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Club Sadowsky!!!

#21,142
jonno1707 said:
Does everybody swap to Rogers single coils or has anybody tried Old Fender's or Nordy's-Duncans? Talking 4 string here...
I want to put a good set of singles in this killer Vintage 4 I recently picked up:

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A friend of mine just made a 4-String Jazz for me... All hand picked woods, he owned a Sadowsky 4-String Jazz, so we measured it and do the same for my Bass.

I was picking out Pickups too, I had Fralins that I sold to a friend, he told me it was nice (I'll send you some youtube clip he does with the bass if you're interested), so I was tinking Fralins, but there was a set of SD Antiquity II's on the classified, and I decide to but that one.

Kind of hestitated, coz I saw the description being 'very very vintage sounding', but I put them on anyway, and I'm very happy.

The sound is amazing, it can go from a 'marcus' like slap tone to a very rock n' roll sound with a massive gain, it sounded good on recordings too. Sounds like what a Jazz Bass should be. And it's a passive Bass!!!

The downside is, the noise... Being 'vintage' means the noise is also there, if I took my hands on the strings, it's quite noticable, we shielded all the cavities, ground them, etc, it's still there, well, there's always a trade off, so I have no problem.

But note that I have a sadowsky with humcancelling PUs with zero noise and a modern sound, so as an opposite alternative the Duncans on my Jazz is perfect.

Sorry to derail the thread a bit, but I hope this helps...
 
#21,144
antontanzil said:
The downside is, the noise... Being 'vintage' means the noise is also there, if I took my hands on the strings, it's quite noticable, we shielded all the cavities, ground them, etc, it's still there, well, there's always a trade off, so I have no problem.

But note that I have a sadowsky with humcancelling PUs with zero noise and a modern sound, so as an opposite alternative the Duncans on my Jazz is perfect.
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Actually, I have two Sadowsky basses with single-coil pickups and I have zero noise unless I strongly favor or solo one of the pickups. Sounds to me like you have a ground (maybe bridge ground) problem as well as maybe a pickup shielding thing going on. Roger is super particular about noise reduction so his single coil pickups are heavily shielded. Most pickup vendors don't do that much shielding.
 
#21,147
Vic said:
Actually, I have two Sadowsky basses with single-coil pickups and I have zero noise unless I strongly favor or solo one of the pickups. Sounds to me like you have a ground (maybe bridge ground) problem as well as maybe a pickup shielding thing going on. Roger is super particular about noise reduction so his single coil pickups are heavily shielded. Most pickup vendors don't do that much shielding.
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Thanks Vic, I'll give the shieldings another shot, but like I mentioned it's a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity, the first SDs I had though, so cannot compare with other type. The Pickups are 'vintage design', so it's even came with a rusty set of screws, etc. So if it is 'meant' to be noisy then I can't complain. My friend is an experienced builder, another freind of mine puts a set of Fender SC's with Aguliar preamp on another bass made by the same person, and it is quiet.

Also my bass a passive Bass with no buffering from anything on board whatsoever, I had two 70's Jazz Basses, and they too had the same problem, but maybe it's caused by their age?

Anyways, I believe Roger made/designed Sadowsky single coils with more 'modern' approaches, that includes low/zero noise, as we know most of Sadowsky owners (we) are active working musicians, a noise can be a big problem at certain times, and I'm sure Roger has found a way to solve this.

That being said, I found myself taking my Sadowsky to gigs 90% of the time, I only use my Jazz with the Antiquities only for recordings that REALLY need a 'traditional' sounding bass or when it's a gig that I'm affraid to harm or lost my Sadowsky. The Sadowsky is the no nonsense plug, play and sound great Bass whenever, whatever music you play...
 
#21,148
antontanzil said:
Also my bass a passive Bass with no buffering from anything on board whatsoever, I had two 70's Jazz Basses, and they too had the same problem, but maybe it's caused by their age?

Anyways, I believe Roger made/designed Sadowsky single coils with more 'modern' approaches, that includes low/zero noise, as we know most of Sadowsky owners (we) are active working musicians, a noise can be a big problem at certain times, and I'm sure Roger has found a way to solve this.
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It's actually not any big secret. He just has his pickups wrapped in copper foil. Most pickups aren't shielded that much. Some pickup vendors will say that can affect the high end response of a pickup, but all the pickups I've played that have the extra shielding like this sound perfectly fine to me and are plenty bright sounding if I want them to be.

If you're gonna do it tho, just take care not to ground out a signal wire or your bass will be REALLY quiet. :)
 
#21,149
smoothgroove615 said:
I'm new here, how do I join these bass clubs? I have pictures of all 50 of my basses and would like to post and join in as well. Help!!!
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I just did some research for you but you are welcome to post as many photos of your Sadowskys as you wish...and to share your stories and experience with us.

In the meantime, welcome to this club; you are #337. :)

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#21,157
antontanzil said:
The downside is, the noise... Being 'vintage' means the noise is also there, if I took my hands on the strings, it's quite noticable, we shielded all the cavities, ground them, etc, it's still there, well, there's always a trade off, so I have no problem.

But note that I have a sadowsky with humcancelling PUs with zero noise and a modern sound, so as an opposite alternative the Duncans on my Jazz is perfect.

Sorry to derail the thread a bit, but I hope this helps...
Click to expand...

If the bass gets noisier when you are not touching the strings, then it was not shielded properly. A properly shielded instrument should be 95% as quiet with your hands touching "ground" as without. Is there a ground wire running under the bridge?

Roger
 

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