Sandberg Forty Eight 4 Fredrik Larsson

Now I know why this bass sounds like a hammer fall. I waited about 8 months for it to be made and was really looking forward to it. This is my fourth Sandberg bass. They all play excellently. The sound of this bass—produced by two Black Label passive single-coil pickups combined with passive electronics—is amazing. The instrument arrived properly set up—all I had to do was tune it and play. Still, after two weeks, I switched to DR HiBeams 045-105 strings and had the entire bass re-adjusted: action, neck, tuning, and pickup height. The result is even better than the factory settings. I’ll update this review once I’ve gained more experience with it. The only minor disappointment was the instrument’s color and the relic finish, which is different from the image used to advertise the instrument. The color is a dark metallic red, and the relic finish is less pronounced and in different places than shown in the picture—or perhaps the bass is actually showing wear. It’s different from Fredrik Larsson’s original instrument. But so far, I’m very satisfied overall.
In the future, I'd also like to try out the five-string version of this custom model.