Club Sadowsky!!!

[ale29]

Not sure this needs a whole new neck. Most likely some fretwork. He's checking with his EU distributor and after that I'll give him contact info for our production manager to figure it out with her.

Yup, just as he said. These guys have been very responsive to the issue, that's one of the reasons some expensive basses are actually worth the asking price.

 

[bass12]

Yup, just as he said. These guys have been very responsive to the issue, that's one of the reasons some expensive basses are actually worth the asking price.

After a particularly bad experience with a certain German manufacturer of basses I came to very much appreciate the good customer service of folks like the Sadowsky crew. When you're spending a lot of money on a bass you want to feel that the people who made it have your back should something go wrong.

 

[Holdsg]

I'm officially on build time wait as of today. I'll try not to whine too badly.

 

[pickles]

No doubt about it, that's a regular old dead spot and I would think there's nothing you can do about it, short of switching out the neck. I find that dead spots on strings other than the G are comparatively rare on Fender-style instruments but they still occur. I've played Sadowskys that had notes on the E and A strings that were, while not necessarily "dead", significantly less punchy and shorter in sustain time as surrounding notes. If the dead spot on the admittedly high-traffic area of the the fifth fret of your A string is really bothering you then I would be looking into the possibility of a replacement neck.

I have had a LOT of basses and have never seen this on any of them :/ i would suspect fret or string issues.

 

[bass12]

I have had a LOT of basses and have never seen this on any of them :/ i would suspect fret or string issues.

Sounds like a regular dead spot to me. I hope it is just a fret issue though (although it seems weird that such an issue would make it through QC, no?). Anyway, I've seen dead spots in all kinds of locations - even on high end basses...

 

[Fuzzbass]

I've seen dead spots in all kinds of locations - even on high end basses...

Same here. One spendy boutique I owned (briefly!) had two nasty dead spots: same note, different strings; I'd never encountered that before. Won't name names because it's the nature of wood to be unpredictable (though I agree it should be caught by QC).

I've had no issues with my Sadowskys ... knock wood

 

[deepestend]

Has anyone tried the drop-in preamp?

I'm reading a lot of preamp questions on this thread. Not sure if you folks have seen this, but we just starting doing interviews with our players in our news section. The first one is with Mark Peterson and he actually provided a photo with his settings. Pretty cool to check out if you want to see how the pros are setting things up.

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[Holdsg]

oh, did you get some from Tully? I saw him on FB visiting the shop yesterday.

 

[deepestend]

oh, did you get some from Tully? I saw him on FB visiting the shop yesterday.

We didn't, but he's on our list! I just put a few more photos of him trying out basses in the shop up in the FB comments... here he is on our showroom single cut.

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[Chef]

He might want to open the volume pot at some point

Cool idea, thanks for posting those.

Also: My MV5 just keeps right on giggin'.
Totally wicked great tool.

I'm reading a lot of preamp questions on this thread. Not sure if you folks have seen this, but we just starting doing interviews with our players in our news section. The first one is with Mark Peterson and he actually provided a photo with his settings. Pretty cool to check out if you want to see how the pros are setting things up.

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[Bass Viking]

After a particularly bad experience with a certain German manufacturer of basses I came to very much appreciate the good customer service of folks like the Sadowsky crew. When you're spending a lot of money on a bass you want to feel that the people who made it have your back should something go wrong.

+1. And I think the likelihood of something going wrong with a Sadowsky is very low.

I'm assuming you're talking about *cough* Warwick *cough? What was the issue?

 

[bass12]

+1. And I think the likelihood of something going wrong with a Sadowsky is very low.

I'm assuming you're talking about *cough* Warwick *cough? What was the issue?

Yes indeed. PM'd with further details.

 

[Bass Viking]

Yes indeed. PM'd with further details.

Replied. Thanks!

 

[MAJOR METAL]

Here's a cool chat Roger had with Will Lee

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[deepestend]

Here's a cool chat Roger had with Will Lee

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Also check out the Facebook teaser video. We were able to use some of Will's playing that we didn't use in the main video.

 

[Mr_O'B]

I'm not excluding a bum string 100%, but its behavior is indeed the same of a proper dead spot.
That is, changing headstock mass does alter how the note sustains and the note is fretting perfectly. Fretting the octave higher note as well (7th fret, G string) substantially improve the sustain too.
I must say, also, the same thing (even if it is almost unnoticeable) can be said for the open D string. 5th fret harmonic on the D string as well as the 7th fret one on the G string sound a bit strange, too. This neck/body combination doesn't like the D...

EDIT: also you must note that I'm being very picky here. The note is not completely dead, but if you pay attention its sustain is indeed shorter. It took me a month to discover it and now it's more like a psychological thing to me

Sadowsky has a reputation for producing less dead spots than most. However, it's not impossible that your g string has a dead spot.
Don't apologize for telling the truth about your Sadowsky having a dead spot on the g string.

Mr. Sadowksy does everything that he can to prevent dead spots, however Mr. Sadowsky producing a couple here or there doesn't detract from greatness of Sadowsky basses.

It is what it is and no builder is going to be 100% perfect!

Have you contacted Mr. Sadowsky about the issue?

 

[Mr_O'B]

Here's a cool chat Roger had with Will Lee

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Great interview! Thanks for posting!

 

[bass12]

Sadowsky has a reputation for producing less dead spots than most. However, it's not impossible that your g string has a dead spot.
Don't apologize for telling the truth about your Sadowsky having a dead spot on the g string.

Mr. Sadowksy does everything that he can to prevent dead spots, however Mr. Sadowsky producing a couple here or there doesn't detract from greatness of Sadowsky basses.

It is what it is and no builder is going to be 100% perfect!

Have you contacted Mr. Sadowsky about the issue?

Dead spots are always a possibility and I'd say there are very few basses without some kind of dead spot - regardless of who the builder is. The NYCs have thickened headstocks and graphite rods in the necks to help minimize the chances/severity of dead spots but that (besides choosing good wood) is, I'd suspect, as much as they can do to fight the phenomenon.

 

[Mr_O'B]

Dead spots are always a possibility and I'd say there are very few basses without some kind of dead spot - regardless of who the builder is. The NYCs have thickened headstocks and graphite rods in the necks to help minimize the chances/severity of dead spots but that (besides choosing good wood) is, I'd suspect, as much as they can do to fight the phenomenon.

That's what I said without going into extensive detail about the thickened headstocks!

I may be wrong, but I detected that the preson who posted was somewhat apologetic about mentioning the dead spot because his bass is a Sadowsky!

It's less likely to happen with a Sadowsky, but it does happen on occasion. If I owned the bass, I would have faith that Mr. Sadowsky would make things right if the g string has a dead spot!

 

[ale29]

That's what I said without going into extensive detail about the thickened headstocks!

I may be wrong, but I detected that the preson who posted was somewhat apologetic about mentioning the dead spot because his bass is a Sadowsky!

It's less likely to happen with a Sadowsky, but it does happen on occasion. If I owned the bass, I would have faith that Mr. Sadowsky would make things right if the g string has a dead spot!

Yeah the thing is that, being used to more "off the shelf" instruments like Fenders and such, I know that in such situations there would be no way I'd get any kind of answer from customer service...being that, like you all said, dead spots are just part of our instruments' nature and so random.
On this particular bass, it's the particular location of the dead spot that makes it so annoying.

I may add that, while I know that this is very far from being a decent statistical sample, I've tried in a shop a 4 string Sad metro (it was an UV70)...that one was what convinced me to buy a Sad as my next bass!
It was also quite old, made when Metros still didn't have graphite rod reinforcements...and it had such a GREAT consistency from note to note! A very minor dead spot on the 7th fret of the G string and that's it. Like I said, it's so random...ideally, one should try before buying, but it's hard to do this when you have limited spare time and the nearest dealer is 800 Km away...