For sale Sadowsky Metro Will Lee 5

Sweet baby Jesus

Wow.

Gasp.

PM'd.

On hold pending payment...

Nice touch with the '66 style lollipop tuners! I have a '16 ML WL-5 as well and love it.

Astroman said:

Sadowsky NYC logo (this is a Metro made in Japan, but the last owner wanted that mojo, which it delivers!)

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Really?? Did he simply asked for that feature? I never thought that was possible!

baxter_x said:

Really?? Did he simply asked for that feature? I never thought that was possible!

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Definitely aftermarket when the bass was refinished.

baxter_x said:

Really?? Did he simply asked for that feature? I never thought that was possible!

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No, that is disinformation.

I am the owner who commissioned the various mods to that bass. It’s a very good bass BTW. Here is my original listing:
[URL="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/sadowsky-metro-will-lee-5.1317587/"]SOLD - Sadowsky Metro Will Lee 5[/URL]

The mods to that bass included adding the matching headstock paint, redrilling and installing the USA HipShot “lollipop” tuners, the abalone dots (didn’t ask for that, but Pat did it anyhow), and some setup improvements; all of which were done by Pat Wilkins (who does many of the Sadowsky NYC finishes) in collaboration with Lisa in the NYC Shop. The decal was pretty much what Pat had and decided to put on the bass.

The bass also went to the NYC shop, because I ran into some complications with the Japanese wiring, which is precise, but rather unforgiving for swapping pickups. Lisa stripped it all out and put actual NYC wiring into it.

So, the bass is actually a bit of a hybrid between NYC and Metro at this point. I wouldn’t get too excited about the transfer decal.

I tried REALLY hard, as you might determine from the above, to make that bass a keeper. Ultimately, and this may sound stupid, but I just couldn’t get comfortable with the feel of the 19 mm neck, particularly near the neck joint, where it is vast. Just not my thing. Fingering not a problem. Balance and weight all good. Just my peculiarity. I ordered an NYC build shortly after this was sold, and it was a 4 string for this reason. I love Roger’s work, but not fond of the 5 string neck taper.

Very very interesting! So you can bassically send any Metro bass to add all those features? That sounds odd to me as I wanted to swap the chrome hardware on my Metro with black hardware and I was told by the shop this was impossible as black and gold hardware is only available for the NYC model.

baxter_x said:

Very very interesting! So you can bassically send any Metro bass to add all those features? That sounds odd to me as I wanted to swap the chrome hardware on my Metro with black hardware and I was told by the shop this was impossible as black and gold hardware is only available for the NYC model.

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Deep breath....I don’t think any of this is “standard.”

What is true is that Pat Wilkins can do many of these things as “aftermarket” mods, at his discretion. The fact that he has done much of the NYC finish work makes his “aftermarket” work close enough to meet my standards. And, Pat is a skilled craftsman and really great cat.

As to what the NYC shop will or won’t do; that is on a customer by customer basis. Lisa undertook her part of the work at her discretion; taking into account that I had a build underway at the time. I would not expect that same level of support to apply to every Metro owner out there. The NYC shop is a small business that has to have boundaries. As players, we need to respect those boundaries to support their efforts. If they choose to help a customer out, then that is at their discretion. Doesn’t apply to everyone.

Hope that is clear as mud.

It does totally clear the mud and I fully, totally and deeply understand your explanation. Basically you had a great opportunity under very specific circumstances
Thanks

Can’t believe I missed this one!

Sold within a few hours! This is one of those special ones that plays and sounds as good as it looks!

oh wow. How did I miss this?? Congrats to the buyer!

Still upset I missed this one