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Club Sadowsky!!!

Like a 75 jazz compared to a 62 precision? My 75 jazz is thicker front to back compared to my 62 P bass, which is thinner front to back, but WIDER.
Neck of my German Will Lee, natural satin finish 4 string, feels much slimmer and faster than my 60th anniversary Fender American deluxe, that almost feels bulky compared to my WL. Couldn't be more happy with that.
I noticed Metroline prices gone up quite a bit since last year. I bought mine (WL 4 natural satin, ordered juli 2020) directly from Warwick for € 2110 with a delivery time of 3-4 months. Now they cost € 2572,- with a delivery time of 9-10 months. Same with my Hybrid PJ 5. Bought it for € 2570,- and now it goes for € 2830,-. Maybe prices of swamp-ash gone up?
 
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The German builds are solid instruments! Aside from the minor electronic issues in the past.



Neck of my German Will Lee, natural satin finish 4 string, feels much slimmer and faster than my 60th anniversary Fender American deluxe, that almost feels bulky compared to my WL. Couldn't be more happy with that.
I noticed Metroline prices gone up quite a bit since last year. I bought mine (WL 4 natural satin, ordered juli 2020) directly from Warwick for € 2110 with a delivery time of 3-4 months. Now they cost € 2572,- with a delivery time of 9-10 months. Same with my Hybrid PJ 5. Bought it for € 2570,- and now it goes for € 2830,-. Maybe prices of swamp-ash gone up?
 
No doubt the Portabag is the best built single bag I've used and the straps are certainly not crap. But like different sized pants, shirts, etc. - they just don't fit me and dig into my shoulders. No biggie. Still a great bag! :D

Edit (and not a reply to the quoted text): I really like the storage capacity of the Gator Pro Go Dual and may give that one a shot. The Mono dual got repaired, but I've got a coupon at Musician's Friend and some points just burnin' a hole in my pocket.

Edit 2: Pulled the trigger on a dual Gator Pro Go bag. With the coupon, as well as the points I had, came in cheaper than a single bag. Excited to give it a whirl!

Following up on my post as the Gator dual bag arrived today. Apparently there's been a design change at some point, at least from the photos I originally looked at. My bag does not have metal clips at the top, they're sewed directly on like my Mono. It's not a deal breaker, but I was hoping the bag would be a bit more rigid than what it is. I completely trust the Mono, and it can be floppy - I was just hoping for a little firmer reinforcement.

Much more storage space than the Mono and it's definitely a nice bag. We'll see how it holds up. About the only negative I see at first glance is where the straps are positioned on the bag - makes it rest very high above my head when wearing as a backpack. I don't see it being a big deal, but we'll see.
 
Yeah, me neither. I love the Mono Vertigo for its top loading form factor but the storage (or lack thereof) leaves a lot to be desired.
I've got three Portabag Pro's currently for three of my Sadowsky's and now looking to get a 4th for my most recent acquisition. I just find them to be the right balance of form factor, protection and storage.
 
The radius feels rounder to me. In other words the fingerboard feels less flat than my three other Sadowsky basses.

On 4-string basses it’s either 9” or 12”, but on 5-string basses it’s 12”.

Nut width is 1.45” on the WL4 and either 1.5” or 1.75” on other 4-string basses. On 5-string basses it’s 1.75” or 1.875”.

String spacing is 19 or 20mm (4-string) and 18 or 19mm (5-string).

Pickup-wise there are a lot of possibilities and there are a few oddballs out there. To start, there are a few with an MM-type pickup here and I’ve seen some pics of a 24-fret 4-string with a single MM-type pickup online as well. There exists a passive Sadowsky NYC as well, and then there is a 4-string in a P-body with 3 soapbar pickups (2 in modern position and 1 closer to the neck), selected with a 5-way strat/tele-style switch.

Don’t forget the two almost-mystical 6-string TYO basses and the Newsted-signature models of which we’ve only seen prototypes.

I’ve seen some basses with a reverse headstock (one of which I owned myself).

If someone knows of other oddballs in existence, feel free to share!
 
In my excitement about oddball Sadowsky basses I forgot to mention that maybe the truss rod is adjusted differently, resulting in a more concave or convex feeling of the fretboard, which in it’s turn, may or may not result in you holding the neck differently. I feel that this is quite hairsplitting, though. Also, every piece of wood is different etc…
 
On 4-string basses it’s either 9” or 12”, but on 5-string basses it’s 12”.

Nut width is 1.45” on the WL4 and either 1.5” or 1.75” on other 4-string basses. On 5-string basses it’s 1.75” or 1.875”.

String spacing is 19 or 20mm (4-string) and 18 or 19mm (5-string).

Pickup-wise there are a lot of possibilities and there are a few oddballs out there. To start, there are a few with an MM-type pickup here and I’ve seen some pics of a 24-fret 4-string with a single MM-type pickup online as well. There exists a passive Sadowsky NYC as well, and then there is a 4-string in a P-body with 3 soapbar pickups (2 in modern position and 1 closer to the neck), selected with a 5-way strat/tele-style switch.

Don’t forget the two almost-mystical 6-string TYO basses and the Newsted-signature models of which we’ve only seen prototypes.

I’ve seen some basses with a reverse headstock (one of which I owned myself).

If someone knows of other oddballs in existence, feel free to share!

Wow, those are interesting designs. Please post photos if you have them!
 
This is what I found.

Here's one of two 6-strings. I think they were show models and were called 'Edge' by the now-defunct TYO department.

styoshowmodel-2.jpg


Sorry I didn't crop this. I just pulled it from Google images. Here's a 3-pickup Sadowsky in the making. I once saw a pic of this bass with the body loaded. I believe it was a '51 P-bass type with a tele-style 5-way switch for the pickups. I don't recall the 5 positions. This pic is from a few years ago. It was commissioned by a TB- and Club Sadowsky-member who has several more exotic (literally (fancy wood tops)) instruments in his collection. I recall a PJ with P-body with a spalted maple top and no pick guard. You don't see many P-bodied PJ basses without pickguard.

Screenshot-20191026-002118.jpg


This is one of my ex-basses. I believe it's the only lefty with a reversed headstock, but who knows... Note the yellow logo. Apart from the standard silver, gold and black, any pantone color is possible for the logo (for an upcharge).

Schermafbeelding-2021-09-21-om-09-19-06.png


A famous bass player thought he had the first reverse headstock Sadowsky, but I ordered mine several years before him.

Schermafbeelding-2021-09-21-om-09-19-00.png


This is one of the first Sadowsky basses with an MM-type humbucker I saw. Our own club-member fuzzbass has a wonderful 5-string and I believe ElMon was hunting / saving for one. Maybe he has it already.
If you browse Thomann's website (I'm not affiliated in any way), you'll find J/MM MetroLine models. I inquired about these. Build-time is about 12 months and string spacing is fixed at 18mm. Nut width is 1.75" aka wide 4-string or narrow / WL 5-string. They did this for the string alignment over the pole pieces. Roger himself said a few days / weeks ago that him and Marcus are still prototyping this bass. Warwick told me that the MM-humbucker would be in the MM sweet spot. Apart from the 18mm string spacing (I prefer 19mm on fivers) this seems really interesting to me.

Sadowsky-MM-1.jpg


There once was a better picture of this bass, but this is a factory-built passive Sadowsky. There are only two knobs (the ones you can just see).

Schermafbeelding-2021-09-21-om-09-19-47.png


All pictures, except the green lefty, aren't mine and are used only to depict a few specials I've seen over the years.
 
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Oh, and a Sadowsky with 18mm string spacing is something I'd love to try too.

The new MetroLine J/MM is right up your alley, then. MM-pu in the sweet spot, 18mm string spacing and a humcancelling J in the neck for added fatness / warmth if desired. I believe there will also be a 3-way (series/parallel/single coil) switch for the MM-pi. Nut width is 1.75” (aka narrow 5, WL-5 or wide 4). This is what Warwick told me, but remember the boss himself said it’s still in the prototype-phase.
 
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