Warwick to become 'Exclusive Licensee' to Sadowsky!

[EBS_freak]

Oh dear.

[Musicman20]

12 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

that's one of the now discontinued  Japanese made ones

Exactly....and much nicer hahaha!

[dirtyharry]

No love for the new metros? Finally a P-bass body shaped

Sadowsky PJ5 

[LukeFRC]

8 minutes ago, dirtyharry said:

No love for the new metros? Finally a P-bass body shaped

Sadowsky PJ5 

They’ve done the HPJ metros for years haven’t they?

[wateroftyne]

Just looking at the nice-looking blue PJ Metroline on there.

I have a feeling it has Licensed Hipshots, rather than USA. If I'm right... scrimping on a £2200 bass? Dear me.

[thodrik]

6 minutes ago, dirtyharry said:

No love for the new metros? Finally a P-bass body shaped

Sadowsky PJ5 

I really like that one. 

In a 'plus' point for the Warwick metros, the fingerboards definitely have a lot more figuring than the old Japanese Metros which tended to have very plain fingerboards.

1 minute ago, wateroftyne said:

Just looking at the nice-looking blue PJ Metroline on there.

I have a feeling it has Licensed Hipshots, rather than USA. If I'm right... scrimping on a £2200 bass? Dear me.

If I remember correctly, the hardware on the previous Metros was pretty much identical to the NYC line. I might be wrong though. Those definitely look like different tuners though. 

5 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

They’ve done the HPJ metros for years haven’t they?

I'm not sure I saw many five string HPJ Metros though. 

[EBS_freak]

I just dont get the appeal, if I was spending 2.2k on a bass, it wouldn't be on a "watered down" version.

Mind you, I'm watching Dan Lakin's efforts on Facebook too. It's all a bit bitsa basses - in that he gets the parts from somewhere, sends them off to get sprayed and sent to "his guy" to assemble them before sticking a crazy price tag on them.

Seems like a decal has a lot of value these days.

[chris_b]

3 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Seems like a decal has a lot of value these days.

Always has.

[warwickhunt]

18 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Seems like a decal has a lot of value these days.

Fender anyone?  

 

[EBS_freak]

2 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Always has.

I guess that's true.

With some brands though, there's the evidence of justification of the pricing. Premium hardware, unique pickups and circuitry, highest grade woods, quarter sawn etc. Nowadays, it just seems to be anything out of the CNCed parts bin, get it through to the spray shop (hey, even if we sand through the finish, we'll put it out there at a discount anyway*).

* I don't know why anybody would do that - because without the context, you'll have people looking at it, thinking that it's representative out of all the works that comes out their factory.

 

I know a luthier who has an absolute killer bass that could be sold ten times over - but he daren't sell it because it was made of off cuts of wood. - It it was ever stripped of it's finish, it would bring all the other basses into question. Hence it's never been sold.

[dirtyharry]

2 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

They’ve done the HPJ metros for years haven’t they?

A couple years back I tried to order one, the Tokyo office replied that they are out of catalogue only the jazz body PJs are available.

Most of the aforementioned points are quite pertinent, however can be found in the previous Japanese version, they aren't exclusive to the new Sadwicks.

[chris_b]

The point about the Japanese Metro's is that they were less expensive than the £5-6k NYC basses because they were made in Asia, had very few options, no chambering and the tuners were licenced (not the full US made Hipshots). The wood, electrics and pickups were the same as the NYC basses. In no way were they cheap or lesser instruments. Measure them against other basses at their price point the Metro's are a very high quality product. So far the Warwick made Sadowsky basses are an unknown, but they have a very tough act to follow. If it works out, they will be great basses to own.

[M@23]

3 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

Just looking at the nice-looking blue PJ Metroline on there.

I have a feeling it has Licensed Hipshots, rather than USA. If I'm right... scrimping on a £2200 bass? Dear me.

The Metros have always had Licensed Ultralites, I believe. My old one did anyway. 

[thodrik]

7 minutes ago, chris_b said:

The point about the Japanese Metro's is that they were less expensive than the £5-6k NYC basses because they were made in Asia, had very few options, no chambering and the tuners were licenced (not the full US made Hipshots). The wood, electrics and pickups were the same as the NYC basses. In no way were they cheap or lesser instruments. Measure them against other basses at their price point the Metro's are a very high quality product. So far the Warwick made Sadowsky basses are an unknown, but they have a very tough act to follow. If it works out, they will be great basses to own.

Exactly, the Japanese Metro instruments had really good levels of quality control. The prices of the Metros went a bit sky high latterly, but when I bought my Metro the main comparables were a Fender American Deluxe Jazz or a Sandberg. The Metro came out top for me, which was impressive given I that really liked the Sandberg. 

Honestly, I was hoping that the price of the Warwick made Metros was going to be closer to the price of the GPS Warwicks, where a five string Thumb is just about £1600. It seems though that the Metros are being put in around £2.5k which is a very tough price point unless the quality control is utterly exceptional. 

[wateroftyne]

1 minute ago, thodrik said:

It seems though that the Metros are being put in around £2.5k which is a very tough price point unless the quality control is utterly exceptional. 

i.e. someone is being paid about a grand per instrument just to QC it 😄

[thodrik]

3 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

i.e. someone is being paid about a grand per instrument just to QC it 😄

Yet seemingly think it is perfectly acceptable to sand through a finish. 

I think that the additional costs is partially to cover the cost of the licensing agreement, partially to cover the cost of undertaking the additional work to make 'non-Warwick' shaped instruments and also adding in a decent profit margin. It just makes the instrument about £1k more expensive that ideally would be. 

However, at least the finishes are more fancy than the old Metros, at least when the finishes are not sanded through by accident. 

[Misdee]

For me, there's no getting away from the fact that Sadowsky as a brand was all about  the close stewardship of Roger  and the reputation of  his NYC workshop. As soon as Warwick got involved  I lost all interest in buying one of their basses, even a NYC-made model. 

Warwick want to get into the Fender- style market, Roger wants to take things a bit easier. Fair enough. But over time the Sadowsky brand  will lose its' prestige.  It's inevitable that affordability, reaching a mass-market and profitability will overtake excellence as the primary objective. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Misdee

[Musicman20]

I definitely don't have a desire for a Sadowsky as much as I used to. 

It's a really bizarre arrangement. 

[AndyTravis]

9 hours ago, M@23 said:

The Metros have always had Licensed Ultralites, I believe. My old one did anyway. 

Mine has sadowsky branded units, look like hipshot 

[AndyTravis]

9 hours ago, dirtyharry said:

A couple years back I tried to order one, the Tokyo office replied that they are out of catalogue only the jazz body PJs are available.

Most of the aforementioned points are quite pertinent, however can be found in the previous Japanese version, they aren't exclusive to the new Sadwicks.

left Japan in late 2019/early 2020

[M@23]

8 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

Mine has sadowsky branded units, look like hipshot 

I should have clarified, I was referring to the 5s  

I believe the 4 stringers have Sadowsky stamped Hipshot HB1s. Maybe that changed at some point though. 

[M@23]

12 hours ago, Misdee said:

For me, there's no getting away from the fact that Sadowsky as a brand was all about  the close stewardship of Roger  and the reputation of  his NYC workshop. As soon as Warwick got involved  I lost all interest in buying one of their basses, even a NYC-made model. 

Warwick want to get into the Fender- style market, Roger wants to take things a bit easier. Fair enough. But over time the Sadowsky brand  will lose its' prestige.  It's inevitable that affordability, reaching a mass-market and profitability will overtake excellence as the primary objective. 

Yeah, I’d agree with that. Even the Japanese Metros has something about them. The guy that headed up the workshop had worked with Roger, it was kind of an interesting story, and the basses were immaculately made. From NYC they were not, but you knew they were proper Sadowsky for sure. 

[chris_b]

10 minutes ago, M@23 said:

Yeah, I’d agree with that. Even the Japanese Metros has something about them. The guy that headed up the workshop had worked with Roger, it was kind of an interesting story, and the basses were immaculately made.

I've only played 1 NYC and my Japanese Metro blew it out of the water. I hope the Japanese Sadowsky crew carry on and start up their own line of "Sadowsky's". I'm waiting to see what the Warwick basses are like but I know Yoshi's basses would be impeccable.

[Misdee]

3 hours ago, chris_b said:

I've only played 1 NYC and my Japanese Metro blew it out of the water. I hope the Japanese Sadowsky crew carry on and start up their own line of "Sadowsky's". I'm waiting to see what the Warwick basses are like but I know Yoshi's basses would be impeccable.

It has to be said, in 40 years a playing bass, the best- made instruments I have ever played and owned were made in Japan. And the thing is  I am old enough that I can clearly remember the time when "made in Japan" carried with it an assumption of inferiority from many(most) people in Britain. How wrong they were, even in those days.

I would love to return to the days when companies like Ibanez and Yamaha were manufacturing superb instruments exclusively in Japan . I've never played a  Sadowsky Metro but I wouldn't be  at all surprised if they were that good. 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Misdee

[ezbass]

4 hours ago, Misdee said:

I've never played a  Sadowsky Metro but I wouldn't be  at all surprised if they were that good. 

I tried a couple a  while back and was hoping to hate them, safe to say I did not, they were pukka.