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Club Sadowsky!!!

Agreed, it's all just opinion based and the VTC works great for me. Like you said, Sweetwater's install was cheap and I got a good discount on the preamp. They sent me the old preamp too, so if I sell that, it's a fairly inexpensive swap.
Great to know - I've been eyeballing the MetroExpress Will Lee Sig. 5 string with Morado fingerboard that Sweetwater carries and I'd much rather have the VTC than attempt using EQ elsewhere - to me there's just some special sauce going on with a good passive tone control.
 
Question: I would like to change the capacitor on my Sadowsky PRE so that the VTC is a bit darker - any suggestions on what capacitor to use?
The capacitor and VTC are passive components and not part of the preamp. The capacitor for all but the soapbar pickups is .05mfd. You can go to .10mfd to get more treble roll-off.
 
Hello everyone,

The bridge pickup on my German mertroline sometimes does not making sound in active mode, but when I switch to passive and then switch back to active, the bridge pick up is working again.

This issue has happened several times and it really bothers me, does anyone have expericenced the same problem? or do you have any suggestions to fix it?

Actually, last year I had to contact warwick to buy a new entire circuit set, because the old one suddenly has almost no volume output in the active mode (passive was working fine). this is realy frustrating that there is always some problem.


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Great to know - I've been eyeballing the MetroExpress Will Lee Sig. 5 string with Morado fingerboard that Sweetwater carries and I'd much rather have the VTC than attempt using EQ elsewhere - to me there's just some special sauce going on with a good passive tone control.
Honestly, it could be fine without the VTC, but I feel the same way about passive tone control. I'm not a huge tone tinkerer, but I couldn't imagine going into passive mode without at least that as an option.
 
Honestly, it could be fine without the VTC, but I feel the same way about passive tone control. I'm not a huge tone tinkerer, but I couldn't imagine going into passive mode without at least that as an option.
To me, the fact that the active Treble control is boost only (which I would never use) means I need the Passive Tone control in both active and passive.
 
Honestly, it could be fine without the VTC, but I feel the same way about passive tone control. I'm not a huge tone tinkerer, but I couldn't imagine going into passive mode without at least that as an option.
Just for clarification, the "VTC" IS a passive tone control. It's just Roger's name for it.

Also, as far as I know, Roger's always had the VTC available in both passive and active modes, so that should never be an issue on one of his basses.
 
Just for clarification, the "VTC" IS a passive tone control. It's just Roger's name for it.

Also, as far as I know, Roger's always had the VTC available in both passive and active modes, so that should never be an issue on one of his basses.
Thanks. I can see how what I wrote could be confusing. I was referring to the comment I quoted which said: to me there's just some special sauce going on with a good passive tone control

Yep, the VTC works in both passive and active. To clarify, I was saying that I didn't think I could be satisfied with the stock preamp on the SMX line which didn't have any option for passive tone control.
 
To clarify, I was saying that I didn't think I could be satisfied with the stock preamp on the SMX line which didn't have any option for passive tone control.
I completely agree with this. Just my personal choice, but I'd never own a Sadowsky without one.

I pretty much never boost the treble control, but I back off the VTC in lots of cases. I bump the bass a touch some, too, but not much. Supposedly, there's a cool thing that happens when you both boost the treble AND cut the VTC, but I never really messed with it... honestly, I rarely use EQ on my Sadowsky basses.

I had the opportunity to add the WL circuit to my customs and chose not to. Just never really needed much more than the blend control and what I can do with my hands. I'd honestly even consider a totally passive Sadowsky, but even without boosting anything, there's something about Roger's preamp that just "works"... even though in that case it's really just a mildly voiced buffer if you're not using the EQ.
 
If you invest in a new new instrument with the intent to make modifications, you're looking at the wrong one to begin with. Shore up more funds and get the one that checks all the boxes. As it pertains to Chinese-made Sadowskys, they're built to be the best they can be within that price bracket. You're not going to turn it into a Japanese or German grade instrument by accessorizing it. Not going to happen.
Yes—no disrespect to Roger. But the conflation of high-quality MIJ MetroExpress basses and, um, lesser MIC RSDs, is unfortunate. The extension of the established MetroExpress label to the MICs also has led to confusion between the cheapie MICs and the uniformly high quality MIJ and MIG Metrolines. Keeping the RSD branding would have avoided that issue.