Sandberg

Sandberg - Always by your side! - No other motto fits better than this one for the cult bass manufacturer from Braunschweig. Hardly any bassist who has held one of the lovingly crafted electric basses with the distinctive four-point logo in their hands will want to give it up again. Whether it's the classic California, the extroverted Forty Eight or the modern and straightforward Basic: Sandberg electric basses impress with meticulous craftsmanship and first-class sounds.

Things to know about Sandberg

Sandberg Guitars was founded in 1986 by Holger Stonjek and Gerd Gorzelke, who left the company after a few years. Holger Stonjek, who started making music at a young age, found his way to the electric bass via the accordion and later via classical and electric guitar. In addition, at the time of founding the company, the trained gardener completed a second apprenticeship as a piano maker at the Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik in Braunschweig, thus creating the best conditions for his own company, in which he still holds all the strings as creative mastermind and boss.

The first location for the Sandberg workshop was a converted pigsty in the Wolfsburg district of Ehmen with the address "Am Sandberg 18", which also gave the company its name. Here, the focus was primarily on the repair of instruments of all kinds and the construction of self-designed premium basses with continuous necks and exquisite woods. With a change of target group and the accompanying introduction of the Sandberg Basic model, which could be offered with classic bass woods and a bolt-on neck at a significantly lower price, the first breakthrough in the competitive music market was achieved.

Shortly afterwards, the growing Sandberg company moved from the dwindling original workshop to a new location in the south of neighbouring Braunschweig, where it can still be found today. In 1991, Holger Stonjek also had a bassist friend design a logo for his instruments. At first, the simplicity of the dots arranged in a square was somewhat disappointing, but today it is impossible to imagine basses without it and it is a guarantee for high-quality instruments worldwide. A clever marketing move was also the placement of the logo on the body. Placed just above the end of the fingerboard, it was easily recognisable even during TV broadcasts, where people like to zoom in on the body, and thus carried Sandberg's image into the wider world.

In 2003, Sandberg achieved the next success that would catapult the Braunschweig-based bass company to the top. At the request of the bassist of the band Such A Surge, also from Braunschweig, a Relic finish was developed that gave the bass the patina of an instrument that had been battered on stage for years. Within a very short time, the artificially aged instruments became an absolute top seller and Sandberg developed his Relic process, which is now offered in several gradations, into a craft. Up to 15 working hours go into the lovingly and detailed finish!

Today, Sandberg is in a better position than ever and manufactures electric basses with about 25 employees in a familiar and relaxed atmosphere, with production often booked up months in advance. Responsible for this is another innovation of the bass company from Braunschweig: the Sandberg Configurator allows bassists to choose a basic model from the large model range and to adapt it in many details to their own preferences. The range extends from the classic Sandberg California T and California V models to the hard-rocking Forty Eight and the ever-popular Basic.

Of course, many well-known artists became aware of the Brunswick company and used them on stage. Ken Taylor has been a proud Sandberg endorser since 1993 and uses the basses from Braunschweig in the Peter Maffay Band. The Sandberg Basic Ken Taylor model, developed especially for him, is one of the absolute top sellers, both as a four- and as a five-string. Especially among Danish bassists, Sandberg seems to enjoy great popularity, as evidenced by the signature instruments for Prince bassist Ida Nielsen and Thomas Risell aka MarloweDK, who teaches countless bassists how to play the bass with his Youtube channel. In addition, Oliver Riedel from Rammstein and Torsten Scholz from the Beatsteaks regularly reach for their Sandbergs when it comes to writing driving bass riffs.

Sandberg also offers the Electra TT4, Electra VS4 and M4 models. The components of these electric basses are prefabricated in Korea and then carefully checked and assembled in the Braunschweig workshop, so that these basses offer the typical Sandberg quality for well under 1000 €.

Since 2010, Sandberg's extensive range has also included electric guitars, which are mainly inspired by classical deisgns.