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Schecter Charles Berthoud CB-4 Bass Guitar - See-thru Black Satin

Item ID: CB4STBS
Schecter Charles Berthoud CB-4 Bass Guitar - See-thru Black Satin
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Schecter Charles Berthoud CB-4 Bass Guitar - See-thru Black Satin Reviews

Electric Bass, Signature, with Ash Body, Walnut/Padauk Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, and 2 Humbucking Pickups - See-thru Black Satin

Hailing from the London suburbs of England, Charles Berthoud’s meteoric rise has taken him from being a daydreaming physics student to becoming an international touring artist whose innovative 2-handed tapping and diverse compositional threads have earned him genre-transcending praise, alongside a striking signature bass from Schecter: the CB-4. From its EMG pickups and active preamp system to its striking silhouette and ergonomic treble-side cutaway, the CB-4 has been precisely crafted to meet the exacting needs of Charles’s multifaceted playing. Pair this with premium tonewoods comprising ash, walnut, padauk, and rosewood alongside a carbon fiber-reinforced neck-through design, and you’ve got a bona fide low-end machine that Sweetwater’s bassists of endless playing styles adore.

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Price:$1,499 and 00 cents
Special Financing - Ends Aug 2, 2026. $42/month with 36 month financing*
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February 17, 2026

Amazing All Around Bass

By Sweetwater Customer

The Schecter CB-4 is an outstanding bass with punchy, versatile tone and super smooth playability. It feels solid, stays in tune, and sounds great across styles. Huge credit to Sweetwater for their excellent bass setup and secure, careful packaging—played perfectly right out of the box.

October 11, 2025

Good Bones

By Shell L. from Bonita Springs, FL
Music Background: pro for over 50 years

Great bass well made, the tone of the pickups is spot on for my tastes, The way it is set up was definitely for a hard slap style of playing at 5/64ths on low E at the 12th and ramping up to the bridge. I play more of a fast legato style with only occasional light slapping so I began my own setup.
definitely has a funky bridge to deal with. The saddles have to be released via a set screw to adjust height. Im fortunate the intonation is spot on already as I don't see adjustments for the saddles, I guessing they are on the bottom requiring the bridge to be removed to adjust them. Thats a bit problematic if you ever need to adjust intonation. anyway after figuring out this odd bridges height adjustment I flattened the neck a bit and set the sting height to just over 3/64th on the low E and the rest to match the radius with no ramping. this is somewhat tedious as once you loosen them to adjust they have a tendency to fall out, retightening them each time takes awhile , especially if you make several adjustments. After getting the set up the way I like it, this Bass is and outstanding performer with an extremely light touch and lighting fast fretboard. I would give it 5 stars were it not for the poorly designed bridge.

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August 21, 2024

Great for any genre ...

By Peter D. from CT

I am mainly a funk/Slap player in a working band that performs 70+ gigs a year. I fell in love with the tone from the videos of Charles Barthoud playing the CB-4 so I ordered one. Man, this thing does not disappoint. It is incredibly easy to play, not heavy and sounds amazing. I have MTD, Ibanez & Mayones basses and the one I reach for every gig is the CB-4. You will love it!

July 25, 2024

Great player

By TMNT D.

Been through Ibanez, Jackson and Fender looking for a replacement for the smooth feeling, slim neck and punchy tone of my old Ibanez SR500. This thing plays very well. What words can describe the feel in the hand? Liquidy. I've got an American Fender J, tried a newer Ibanez SR, Tried Jackson.. They all have some resistance when playing that you get used to, but this one is just smooth right away.

This model is built so well you just glide across and around the neck. Minimal friction. Sounds stupid but you don't really feel the neck, I feel the roundness of the strings and don't feel any resistance or like I'm fighting to curve my fingers any way around the ends of the neck at all, I don't feel fret ends or anything else, which is pretty great honestly.
All that said, this comes after I made one important modification. So, you need to know that the strap post on the bridge side is hung high. This makes it easier to see the board and tap up high with the right hand/fingers. What this DOESN'T do for you is put the bass at an acceptable angle when playing regular bass gigs with a band while standing. Playing one song in particular, low Fm had my wrist sore until I realized how the whole angle of the bass, in standing position, is rocked backwards, top toward your body. It plays fine while sitting but I thought about returning it because that was downright fatiguing... Instead, all I did was have my tech install a second strap post, lower down and that gave me the right angle for playing low down basic stuff while standing. It feels kind of weird coming out so low but that's what I had to do because you'll notice the horn on the top is shorter than most too. I like this look, but I guess that's the cost of a short/small horn is a strap angle issue. Then it's compounded by a high post.. Honestly, the angle I'm getting with it this way is very comfortable! And you can always go back to the original one.

Here's the thing, this feels like a solid quality instrument. A lot of people say that about their gear but I'm kind of snobby about stringed instruments these days, like, to me, I feel the comprehensive quality of how the wood, the strings, the electronics, neck, bridge, pickups and pots work together. You know a winner when you feel it. I've recorded this with a band already and listened to the DI sound of both pickups and tone combos. It feels right. I really like the sound of the EMG pickups honestly, which I wasn't sure if I would, coming from Bartolini and Nordstrands, Fender noiseless, etc.. It all matches and is a really great combo for punchy funk, monstrous yet CLEAR lows and beautiful articulate mid/lead bass parts and stuff. When you rock the pickup blend toward the neck, get ready for some serious bass and highs. It's GOOD. The bridge pickup is pretty thin but ultra crisp and clear. Like Charles mentions in his videos about this, I also find the need to have the bass EQ up about 3/4 or more on any setting and add some highs, then adjust mids to taste, but so far it's giving me a lot of tone and versatility, but it's like, everything right up the middle is not what you think it is..

This thing outplays everything else I own as far as speed and that says something. I've been looking for a bass that LOOKS like my style and finally, believe it or not, my wife saw this one and urged me to take a look and the more I looked the more I thought, yea I love that look and I had to try it. For the most part I'm pleasantly surprised..

Now.. As always.. There is some bad.. OK, first off, whoever decided to put this bridge on here, I'm let down at how badly this bridge and the tuner's don't match the quality of rest of the bass. This is exactly the kind of thing I always said I don't want to buy signature basses because somewhere you're getting hosed. This bridge: 1) the set screws DIG into the SIDE of the bridge block (you know, where it SLIDES in place to hold the saddles in place.. Which is already creating burrs on it every time you tighten it down. The black coating gets drilled into dust in there, I can see the issue just from one set-up and intonation adjustment. Now think about it, the saddle must slide up and down to adjust intonation which is a pet peeve of mine, that it has to be right. The intonation is good now, like it's really good, but eventually these burrs look like they'll cause issues 2) I play my action as low as you can go while avoiding any buzzy low notes on the E and A. I don't know why but I have to leave the low E saddle loose (not "lock" the middle screw for saddle height) or else the E string buzzes too much.. Weird.. 3) That's the third point about this saddle when you tighten it down to "lock" the saddle in it's final position.. mine moves.. backwards and down I guess, so, then it's not right... so then you gotta slide it again... which eats up the bridge more.... --..// Because of the poor quality and design of this bridge, honestly I will have to upgrade it at some point which is unfortunate after paying $ for a "diamond" series - FYI I learned that "Diamond" means "nothing special" in Schecter lingo. Go figure.. I had my doubts and would have paid $ to know this bridge and the tuners were also high quality because it doesn't say so in the description.

So, the tuners. They say Gotoh, but they have no markings on them and seem like a cheaper style from them. I have to tune much more often than even my regular Fender Jazz standard open back tuning heads. So overall, this has turned out to be the best version of what I was looking for and I'm happy with the instrument. Being an Ibanez fan, but not happy with most of their choices of colors and quality control problems I've run into with them over the years, this was starting to look like my last hope for the LOOK AND FEEL I've been after and I think they did pretty good. Now to go practice tapping and thank my wife for recommending it. And Thank you, Charles for the inspiration and a really cool bass!

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June 3, 2024

Very Good Bass

By Kent S. from VESTAL, NY
Music Background: Violin, Upright bass, electric bass; moderate theory knowledge and instrument set up and repair knowledge

I got this after many months of waiting. I do not care too much for Ernie Ball slinkies strings though they pair with the instrument quite well and suited overall for durability I garbbed a set of GHS long scale med gauge. This bass is very intuitive to play, it expects technique that needs improvement and I noticed rounding the fingers better on the fingerboard will give the perfect tone and no fret buzz. Though the action is very low as it is I still like to play with things (f around and find out). This bass coupled with my desired pairing and setting plays like my streamer stage 2 with a thinner neck (just a little) with more tone variety. I noticed the neck is also a slimmer profile as well with a desired neck thru. It does promote better technique rounding fingers while playing and it's like being rewarded for better posture and technique. The better you play the easier it becomes. I am not disappointed.

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