The Sandberg California TM4 Ida Nielsen is the signature bass of Prince’s bassist, Ida Nielsen.
A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy, Ida Nielsen became known to audiences around the world as Prince's bass player. For her virtuoso style between funky slaps and pushing grooves, she has for some time been swearing by electric basses from the Braunschweig cult smithy Sandberg, who have tailored her a signature bass according to her ideas with the Sandberg California TM4 Ida Nielsen. Accordingly, the classically constructed four-string has a bird's-eye maple fretboard, Sandberg Black Label pickups with active 2-band tone control and a D-tuner for lightning-fast drop-tunings.
The construction of the Sandberg California TM4 Ida Nielsen is based on classic woods such as alder for the body and maple for the 6x screwed neck, supplemented by a fingerboard made of precious bird's-eye maple. In combination with the Sandberg Vibration Treatment, this combination gives the Sandberg Ida Nielsen a resonance-joyful basic sound with fast response, which skillfully implements every playing technique. On the comfortably shaped neck, both fast slaps and complex runs come out of the fingers loosely. Fluorescent side dots on the fingerboard flank, which are perfectly visible even on the darkest stage, also help to orientate between the 22 frets.
Ida Nielsen wanted high-quality pickups from the Sandberg Black Label series for the electrical sound conversion of her Signature 4-string. A fat Black Label M-style humbucker is used on the bridge, while a classic Black Label T-style single coil is in the middle position. Together the pickups promise a variable spectrum of powerful sounds, agile articulation and high transparency, when playing with fingers or plectrums, as well as when slapping. The active 2-band electronics offer finely nuanced possibilities for adjusting the sound character. If required, the bass can also be played passively, with the treble control acting as a passive tone control.
Perfectly tuned to the Sandberg California TM4 Ida Nielsen Gold hardware rounds off the equipment of the four-string. The strings are held on the body by the Sandberg Bridge 4, which with its solid construction contributes to the strong sound enjoyment of the bass and, thanks to its three-dimensional adjustability, allows perfect adjustment of intonation and string position. Ida Nielsen also wanted a D-tuner that would enable a lightning-fast change between standard and drop tuning. Large block inlays and the driving board with finely patterned Asian silk beneath its transparent surface also provide visual highlights.