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Club Sadowsky!!!

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.
 
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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.


Very close to that. I've always felt like the modern was in the Smith ballpark, tonally-speaking, but thicker.
 
@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:






D77593DA-D252-4632-BB40-D8D0A77CA661.jpeg



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.
 
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.


P-body with JPups is on my bucket list. Noyce.
 
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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'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

Clips? Heck, there’s albums and DVDs-full of guys (or at least one guy) playing the fretless. Feel free to PM if you like. Do understand that I play it more like an upright than like Jaco-that’s the way I was brought up.

I’ve used it on a bunch of CDs to my and more importantly the producer’s great satisfaction, and there are a bunch of DVDs out there with Broadway like musicals and I’m playing with the band.
 
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Just leaving this here for some food for thought. 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. As you can see, it's not a perfect fit with the barrels being kinda crowded together but the spacing is now tweakable with the bass still sounding like it should!

IMG_9388.JPG
 

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