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Club Sadowsky!!!

#8,801
KJung said:
Ah... I thought Roger stated that it brought the HC sound closer to the singles, which again didn't make any sense to me. I guess I'm misremembering his post.

More treble.... yes.... (widening, clarity, call it what you want:D)... that's what a higher impedance volume pot will do from what I understand, which could be a positive to some, but IMO, not those who want to 'organic up' the HC's.
Click to expand...
Well, FWIW, I have my older natural ash/maple/SC JJ5 and now this newer (HOLY CRAP!!!) #5249 ash/maple/HC JJ5 that currently has the 250K pot in it, but WILL have the 500K pot in it soon, so I can at least get a first hand impression. :)

I definitely love the SC pickups, but I think I like the HC's maybe a bit better than you do, so I predict some pretty serious joy coming up here. :)
 
#8,802
Sadowsky said:
That is what I said. I have always heard single coils to be more "open" sounding than the HCs. I am not looking to increase any high end on my basses---they already have plenty of highs. So in our listening tests, the 500K volume pot brought the HCs closer to the single coils----which has always been my goal.

roger
Click to expand...

Interesting. I hear your HC's as WAY more open than the singles (by open, I mean more space between the low end and the top end, a much more crystal clear, modern top end, and a bit of a scoop in the upper mids... I might be using 'open' differently, since terms like 'open' and 'warm' have different meanings to different people).

When I swapped the HC's for the singles in the two Sadowsky's I did this with, the top end came down to a much more 'growly' lower treble/upper mid range, without the crystal clear upper treble response of the HC's, the mid mids definitely came up, and while I don't think the low end changed significantly, it sounded 'tighter' (i.e., less open) to my ear since there was so much more going on in the mids. This all resulted in more 'punch and grind' that reminded me more of a 'truer J' tone than the more modern vibe of the HC's (but, of course, still very much 'Sadowsky'!).

I like both tones a lot, but just prefer the slightly more compressed (meaning a bit less 'distance' between the top and bottom of the pickup response) and aggressive mid voicing growl of you wonderful singles.
 
#8,803
I thought about selling it, but then I realized that I was crazy:

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#8,804
Vic said:
Well, FWIW, I have my older natural ash/maple/SC JJ5 and now this newer (HOLY CRAP!!!) #5249 ash/maple/HC JJ5 that currently has the 250K pot in it, but WILL have the 500K pot in it soon, so I can at least get a first hand impression. :)

I definitely love the SC pickups, but I think I like the HC's maybe a bit better than you do, so I predict some pretty serious joy coming up here. :)
Click to expand...

I played literally hundreds of gigs with the HC's, and they are great. And, given your tone goals, it would not suprise me if you not only dug the HC's a touch more than the singles, but also the HC's with the 500ohm pot even better.

Everyone is happy:bassist:
 
#8,805
Sadowsky said:
That is what I said. I have always heard single coils to be more "open" sounding than the HCs. I am not looking to increase any high end on my basses---they already have plenty of highs. So in our listening tests, the 500K volume pot brought the HCs closer to the single coils----which has always been my goal.

roger
Click to expand...
Oh man, this is EXACTLY what I'm hoping for, and it doesn't even matter to me how far it goes in that direction, because I already do like the HC's, but still, this is a good thing for me. :)
 
#8,806
KJung said:
I played literally hundreds of gigs with the HC's, and they are great. And, given your tone goals, it would not suprise me if you not only dug the HC's a touch more than the singles, but also the HC's with the 500ohm pot even better.

Everyone is happy:bassist:
Click to expand...
That's 500K ohm, actually, but on point, we'll see. I REALLY dig the SC's a lot! I'm guessing it'll be real hard for me to pick a fave... especially after the pot change.
 
#8,807
KJung said:
Interesting. I hear your HC's as WAY more open than the singles (by open, I mean more space between the low end and the top end, a much more crystal clear, modern top end, and a bit of a scoop in the upper mids... I might be using 'open' differently, since terms like 'open' and 'warm' have different meanings to different people).
Click to expand...
I think you nailed it right here. I'd say you just described "wide", whereas I'd describe "open" as simply having more clarity in the higher frequencies, not necessarily a change in the frequency response curve itself.

IMHO/FWIW/YMMV :)
 
#8,809
Vic said:
I'd describe "open" as simply having more clarity in the higher frequencies
Click to expand...

+1 This is exactly what I am talking about.
The 500K pot upgrade is definatley an improvement to the already wonderful HC pickups.
I should mention that I had a fresh set of Blue Label SS strings on as well!!
 
#8,810
Joeykun said:
+1 This is exactly what I am talking about.
The 500K pot upgrade is definatley an improvement to the already wonderful HC pickups.
I should mention that I had a fresh set of Blue Label SS strings on as well!!
Click to expand...

+1 Again, makes total sense. Not to beat a dead horse (OK.. too late:D), but the idea that would take you closer to the single coil tone has me scratching my head, since I again hear the single coils as being rougher and more organic, grindy up top. The biggest difference I noticed when going from the HC's to the singles was a more vintage, grindy (less clear, less open?) top end versus the very pure, modern hi fi sizzle of the HC's, and a more present mid mid and upper mid response. I like that top end and mid grindy tone in a mix.... it seems to 'sit' better than the more hi fi upper treble 'click' of the HC's in some contexts.

I again realize you are not comparing the change to single coils, so this is a little bit of 'two discussions'.... does the change in pot change the tone, primarily impacting the top end... yes. Does that change move the tone of the HC"s to more 'vintage land'... hmmmm... Roger says yes, so maybe that should be good enough. Surprising to me, but then who the heck am I!

Who knows! It all sounds darn good to me.
 
#8,820
I'm thinking of switching to a 500k on my Metro - I love the smooth taper of my current Sadowsky pots though and don't want to have one pot that doesn't feel the same as the others. I'm at work and can't look at the bass right now, so does anyone know what pots Sadowsky uses stock? CTS?
 

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