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TimothyGroovy
Commercial User
- Aug 3, 2000
- 2,374
- 2,097
- Disclosures
- Owner: Uni•Sound Endorsing Artist: Sadowsky Guitars, Olinto Bass, LaBella Strings
My 3 babies and having one P5 in building
I'm happy!
Fraternal triplets (kinda):
I got Blackie in April 2005, ordered in late 2004 just after the Sadowsky P5 model became available. It's been my workhorse for nearly a decade! The first two pictures are spaced a couple years apart, and the worn spot has tripled over the past couple of years.
Some of the pickguard screws are tarnished black. Small divot in the pickguard above the pickup proves that I'm not diligent about floating my thumb.
As mentioned here before, the nitro finish began wearing off the treble side of the neck (where it's blacker) so I sanded the back of the neck. Unsanded nitro feels great, but I love love LOVE the feel of the sanded one even more.
The newer ones arrived in late 2010:
P5 (CAR, Brazilian RW)
Custom "MM5" (pearl white, ebony)
I got Blackie in April 2005, ordered in late 2004 just after the Sadowsky P5 model became available. It's been my workhorse for nearly a decade! The first two pictures are spaced a couple years apart, and the worn spot has tripled over the past couple of years.
Some of the pickguard screws are tarnished black. Small divot in the pickguard above the pickup proves that I'm not diligent about floating my thumb.
As mentioned here before, the nitro finish began wearing off the treble side of the neck (where it's blacker) so I sanded the back of the neck. Unsanded nitro feels great, but I love love LOVE the feel of the sanded one even more.
The newer ones arrived in late 2010:
P5 (CAR, Brazilian RW)
Custom "MM5" (pearl white, ebony)
Yours is one of the nicer Sadowsky's I have seen. If it was a 5 I may have given you several reasons to let it go!
Here are my 4. I am wanting to get it down to one or two, but its so hard to decide what to keep.
Here is a pic of my MV5-24. Replaced the Mint PG for a Tortoise shell PG. Replaced the chrome hardware with black.
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Sorry to derail, but I just wanted to post about how awesome my experience was visiting the Sadowsky shop this previous Monday. My buddy and I were in NYC on a short vacation and Dan and Benny were awesome hosts, making us feel very welcome to browse around. Unfortunately Roger wasn't in that day but Benny was gracious enough to give me a tour of the shop and explain how they chose body woods, finishes, new options on necks, etc. Benny and Lisa were also kind enough to take some time to discuss some build ideas I have and tell me what could work and what they thought wouldn't sound great or would be prohibitively expensive (there's lots of ideas rattling around my brain that probably shouldn't see the light of day). Got some great photos, got to play some awesome NYC's and Metros (including a prototype super-duper vintage style J) and finally got to play through an SA200/SA410 rig (freaking sweet!!).
I'm not sure yet when I'll have my build specs finalized and be able to put in an order, but it was awesome to get to finally meet some of the Sadowsky crew and see what kind of business we all support in buying from Roger and friends.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...
I'm not sure yet when I'll have my build specs finalized and be able to put in an order, but it was awesome to get to finally meet some of the Sadowsky crew and see what kind of business we all support in buying from Roger and friends.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...
I went ahead and pulled the preamp out of my bass over the weekend and replaced it with passive CTS pots and an orange drop cap. There was no way that preamp was coming out by wiggling the circuit board. If I had tried to pry it up, it definitely would have damaged the board. I ended up using a thin, L-shaped bracket. I slipped the end under the board and pushed the foam double-sided tape from the side, which caused it to peal back nicely.
I really like the passive tone of this bass a lot. As I stated previously, the preamp just wasn't working for me in a straight up P-bass. I love the mids on a P-bass and it's got a lot growl now. Going straight up passive really opened the tone up a lot as well. I know Roger stated before that Sadowsky basses aren't designed to be run passive and my bass definitely sounded like there was some resistance to the signal in passive mode.
Since the preamp was already set-up for a single pickup I'm going to go ahead and stick it in my Ibanez ATK and make the tone on that bass amazing.
Just thought I'd share if anyone was thinking about doing the same thing.
Michael
Here's a pic of my bass from a previous owner. I'm sure y'all have seen this one in the club before. It's been owned by a few TBers before me, but it's not going anywhere now. I'm going to send the pickguard off to Pickguardian as soon as I get a chance and have a mint/black/mint guard made for it, since Sadowsky doesn't sell the P-bass pickguard for metros anymore. :-(
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Chef
In Memoriam
Dan told me a little about it; a 20 fret passive Jazz-style Metro with a vintage-tinted neck (an NYC-only option), rosewood (don't remember what type) board and I think shorter scale length. He didn't say this but I swear that whatever finish was on the body felt just like nitro. To me it played just like a good broken-in vintage Fender, but obviously it sounded more like a Sadowsky...I would love to have bought it but I'm in need of 5's only these days and already have my passive 4-string Jazz needs covered with my '75 RI.
Hopefully I'm not spilling any huge secrets here and won't be blacklisted by Roger and TB!
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Would you play gigs with a band that doesn't have a great PA?
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