Has anyone bought or played a Sadowsky or something of the like that just didnt sound good? Not so much different tone. Im just wondering b/c I see quite a few people who buy one over the internet or order one direct. Im sure you can return it for the most part, but arent you still taking a bit of a gamble if maybe the bass doesnt sound at all like one you had played before to the point of almost being toneless. I mean do the higher end Jazz and P-basses suffer at all from bad tonal inconsitencies like some Fender basses do? Just in case I want to lay down 2K for a high end jazz or p bass someday. Thanks
Everyone seems to pretty much agree that Sadowskys (and Laklands) totally rock and are built very well. Me, I don't like their looks (Fenders and Fender-inspireds are not my cup o' tea).
For me, Sadowsky's are just like Music Men, consistent, great sounding basses that I can buy sight unseen and trust that they will arrive playing and sounding better than just about any other bass on the market, unless they're modded.
I'm not real fond of Roger's vintage stuff, but I'm not a vintage-type guy. Well, I am a kind of vintage guy myself, though, I suppose. But I have to say that my new 5-24 leaped up to the top of the heap as far as tone. As always, it just depends on what you're looking for. Whatever it is, you can probably find it in one Sadowsky or another.
I would definatly not feel confident buying a MM unseen - just about every one I have played has been terrible, have played a couple with really dead necks too. (I think they are like fenders in this regard - fairly inconsistant) Sadowskys however, I would (if i could afford) buy unseen or over the net.
I didnt expect there to be a Sadowsky with dead tone out there! But in regards to the MM and Fenders, how bad is bad. What are you not getting, maybe in technical terms that makes a bass (MM and Fenders of decent quality of course) unusable as far as tone and how common is it?
Well, yeah, saying "bad sounding" and "Sadowsky" in the same phrase is sort of a blasphemy. . . But I used to have a 4-string Sadowsky standard that did have a slight dead-spot in the 5th fret of the G string -- this was an older model with the thinner headstock. Still sounded 99.99% fantastic, though. I now have a newer 5-24 and the only dead-spot is now in my brain for not practicing more and playing better (!) Although MM are in general good-quality instruments, I have had maybe 6 of them (between SR4, SR5 and Sterling) and their sound was quite different from each other, from great to ho-hum. To me, it is a rule of life and wood: no two basses are alike. The good news is that quality control is out there and many companies are definitely keeping the bar pretty high, for the most part. Don't mind me, I'm still recuperating from hurricane Wilma. . .
+1 about the Sadowsky, been there done that and I'm very happy with my Sads. Regarding the MM, I've had 4 over the years (I keep my '94) and although different, all were OK, not at the same level than the Sads, but good enough. I think Ernie Ball's QC is better than Fender's.
I've played enough basses to feel that every manufacturer makes good instruments and bad instruments. Ernie Ball does make some good MM basses but they make an awful lot of mediocre to just plain poor sounding ones. Too much for me to be comfortable ordering one. Actually...I'd be gun-shy ordering an instrument from any manufacturer. Now a custom builder might be a different story. I got the pleasure of playing Surine basses at Summer NAMM this year. All of the basses felt and sounded great. That said...Some were better suited to different styles of music than others. I was also surprised to find out that some of the instruments were CNC'd and others were hand-crafted. The hand-crafted ones felt better to me but the CNC ones were the first to be made that way. I'm sure after some tweaking the CNC ones will be just fine. The best thing to do is to just play a bunch of instruments and figure out who makes consistently good ones and figure out what woods/combinations/electronics sound best to you. That's what I'm doing in my effort to find the Uber-Bass for myself. James
They do it for me but i do prefer newer sadowsky's with the current pick up and electronic configurations then some of the ones of 10 plus years ago.
It could be a number of reasons why you were unhappy. Maybe the amp/cab configuration or settings or it could have been the bass itself. I have had one Sadowsky and it was an older jazz (sn 1005) with an Swampash body and maple fingerboard. At first I thought it was everything tone wise but after playing different basses and comparing it to some more versatile sounding basses, it wasn't all that great for me. I found that for certain things it was great but the Lightweight Ash body with maple fingerboard wasn't the "one" bass I could take to a gig and play different styles. It sounded wimpy compared to my G&L, really...
