing the sustain, attack and the stability of the bass. The result is a bass that sounds like it has been played for years, offering a rich, mature tone. The varnish on the masterpiece basses is thinner which allows the sound to vibrate more freely.

On Masterpiece instruments, Sandberg goes beyond cosmetic relic work and literally “plays in” the bass for you.

After assembly and setup, the finished bass is mounted on a dedicated vibration rig and shaken for long sessions—think hundreds of hours’ worth of simulated gigging. This mechanical excitation makes the whole instrument resonate repeatedly, which helps the wood fibers settle and the neck/body joint “bed in.” The audible outcome Sandberg documents is quicker note attack and longer sustain, i.e., a more responsive feel right under the fingers.

Select parts (notably the body wood on Masterpiece/HCA Reserve builds) are heat-treated. This gently drives out residual moisture and changes the cell structure of the wood, increasing stability and helping the instrument vibrate more freely. In Sandberg’s words, the combined thermo + vibration process makes a new bass behave like a well-loved old one—livelier resonance, more immediate attack, and a tone that feels “opened up.”

Masterpiece basses also use an intentionally thin finish. Less finish mass = less damping, so the wood can oscillate more easily. That complements the two treatments above and is part of why these instruments feel acoustically louder and more “alive” against your body.

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What you’ll notice!

• Notes “pop” sooner (faster attack) and hang longer (sustain).

• The instrument feels unusually resonant and responsive at low volume—great for dynamics and touch.

• Wood stability improves from the outset, so the bass behaves more like a seasoned, regularly played instrument