I can imagine that a fretless Modern would sound fantastic.
It has a special kind of low-mid kick that can not be buried in the mix.
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I can imagine that a fretless Modern would sound fantastic.
It has a special kind of low-mid kick that can not be buried in the mix.
My bet is that it is close to my old Smith fretless. I have found that the Moderns share a sonic signature with the Smiths. Mine was a pretty spectacular instrument, only sold it as I was going through a switching up phase and wanted to standardize my bridge string spacing. A Sadowsky fixes that, and also helps with weight. My Smith was light by Smith standards, but still at 9.5 lbs that can get heavy on a 3 set night.
@kjones has two of the sweetest Sadowskys I've ever played: one is fretless, and it's so beautiful it was one of the Featured Instruments for many years (not sure if that page exists on the new site). I'm not a fretless player, but that bass plays so well it almost made me seem like one.
Well, that is true, it is beautiful, IMO. It was on their site as a Featured Instrument for over ten years, until the most recent reorg of their site. One of the greatest compliments I ever got about it at a gig was when a guy came up to me after listening for a set and said, “I had no idea you were playing a fretless!”
Fuzz, please do stop with the false modesty, though. You sound great with any bass in your hands. I’m your biggest fan!
Anyway, here’s that beauty alongside Mike, one of my favorite guitar players in 40 years of playing:
View attachment 2815182
BTW, that 70s Strat he’s playing is not some relic from the Fender factory. It’s one he bought new back in the 70s and made a relic out of it himself!
Note my bass is a P body with Jazz pickups. Why? Because that’s the way I liked it.
So any Sadowsky fretless owners out there (or in here) these days? Curious about your thoughts on your bass.
I'm curious as well. I completely love my Satin series 24 five string, and I'd love a fretless version, but that means a custom build at at least a $2000 premium. I could buy another Satin series (or a Metro) and de-fret it, but that seems sacrilegious. There are so few clips available of fretless Sadowskys (of any model) to get a feel for whether the sound translates, that it's had to justify speccing that kind of money at this point
I know I posted this already, but I just wanted to let you know I added some fast and loose sound clips to the thread. Hope everyone has good gigs this weekend.
For Sale - Sadowsky Metro MV5
I know I posted this already, but I just wanted to let you know I added some fast and loose sound clips to the thread. Hope everyone has good gigs this weekend.
For Sale - Sadowsky Metro MV5
View attachment 2817041 Had to post a family pic after acquiring the P4. I can cover a lot of gigs with these!

I've always dreamed of having an 18mm spacing on a Metro 5 so I decided to retrofit a set of Hipshot B-Style threaded saddles to the existing bridge.
All three look great, but the black and white bass is killing it! The black and white headstock with the dark fretboard is a perfect match!View attachment 2817041 Had to post a family pic after acquiring the P4. I can cover a lot of gigs with these!
that was my first thought when viewing the pic too.How is the Forte.