Whoo Hoo!! Finally got me a Sadowsky P/J5

Been wanting one of these for several years.
Finally was in a position to pickup AJ Brown's (and formerly BigMikeW) NYC P/J5
This is a pic from Andy (can't find my camera ATM)



Thanks AJ Brown for a good deal. He's a man of his word This baby is VERY clean, I will have to be on my best behavior to take care of this, nicer in person, deep dark finish. Kenny Ames was also involved in this smooth three way trade. Hey AJ post some pics of the bass you got from Kenny. BTW thanks Kenny for your part in this.

I play a country gig for a living (but wish I was backing up Sanborn or Mike Stern) so for my main gig this sound IS THE TICKET!!

The sound has been overwhelmingly received at the Mickey Gilley Theater (my longstanding gig) by the FoH engineer and the Video crew, as well as the other "pickers" (that's country speak for musicians) lol

I also just did a quick test take into my DAW thru my REDDI, and wow, it sounds "almost" like a finished track.

here are my main first impressions:
1. Very resonant- I love to keep my hands on these NYCs after striking a note, between that and holding it against your body, you can really hear these without amplification. You get similar on a Metro, but this is different

2. Very punchy - the thing I feel when I plugin this baby is that I gotta play some Tower of Power. It's hard to not want to play those staccato have this kinda punch.

3. It's seems ALL the Sadowskys i have owned(4 total this is the first NYC) are much prettier in person. Pics don't do this justice.

4. It is setup a bit low for my tastes-Hey Andy, are those Sad Blue label bright nickels on that?

5. The Pan pot is "normal"- I thought I have been used to the Sadowsky reversal , but having this over the weekend for 4 gigs all I can say is . . . Rodger, Why? I guess I'm going back and rewiring my Metro.

6. The neck on this Is SWEET- I guess this is a graphite reinforced model. the profile is more shallow than my MV5. The nut is the std 1 7/8". I thought I would want what my Metro has 1 3/4", but the depth makes the difference up. One caveat though,( It has the same problem on the 7th fret G string that my Metro has, the note dies very quickly. I had a 76 fretless Pbass that did the same thing, as well as my custom Conklin did it too, and now even the graphite reinforced Sad NYC does it. Is this just a shortcoming of the Fender based design(although the Conklin had a tilt back head stock) I guess it must be a resonance thing, because my old Pbass, bering fretless, could not suffer from a loose fret.

7. Thick sounding D ad G strings. For country you gotta have a notes that still support the band, even when playing up to the 8th & 9th frets. This has it (with the one exception)

Overall I am Ecstatic with this acquisition. So far to me there IS a reasonable difference between NYCs and Metros. Not huge, but enough to my tastes and ears to want another NYC in the maple/ash like I already have in my Metro. Maybe the PJ5 metro will show me I'm just hearing the P difference, but I kinda doubt it.

actually lowtide the reversal I'm talking about is the standard Sadowsky practice of the pickup pan pot.
It is "backwards" from most, if not all, other brands.
Sads= fully clockwise is the bridge PU, counter CW is the neck pu.
Of course,one might guess that Rodger Sadowsky probably thinks everyone else has it "backwards"
My point was, that I thought I was used to the Sadowsky way, until I got this guitar that had been wired more convetionally. Now I intend to go and change the Pan pot wiring on my Metro to be standard with most other brands.

As far as the P pu being reversed I do believe that it does add to the "thickness" ,as I call it, of the D & g strings.
I, however, have no basis for comparison, as I have not had the chance to directly A/B a std P vs the reversed P pu.
that being said, my Sadowsky P/J does excel at the largness of the notes on the D & G strings.

Happy,Happy, Joy, Joy

roadkill2309 said:

What kind of strap is that, BTW?

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It's a Peavey Parachute Strap.
I can't live without them. They haven't been made since the mid-080's.

We''ll see about some tracks, real life is interfering right now.

Steve said:

Mine won't show a dead dead spot until the strings start to get a little old. Even then it's more of a sick spot than dead.

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My MV5 has one too, same spot 7th fret on G string. It has, however, gotten a bit better over time, but still not near as full and sustainful as the other notes.

It's seems when played, the note's fundamental dies quickly and gives way to . . . is it the 2rd harmonic? (It the fifth of the D natural = an A sounding harminic)

Still overall I am VERY pleased with My Sadowskys. I'm just curious as to why this happern, IF anyone else has this symptom, and why it's seems noone else has really picked up on this??

I would also let it be known I have tried the Fat fingers (both GTR-chrome, and the bass-brass) they do help it quite a bit, but I feel a bit "funny" about having this on all the time.

This also might not have been as big an issue for me if my boss didn't have a #1 hit that has an intro where I would sustain this note for a whole note. (Yeah I know I could switch positions)

But all in all, I just wonder why with such great attention to detail that Sadowskys get, why would something like this happen?