MTD 635-24 Ash neck/body Rose of the Mountain Top SADOWSKY PRE (bart pre included)

[ElMon]

Little back story here.....

I've always LOVED Mike Tobias' work. Phenomenal woodworking that results in an eminantly playable and beautiful-to-behold instrument. His assymetrical neck design is about the only way I can get around on a 6 string and overall is the only 35" scale bass that doesn't feel like it's actually 35" scale, and therefore is more comfortable for my left hand wrist.

BUT, the reason I've owned 7 of them now is that I just can not warm up to the Bart pre that is specially designed for his stuff. Caveat here: I think that Roger Sadowsky's preamp is hands down THE best pre going. The fat and 3D-like quality to each note up and down the neck combined with the ability to dial out the highs with the VTC which is WAY more effective than cutting treble on a typical active pre equals, for me, the perfect tonal option.

So, what I was trying to do here with this experiment was to merge the attributes of my two favorite builders/luthiers. And it really, REALLY paid off. With the stock pre, I heard a variation of what IME/IMO is the typical MTD/Bart-Equipped tone: kind of thin low end, too much highend that can't really be dialed out without going from zing-to-complete muddy tone (huge IMO here), and midrange options that just don't sound all that natural and musical to me.

The Sadowsky pre does the following:

1) the bridge pickup sound is MUCH more 'burpy' and useable 2) both pickups blended and with the VTC rolled off can turn this bass into a vintage-inspired fingerstyle groove machine

3) The slap tone on either the blended pup setting (fatter Marcus) or the neck pickup (super Pbass) is twice as full, and in general the bass went from having 6 or so tones that weren't useable to me personally to having 3 or 4 extremely useful tones.

Clips to come of course so you can judge for yourself!!!!

So then, why sell it after dumping $300+ in the Sadowsky pre plus install?

Tax debt my friend!!! I owe uncle Sam some $$$$ and the only way I can get out of it is to liquidate my bass assets. And my NYC PJ5 is my 'from my cold dead hands' bass.


$3200 shippped and paypal'd to Contl US

The ONLY trade I'd be interested in would be a Sadowsky Metro MV5 plus $1k in cash.

Thanks for looking, and more pics/clips to come!!!

[rwider]

This is an absolutely screaming bass deal. The ROMT is BETTER in person. I can't imagine how nice it would be to have a Sad pre in it (love the Sadowsky tone). Super cool dude to work with too........ Bump!

[ElMon]

Originally Posted by rwider

This is an absolutely screaming bass deal. The ROMT is BETTER in person. I can't imagine how nice it would be to have a Sad pre in it (love the Sadowsky tone). Super cool dude to work with too........ Bump!

Pains me to do it too! Played a gig this weekend where the setlist went from old Neil Young (darker Pbass tone) to modern funk and I had every single tone NAILED with this bass.

I should mention that this bass is absolutely flawless. Can't find a ding on it anywhere!

[slamsinger]

Amazing Luke...... Simply amazing

[ElMon]

This one's special for sure. Every one of Mike's creations is very different. I LOVE the ash neck on this one. All the things I like about Wenge (low mid kick, extra hi end snap) but nothing I don't ('snap' is centered in a lower part of the treble range, and isn't as compressed) and extremely playable.

[J.Wolf]

MTD with a Sadowsky Preamp ?!? Sounds like a case of "LA face with the Oakland Booty?"

[ElMon]

LOL!!!!!!! That's genius!!!!!

[J.Wolf]

Sir Mix-a-lot is many things. Genius "may" be one of them

[ElMon]

I assume he came by the 'Sir' moniker the hard way...by being a gentleman, a scholar, and most importantly a supporter of thick women's rights. I wholeheartedly stand BEHIND this notion.

[ElMon]

And furthermore, while this bass's bottom is indeed large and deep, it's still tight and controlled. It's not gonna keep spreading on you on stage until it's almost unusable.

[Johnius]

Holy J. Crap! An MTD with a Sadowsky pre - wow. El Mon, just to be up front, I play lefty and can barely handle 4 strings, so I can't buy this bass. But do you have soundclips you could put up? I happen to love both the Sadowsky and the MTD tones and would LOVE to hear an MTD with a Sad pre. Youtube video?

[Vakmere]

Well now, somebody else finally did it. It was or maybe still is sacralige to some people mess with MTs sound and you know what? There may be a trend starting. I stopped trying to get something out of my MTD that wasnt there. I did this to my MTD 635-24 but used a John East Retro pre with the MTD Barts. Jury is still out on the Barts. Didn't tell a soul except 1 guy............ here. You've just put a Hemi in a BMW. Now watch her go. Clips would be great. Open up the control cavity and lets see it. The Sadowsky pre takes up less room on the well also. More versitility with a well built instrument. Can't ask for better. My question is why sell it regardless of the tax man. I'm sure the IRS would understand and possibly give you a tax break based on this mod. ..........not.

[ElMon]

'But it's a SADOWSKY pre man! Don't you know what that means?'

Moments later, IRS agents seize everything he has. Fabled NYC PJ5 last heard to be hiding in Wajiristan.

[ElMon]

Got this mug all oiled up like Arnold with some Ken Smith Classic Wax Polish. Gettin her ready for some thumping later this evening with a new set of Ken Smith Strings. It's a new tune I've been working on from my new album Red Wine, entitled Sloppy Wankings

[thomasjbass]

She's a beauty Luke. Best of luck with the sale!

[J.Wolf]

Originally Posted by ElMon

I assume he came by the 'Sir' moniker the hard way...by being a gentleman, a scholar, and most importantly a supporter of thick women's rights. I wholeheartedly stand BEHIND this notion.

HAHA!! Thats too funny bro, best of luck with the sale!

[ElMon]

thanks!! Here's some hastily thrown together clips:

MTDowsky neck pup no VTC or treble bass boosted
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10794671

MTDowsky VTC both pups treble_bass boosted half
SoundClick artist: Equilibrium OKC - page with MP3 music downloads

MTDowsky no VTC both PUPS fingerstyle
SoundClick artist: Equilibrium OKC - page with MP3 music downloads

MTDowsky neck pup no VTC or treble bass boosted then VTC rolled in
SoundClick artist: Equilibrium OKC - page with MP3 music downloads


MTDowsky bridge pup chords vtc and treble up.
SoundClick artist: Equilibrium OKC - page with MP3 music downloads

MTDowsky bridge pup chords no vtc treble up.
SoundClick artist: Equilibrium OKC - page with MP3 music downloads

MTDowsky both pups bass_treble boosted, no vtc fingerstyle then with VTC rolled in.
SoundClick artist: Equilibrium OKC - page with MP3 music downloads

[Vakmere]

What strings are on this puppy? Is the toggle still in there to fill the hole that would be left if removed? The clips are nice. Definitely sounds better than the original pre. Nice job.

[ElMon]

Originally Posted by Vakmere

What strings are on this puppy? Is the toggle still in there to fill the hole that would be left if removed? The clips are nice. Definitely sounds better than the original pre. Nice job.

Thanks! No warm up, brand-spankin new set of Ken Smith Stainless Steels, a little too much red wine, and straight into garage band with only onboard EQ. The toggle switch is like the 'producer switch' that Lee Sklar had installed in one of his session basses, mentioned in an old Bassplayer Mag.

Producer: "something's not right with that tone"

Sklar activates switch which does absolutely nothing: "is that better?"

Producer: "That's it man!"

[Rumblefisher]

That's quite an impressive range of tones!
...and a pretty slammin' price.