I've been back and forth on this for a while, but I think this is going to be final. I really love this bass, but I need to thin the heard and this one will have to go.
This is the 2nd Sledgehammer I bought, got this one about a year ago. Has very well-matched body halves (much better than the first one I got) and is about 1.5 lbs lighter. On my bathroom scale, this bass hit's about 9lbs even.
Has the original Dean ceramic HB pickup and I had my local shop (Luthier Mark Dobbyn, formerly of Sadowsky Guitars; Roger himself vouches for him, post #890:
Club Sadowsky (Part 17) ) routed and installed the Ceramic Jazz V pickup a-la Warwick Jazzman style. The pickup is a standard Jazz V size.
I installed a Bartolini 2-band preamp (The 4.5 I believe it was) and it improved the tone significantly. I also did some cool wiring with the HB pickup and installed a mini toggle switch. Pickup is wired to be Series, Split Coil North and Split Coil South. Also installed a .1mF capacitor in split coil mode which boosts volume and low end output a-la the G&L L2000/2500 series wiring (search for G&L OMG mod).
Bass is 35" scale, has a set of fairly new EB Slinkies on it. The 24-fret neck is straight as an arrow. The body finish is Satin and has that bead-blasted feel to it, you can feel all the wood grains, sort of like the Warwick bead-blasted finish on their Nirvana Black basses.
Body has no dents or dings in it, neck is smooth. There is only one minor scratch in the headstock finish, about 1/2" long...happend when changing strings.
I'll make a video of all the tones this bass has perhaps later in the week.
I'd be looking to get $500 shipped for this bass. Reasonable offers would be considered.
I know the body shape isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's very comfortable sitting or standing, a very nice-playing instrument.
