Club Sadowsky (Part 32)

[rastap]

Originally Posted by KPO2000

First build update: body is in sanding.

(Man, this is going to be a hard wait!)

My Will Lee is supposed to be finished sometime in February. Longest month or two in history.

Paul

[Vic]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

I am considering some future revisions to the Will Lee preamp and would like to solicit your opinions.

I am thinking of moving the frequency switch from the circuit board to a 3 way mini toggle. Narrow Q will be eliminated.
Since it is just as easy to make this a 3 ways switch as a two way switch, I would like your suggestions on the 3rd frequency.

We will have 500 and 800.
I am thinking of adding either 300 or 1200.

Opinions and reasons are welcome.

Thanks.

Roger

Given the boost-only nature, I would vote 300, or actually, even lower... maybe 250 or even 200.

I pretty much never boost the high mids like 1K and above. 800 is probably about as high as I'd ever boost personally, and honestly, I'd probably rarely even do that, but I love to boost low mids (200-300) if favoring or soloing the bridge and I want the burp to have more cohones, but still remain fairly tight sounding.

Just one question...

Currently, the 2-way switch goes from boost to "flat", with Q and Freq selected on the back.

If you move Freq to the 3-way, and all three positions represent a Freq, how do you get to "flat"? Does each Freq have a boost level on the back so you have to simply adjust one to be non-boosted and sacrifice that Freq?

[LizzyD]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

So sorry Lizzy! Feel free to send it back and I will double check the replacement. We have them specially made to be exact replacements on the Metros. If you are going to have to drill new holes, you will be better off plugging the holes with small dowels rather than wood filler. I can send you those as well.

Roger

Yep, looks like it's just the wrong one, I took the Hipshot off my other Metro to try it and that one does indeed fit perfectly, so I'll send this one back to exchange.

[rastap]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

I am considering some future revisions to the Will Lee preamp and would like to solicit your opinions.

I am thinking of moving the frequency switch from the circuit board to a 3 way mini toggle. Narrow Q will be eliminated.
Since it is just as easy to make this a 3 ways switch as a two way switch, I would like your suggestions on the 3rd frequency.

We will have 500 and 800.
I am thinking of adding either 300 or 1200.

Opinions and reasons are welcome.

Thanks.

Roger

I vote for 200.

Paul C.

[MikeBass]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

I am considering some future revisions to the Will Lee preamp and would like to solicit your opinions.

I am thinking of moving the frequency switch from the circuit board to a 3 way mini toggle. Narrow Q will be eliminated.
Since it is just as easy to make this a 3 ways switch as a two way switch, I would like your suggestions on the 3rd frequency.

We will have 500 and 800.
I am thinking of adding either 300 or 1200.

Opinions and reasons are welcome.

Thanks.

Roger

How would you bypass it but still have the original pre working?
I like the fact that you have the "classic" Sadowsky sound and then throw a switch and its....well....the Sadowsky sound on steroids!!

[Firesalt]

Originally Posted by Vic

I love to boost low mids (200-300) if favoring or soloing the bridge and I want the burp to have more cohones, but still remain fairly tight sounding.

This.
I used to have a bass with a Bart's preamp with the mids set for 250 and loved the chunky sound at times... I only sold it to fund my Metro HPJ.

[-Timothy-]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

I am considering some future revisions to the Will Lee preamp and would like to solicit your opinions.

I am thinking of moving the frequency switch from the circuit board to a 3 way mini toggle. Narrow Q will be eliminated.
Since it is just as easy to make this a 3 ways switch as a two way switch, I would like your suggestions on the 3rd frequency.

We will have 500 and 800.
I am thinking of adding either 300 or 1200.

Opinions and reasons are welcome.

Thanks.

Roger

300 please....

[Joebone]

Assuming boost only, fingerstylists (that's me, folks) will favor something in the 200-300 range; slappers will get more excited by the 1200+ range.

Given the 40/4kHz. orientation of the two-band preamp, even allowing for slapper preferences, I'd vote on the low side. I'm not going to pretend to state an informed preference within 200-300 Hz, but guessing the sweet spot is somewhere in there.

A very cool development to add this third option...kaizen ...constant quality improvement...it's the way we all should be!

[Vic]

Originally Posted by Joebone

...slappers will get more excited by the 1200+ range.

Yeah, but IME/IMHO only for CUTting, not boosting.

[pickles]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

I am considering some future revisions to the Will Lee preamp and would like to solicit your opinions.

I am thinking of moving the frequency switch from the circuit board to a 3 way mini toggle. Narrow Q will be eliminated.
Since it is just as easy to make this a 3 ways switch as a two way switch, I would like your suggestions on the 3rd frequency.

We will have 500 and 800.
I am thinking of adding either 300 or 1200.

Opinions and reasons are welcome.

Thanks.

Roger

I'd suggest giving 200 range a listen. +/- 20hz, somewhere in there. That nasty, thick high lows / low mids boundary, can make for great rock sounds. Ampeg's PRO preamps have a boost around there ... "position 2" that can get great sounds especially with SWR type cabs.

1200 boost ... that seems a little odd to me. That would maybe be useful in really bad sounding rooms, but not super toneful.

[pickles]

After reading the other responses I'll be less shy and say what I really think.

180.

Not sure if that would work with a wide Q though.

[bucephylus]

FWIW, 200 Hz to 300 Hz is where the magic happens for me.

[SlingBass4]

Originally Posted by Sadowsky

I am considering some future revisions to the Will Lee preamp and would like to solicit your opinions.

I am thinking of moving the frequency switch from the circuit board to a 3 way mini toggle. Narrow Q will be eliminated.
Since it is just as easy to make this a 3 ways switch as a two way switch, I would like your suggestions on the 3rd frequency.

We will have 500 and 800.
I am thinking of adding either 300 or 1200.

Opinions and reasons are welcome.

Thanks.

Roger

What did Will say of your thought? You did ask him, right

[Musicfreak1988]

While I don't agree that - IME - 1200 would be interesting for slappers only, and only if it were cut, I do agree that 100-150-200-ish is a nice range to boost.

For slap, you could boost around the points where the current standard pre is centered (40 and 4000). 1200 gives an added (definition to the) attack in my experience. A slight 1-2k boost is sometimes used in the studio if the attack needs to punch through (a bunch of heavily distorted or overdriven guitars and a power drum set, for example).
I do reckon that 300 seems a more appropriate frequency band to boost, but like I said earlier, to me, there's already too much happening there. IMO / IME of course.

Like others said: I'm also wondering where the on/off switch for the mid boost will be.

[Holdsg]

I don't really have an opinion about the boost frequencies, just impressed, Roger, that you are asking your user community and fans what they think.

[Musicfreak1988]

Originally Posted by Holdsg

[...] just impressed, Roger, that you are asking your user community and fans what they think.

+1! I love this company! Not only their instruments and how they handle building them, but also the customer service and the fact Roger's asking the users directly on a public forum, means all a whole lot to me.

I ordered my first NYC blindly, purely based on the comments and review I read here at TB. Now I'm down to #5, with 4 of them still here, and having heavy seller's remorse over the one that's gone.

As a left handed player in an area that I wouldn't call musician-friendly if it comes down to more high end stuff, there's no much choice. Most of the time the shop has to order it and then you have to buy it, even if it's not a top-notch instrument. I've had this a few times.

With Sadowsky I know it will be good without playing, and that's worth a lot to me. The weight is another plus. When I received my first, I thought they'd sent me just a case with no instrument in it .

And they play and record SO nice. A few months ago, while doing some freelance job in a studio laying it down with one of my Sadowsky basses, the recording engineer said "I prefer that one. It sounds just like a bass should sound!".

Well, y'all know how nice they are, so I'll stop here .

[Fran Diaz]

Originally Posted by Vic

Given the boost-only nature, I would vote 300, or actually, even lower... maybe 250 or even 200.

I pretty much never boost the high mids like 1K and above. 800 is probably about as high as I'd ever boost personally, and honestly, I'd probably rarely even do that, but I love to boost low mids (200-300) if favoring or soloing the bridge and I want the burp to have more cohones, but still remain fairly tight sounding.

+1.

It's been 8 years without owning a bass with mid eq (it's funny that for years I resisted to try a Sadowsky because they had no mid onboard eq) but I remember that the lower mids were what I used to boost, never the high mids.

[bencue73]

Roger, I'll cast my vote for the extra 300Hz boost option. While I agree with the guys suggesting that a slightly lower frequency might be nice, 300 with a medium Q will stay out of the way of the bass boost area sufficiently to still add it own distinctive character to the low mid tone.
I'll volunteer to be one of the first guinea pigs - you can put it on my WL5 build if you go ahead with the idea!
Regards,
Ben

[NOLA Bass]

Roger, I vote for the low mid boost as well.

[Hounddog]

Originally Posted by Vic

Given the boost-only nature, I would vote 300, or actually, even lower... maybe 250 or even 200.

I pretty much never boost the high mids like 1K and above. 800 is probably about as high as I'd ever boost personally, and honestly, I'd probably rarely even do that, but I love to boost low mids (200-300) if favoring or soloing the bridge and I want the burp to have more cohones, but still remain fairly tight sounding.

Just one question...

Currently, the 2-way switch goes from boost to "flat", with Q and Freq selected on the back.

If you move Freq to the 3-way, and all three positions represent a Freq, how do you get to "flat"? Does each Freq have a boost level on the back so you have to simply adjust one to be non-boosted and sacrifice that Freq?

Good Question. I hadnt thought about that.