thodrik

When playing the guitar in a band the best bassist I have every jammed with had a Euro 5LX, which through an Ampeg 8x10 rig produced one of the best bass tones I have ever heard. If you don't mind me asking, how limited was the upper fret access? Was basically everything past the fifteenth fret inaccessible? I haven't played one myself and there are barely (if any) Spector Euro dealers in Scotland so I am unlikely to try in the near future as well. I have been thinking about getting a Spector Euro 5 (or 6...) but I'm not really that keen on getting a bass where 5 or 6 frets are basically there for just decoration purposes. . Granted, I am used to Fender bass designs and a Les Paul guitar where upper fret access is limited, but not impossible with some shoulder and hip movement...

I want ALL the amps!

Bad time for me. We just had a baby last month and the roof of my garage/amp room is going on today. At least it isn’t a Matamp or Trace Elliot V8 or I would be in trouble!

To be honest I had always wanted one of the Fender TB series amps but I could never find a shop that actually stocked them!

From my experience with the M6, there was no real way of getting any valve warmth or dirt via the Gain control without running the risk of permanent hearing loss. It was very much a ‘clean machine’. Stick a drive pedal in front of it and it is brilliant though. If you want a Mesa with preamp gain then I would look at the Walkabout or a Big Block. I love the Big Block.

I rarely, have ever, have GAS for effects. Mainly because the last two that had me giddy with excitement on release left me a bit unimpressed when I bought them (EBS Billy Sheehan Signature Drive and Darklgass Alpha Omega). Don't get me wrong, I do buy effects, but I generally buy them on a whim rather than as a carefully planned purchased so there is never any real GAS. For basses, I have longterm 'I wouldn't mind but don't need' mild GAS for a Rickenbacker and an HH five string Stingray. I have longterm 'I would really quite like but can't justify the expense of purchasing' GAS for a Wal and Spector 6 string. Not really much else and I don't see myself buying any of those basses. My real GAS problem area relates to amps and cabs. I just have a terrible need to buy the following amps: Matamp GT200, Mesa 400+, Trace Elliot V8. I am far more likely to buy more amps than I am likely to buy another bass. I also really want to buy the matching Trace Elliot V-type 8x10 to go with my V6. I could have bought one for £300 or so a few years ago because I didn't need it and I was living in a second floor flat. Now I live in a detached bungalow with a large garage, I desperately wish I had bought that 8x10!

I must have missed that. I saw a V6 for about £750 at the start of this year which I don't think sold. Had there been a V8 for sale at that price I would have promptly bought it and arranged pick up by courier myself!

Great colour!

I’ve never played a Sire but I can echo a good bit of your post. My Metro was a great buy at £1500 but not sure I would buy it at £2500 which is their current price. My NYC was a great deal at £2500 but not sure I could stretch to buying it new which would cost me upwards of £5000. To be spending that much on a bass you really have got to know what you are getting, so I would certainly recommend trying a Metro before even considering an NYC.

Hello Pete, Apologies for sounding a bit like our American cousins on Talkbass, but you started a thread in 2013 saying that you owned a V8 and were thinking of selling it. I presume that you still own it? If so, you probably know more about the amp than most of us since the amps are very rare and not many people have actually tried one out, let alone owned one. In terms of potential prices, V8s are rarely on the market and they are very much a specialist piece so it is difficult to work out a market value, as was detailed in the thread in 2013. Prices can be in the region of £2000 plus when one actually does turn up. As they are a specialist item, there is no guarantee that you will get an immediate offer if you chose to sell. I bought my V6 in 2012 and I am pretty sure the price I paid (about £650) would probably be about the same price I would get if I chose to sell it, as big heavy valve amps are not as popular now with the innovations in lightweight bass design. There would still be interest in a V8 though no matter the weight. However, if you did decided to sell the amp in 2013 then I would just wish you good luck on finding another one. Most folk who are lucky enough to own a V8 tend to keep it. All the best.

I listened to the new song. It was serviceable and might hook me later as a good album track. Intro aside it just seemed a bit overly familiar, like I had already heard the various tones, effects, drum fills and riffs but they have been slightly restructured. Great mix though. I do like though that it is a song structure rather than variations of an initial open string drop d riff, which I had initially expected it would be. I can’t hate on it. However it is a bit unremarkable on the first couple of listens.

Also, just looking at the Jackson site it would appear that Mr Ellefson has about 4 different Jackson signature models. I admire his commitment! https://www.jacksonguitars.com/features/david-ellefson

My previous backup to the Sadowsky was a Squier Affinity Jazz that was never played in 8 years! I don't tend to invest very highly in back up basses (on account that they are rarely used). I have discovered that I prefer a two band EQ as a three band EQ leads me to constantly twiddle knobs. To be fair, the only three band EQ I have is a Vigier Arpege where each of the two pickups have their own three band EQ(!), which is ingenious but to me just causes me to constantly fiddle with the knobs finding new sounds. Seriously though, a three band EQ is not going to be a deal breaker for me. Also, I have just noticed that neck radius is a compound 12"-16". Shred-tastic. This bass has so many things going for it.

I saw this too. Looks like it would a grand back up bass to my Sadowsky. Very traditional design spec for a Jackson. Too many knobs for me (really four is my maximum, any more and I just get lost!). I really like the following features for the price point: - truss rod wheel; - 35 inch scale; - EMG pick ups; - string retainer; - Dave Ellefson approved. I hope it does well.

I browse fairly regularly. The used bass stock can vary depending on what comes in. Sometimes what comes in can go very very quickly. I bought a Sadowsky within about 24 hours of it being posted on the site. I did this because I lost out on another bass by thinking about it overnight and the following morning it had been sold!

I signed up to Talkbass a few years ago, purely because the ongoing Sadowsky thread is a great source of information, on account that Roger Sadowsky himself takes part in the discussions (in a friendly, reasonable, no hard sales pitch, matter of fact kind of way, which is great). Yes, there is certainly a great deal of brand-shilling in there, but there are also highly knowledgeable members on the site that have intricate knowledge of certain brands and products I like (for example the on-going Mesa Walkabout megathread). So there is definitely an upside to the 'club' aspect of Talkbass. The site is also hugely busy and with so many threads I am not surprised a few posters stick to a few 'club' sub-forums. Some of the passive aggressive posting, and constant 'do a search, we covered this already 9 months ago as part of a sub-conversation on a separate club site' to essentially every thread started by a non-supporting member is a bit off-putting, but it is what it is. However, immediately after signing up, I realised that I already spend more than enough time on this site. Consequently, I have not logged into Talkbass once.

It is one of the things I like about this forum. People are actually free to give negative opinions or reviews on pieces of gear, rather than being hidden away in separate 'club' forums where everyone gets a club number and any negative comments are treated with banning orders or even worse passive aggressive posts featuring RANDOM BLOCK CAPITAL LETTERS. I was thinking that the slightly more critical opinion towards Sadowsky here might be a reaction to the near universal praise the basses get on other forums, to the point that reading gushing praise for months (even years) can lead to expectations of how good the basses getting so high that by the time you get to try a bass there is a bit of 'is that it?' vibe and the player can walk away a bit unimpressed. I had a bit of that when I tried an Overwater and a Wal for the first time. I thought I was going to be playing the most amazing bass ever but I walked away thinking 'meh'. They were great basses without doubt, but they did absolutely nothing for me.

For an NYC just contact them directly and then they will take you through matters and discuss timescale for the build, basic design etc. I think Bass Direct are now a dealer for NYC basses and you can put an order through them. I don’t know if that makes it cheaper/more expensive than ordering direct. In terms of build time for an NYC it is 10-12 months as per their website.

For me, the Sadowsky pre-amp is a great 'on the bass' pre-amp to get a good/great basic bass tone which is then sent your pedals/amp/board for additional sound shaping. If I was running in-ears at a gig or really needed to get a specific EQ sound (for example a really mid-heavy tone) I would probably want to run my signal into another EQ. For that reason, I can totally why someone could try the Sadowsky EQ pedal and not be totally satisfied. The Sadowsky Preamp pedal was initially designed to allow players to use the Sadowsky pre-amp with vintage Fenders without Sadowsky having to mod the bass (and thus devalue it) by installing the active EQ in the bass. So from the very start I don't think it was designed to be a really sophisticated pre-amp with lots of tweaking and soundshaping possibilities. As a standalone pre-amp pedal it is fairly limited compared to an Aguilar Tone Hammer, EBS Microbass, Radial Bassbone. Darkglass (insert whatever) Ultra edition or any other modern ultra flexible pre amp design.

Pretty much, I'm sure that that Roger Sadowsky will say that it was slightly tweaked to his desired specification. Anyhoo, there is a short video about of Roger Sadowsky himself explaining the preamp. Tut tut, it is boost only and produces the bass forum 'no no' of a 'mid cut' which can only be cured by umm, adding some mids back in your amp EQ. Seriously though, the voicing of the preamp is not going to be for everybody. Even Sadowsky endorsee Will Lee eventually got his own model which featured a 'mids boost' feature to the EQ. Personally, I love the two band preamp and feel that the voicing of bass naturally produces quite a lot of mids anyway. There are certainly more sophisticated more modern preamps (for example the Vigier Arpege has a separate three band EQ for each pickup), but the Sadowsky preamp is certainly a classic which has stayed pretty much unchanged for a couple of decades now.

Re: Sadowskys sounding better 'in the mix' than compared to bedroom levels. I am trying to get my head around this idea, as I do think that there is maybe something to it, but just barely, and even then I only think that it applies to a specific scenario. Apologies for the lengthy post to follow... I love my Fender Precision. It is old, passive and barely works. See the picture a few posts above and you will see that scratch plate is cut into two. This was done by the previous owner to provide for easy access to the jack input wiring (which was shocking when I got it circa 1999)...I managed to fix it when I was 15 by re-soldering it with the help of my brother... The neck lacquer is also coming loose and flakes off when I play it. The bridge is, at best, operational. The pickups are fairly low output and deliver a lovely mellow tone when I playing on headphones or through a practice amp. I love this sound. Playing live, I find it tricky to replicate the bedroom tone of the Fender at gigging levels, at least in a manner that can cut through on stage. I can, but it requires judicious use of amp or preamp pedal EQ and some compression to make up for some of the deadspots or unevenness of the output (which occurs no matter how I set up the bass, it just a characteristic of the bass). However, the EQ has to be set up for each rehearsal room and/or gig. It just takes time. Sometimes at a gig I don't really have time. If I am using the amp EQ, then if the sound engineer runs a DI box then I am back to relying on what the hell the sound engineer does with my basic signal. In comparison, with the Sadowsky, I can pretty much dial in a big hefty, aggressive tone by adding a touch of bass and treble EQ on the bass and running my Mesa Walkabout with pretty much everything at 12 o'clock. No dead spots or overly muddy notes. Just a really powerful, clear tone, even at moderate to high volume levels (subject to the lack of natural headroom on my chosen amp). My set up generally takes about two minutes. Does the Sadowsky have that lovely vintage thump of my Precision when I get the sounded sorted? No, but it is a great tone that I can pretty much use for every scenario. If the sound engineer wants to take use a DI box then that is fine as my basic tone signal is set up from the bass itself. It is also much lighter than the Precision. I think that the Sadowskys sounding great 'on the gig' statements might stem from Talkbass members in the early 2000s who were ditching their old passive Fenders that I assume suffered similar issues as mine. Accordingly, I don't take it too seriously. It is mostly a myth. Had I chosen to replace my Precision with a Spector Euro, then the Spector Euro would have provided me with the same benefits of the Sadowsky Metro but I can't say I have ever seen statements like 'Spectors are more for gigging not for bedroom players'. I tried out basses for 3-4 years before I settled on the Sadowsky. Sandberg, Lakland, Overwater, Spector, Musicman, Rickenbacker, vintage Fenders. All great basses (well, a couple of the vintage Fenders not so much) but the right bass for me was the Sadowsky. It is personal though, I would imagine that any number of basschatters would have chosen a completely different bass from the one I ended up choosing at the end of the process. In terms of the other Sadowsky bonus of 'how well it sits in the mix', from gigging and recording with the Metro for years I would just say that it really depends on who is mixing it!

If you are in Essex, you are really not too far away from the Bass Gallery (which usually stocks Metros and the odd NYC), as well as the Bass Gallery in Warwick and Guitar Guitar in Epsom (which should stock a mixture of Metros, NYC Satins and even a Metro Express). It might be a couple of hours travel, but if you are looking to spend £2500 plus on a bass it might be worth it. I appreciate it though that the personal circumstances of different people can make travel of even short distances difficult. Here is a two year old photo of the NYC, the Metro and my old S9 Fender Precision. Not great quality for detail but you can certainly see the extra flame on the NYC. I have also attached the 'as new' photo of my NYC from when it was originally sold by Sadowsky (not to me). I don't have an equivalent of the Metro, but frankly it is indistinguishable from every other Sadowsky Metro MV4 in 59 burst. The NYCs are generally more unique looking. The best place to see the differences between the Metro, NYC and Metro Express models is the 'recently sold' section of the Sadowsky website. Also, you might notice that the Metro is a four string and the NYC is a five string, yet my previous post stated that I didn't notice an 'in hand' difference in terms of the neck carve of an NYC and a Metro. Obviously I have played five string Metros and 4 string NYCs and my comment is in relation to that. Obviously I can tell that a five string neck feels different to a four string!

I own an NYC and a Metro. I have owned the Metro for ten years and the NYC for three. The Metro is still my 'go-to' gigging bass. Not everybody will enjoy the boost only, two band eq, but I think that they are tremendous basses (well, obviously, I bought two). In terms of general fit and finish the basses are pretty much identical. So if you play a Metro and don't particularly like it, then I wouldn't really recommend ordering an NYC and expecting anything radically different from the Metro. The preamp and pickups are generally the same (Sadowsky humcancelling pickups which I think are custom made for Sadowsky by Seymour Duncan). The humcancelling pickups are also stock on most NYCs, though some NYCs feature Sadowsky single coils or other pickups (Nordstrand I think) depending on the specific order that was made for that bass. The Metros tend to be heavier (chambered v non-chambered) and colours and options on the Metros are limited in comparison to NYC basses. Most Metros don't weigh more than 9lbs though so they are still pretty manageable. I have heard that the carve of the neck on the Metros is slightly different (slightly chunkier) but in hand I can't say that I notice any difference. The UV70 Metros are also the only Sadowsky basses which feature blocks and binding (NYCs don't). The Metros only feature chrome hardware, you can get gold or black hardware on the NYC. The Metros also feature very plain fingerboards, especially ones with maple fingerboards. The NYCs will generally feature fingerboards that either have a bit more figuring or have a vintage tint. The NYCs can also have fancy figured/flamed tops depending on the order. Some NYCs can look very plain as well though. Obviously, I would say try before you buy. I would also recommend that you try some other equivalent 'super jazzes' to compare to the Metro. A Fender American Elite, a Sandberg would be good comparisons to start with, but Mayones, Xotic and Lakland would be worth a look too.

Prices are going up. With £38,000 you can only afford three Fender Custom Shop Phil Lynott Precision basses.

Yepp, I managed to get a 30 min rough as sandpaper EP out of it though in 2013 with a previous band: https://khydra.bandcamp.com/