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Club Sadowsky!!!

Thanks for the heads up on that. What was your solution? Just jam the screw in essentially? Ones of those close but no cigar type things?
Yup. I tried filing the USA thorough hole to get better registry; but, that would have taken about an hour of filing per gear; and I wasn’t willing to do that. MAYBE a Dremel would do better; but, don’t have one of those.

So, yes, those screws are a bit cattywonk.
 
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Yup. I tried filing the USA thorough hole to get better registry; but, that would have taken about an hour of filing per gear; and I wasn’t willing to do that. MAYBE a Dremel would do better; but, don’t have one of those.

So, yes, those screws are a bit cattywonk.
Gotcha, I just saw a FB post where a guy did the toothpick and glue thing and redrilled.
 
Gotcha, I just saw a FB post where a guy did the toothpick and glue thing and redrilled.
Well, those screws don’t carry a whole lot of load; so, that is probably ok. The misregistry is so slight, that I lacked confidence to put the pilot hole in the correct spot with the tooth pick there. YMMV for sure; pick your poison.

Here is the extent of misregistry:

IMG_1780.jpeg
 
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Thanks for the heads up on that. What was your solution? Just jam the screw in essentially? Ones of those close but no cigar type things?
The best solution is the bite the bullet and get a Warwick from the German or NYC Custom Shop. I will likely get a Metroline this summer, that will be a retirement gift to myself, so I am just going to accept that the Metroline is my limit.
 
Well, those screws don’t carry a whole lot of load; so, that is probably ok. The misregistry is so slight, that I lacked confidence to put the pilot hole in the correct spot with the tooth pick there. YMMV for sure; pick your poison.

Here is the extent of misregistry:

View attachment 7480189
Ahh ok I see. Ya the old toothpick and push and turn at the same time ought to sort that right out.
 
My most recent bass acquisition is a Sadowsky ML Will Lee 4. The supplied tuners were fully functional; but, the model lacked the Extender key on the E. And, I wanted a little personality; so, replaced the gears with USA HipShot Lollipop gears.

Be aware, the bigger issue for replacement is that the German gears have a very slightly longer distance from the gear center to the set screw through hole. Too close to fill with a dowel and re-drill. So, mounting the USA aftermarket gears is a little “whack.”
I noticed that the Warwick WL4 does not have the bass extender. Does it still have the narrower nut like the NYC and Japan models? Otherwise it might just as well be a standard with a mid boost switch.
 
1000021470.jpg

The German Hybrid p/j came in today which I purchased from another talkbass member in the classifieds and literally brand new. Still has the pickguard plastic on it, factory strings also like new.

I've had 100s of basses over 35+ years of playing but never a Sadowsky. The preamp took about 40 minutes to get the hang of dialing in.

This purchase was mainly for versatility. Playing live in a band setting with many different styles and tones from track to track on the fly.

I gotta say. This bass through my cali76 sounds really wonderful. Its hard to make it sound bad which is easy with other preamps. So simple to run and small tweaks seem to get me anywhere I need to be tonally very quickly. VTC is such a treat! Turn that all the way down and it's not muddy or underwater. You can turn it all the way down and it's so smooth and tight. That studio production sound. It's like witchcraft! p pickup only vtc turned down and you get this super tight Jamerson vibe.

Turn up vtc, active on you get Steve harris. Dial in your J pickup in and get Geddy.. etc. nothing is over the top or exaggerated it's just there. No screwing around.

I'm very impressed to the point of buying a mint fender jazz ultra and a Sadowsky mid boost preamp to go in it to compliment P/J.

One tiny gripe. The pots could be just a hair tighter. You can breath on the knobs and they turn. Has anyone experimented with a damping grease made for this purpose such as Nyogel 767A, etc just to slightly add some drag and smoothess?

This bass was dropped off by UPS today around 3pm EST. I didn't finish playing it until around 9pm est. I think that explains it right there.


Thanks!
 
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I agree with the comment above about the pots being easily knocked, they are "loose" compared to my NYC Sadowsky. I've owned 3 german metrolines, all been the same. I do really like them, but I think the above criticism is true, it's easy to knock the volume control when slapping.
 
View attachment 7481642
The German Hybrid p/j came in today which I purchased from another talkbass member in the classifieds and literally brand new. Still has the pickguard plastic on it, factory strings also like new.

I've had 100s of basses over 35+ years of playing but never a Sadowsky. The preamp took about 40 minutes to get the hang of dialing in.

This purchase was mainly for versatility. Playing live in a band setting with many different styles and tones from track to track on the fly.

I gotta say. This bass through my cali76 sounds really wonderful. Its hard to make it sound bad which is easy with other preamps. So simple to run and small tweaks seem to get me anywhere I need to be tonally very quickly. VTC is such a treat! Turn that all the way down and it's not muddy or underwater. You can turn it all the way down and it's so smooth and tight. That studio production sound. It's like witchcraft! p pickup only vtc turned down and you get this super tight Jamerson vibe.

Turn up vtc, active on you get Steve harris. Dial in your J pickup in and get Geddy.. etc. nothing is over the top or exaggerated it's just there. No screwing around.

I'm very impressed to the point of buying a mint fender jazz ultra and a Sadowsky mid boost preamp to go in it to compliment P/J.

One tiny gripe. The pots could be just a hair tighter. You can breath on the knobs and they turn. Has anyone experimented with a damping grease made for this purpose such as Nyogel 767A, etc just to slightly add some drag and smoothess?

This bass was dropped off by UPS today around 3pm EST. I didn't finish playing it until around 9pm est. I think that explains it right there.


Thanks!
Interesting. I have the same bass but in MX, fretless, and my pots are nice and tight, but not too tight. I don't have the VTC.
 
I agree with the comment above about the pots being easily knocked, they are "loose" compared to my NYC Sadowsky. I've owned 3 german metrolines, all been the same. I do really like them, but I think the above criticism is true, it's easy to knock the volume control when slapping.
Yours is the same way? The stack feels especially cheap like it's going to fall apart all loosey goosey.
 
What a nice compliment, I'd love to know which Sadowsky the bassist was using.

View attachment 7479977
Did he mention the name "The Boat Drunks"? Those are friends of mine and probably the best Buffet cover/tribute I've heard. They even have a great relationship with Jimmy and his band directly as well.