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Club Sadowsky!!!

#9,441
HI

Part of his signature model are specific things that Will wanted and wouldnt deviate from. One was the ash body, amongst other things. I think fingerboard makes a difference but I feel, and Ive owned over 20, that the body wood is just as important in tone. Alder, all things being equal to my ears, is rounder and mellower than ash. Will prefers ash, as I do. One other thing, and Ive said it a million times, is you can tame or mellow out a bright bass but you'll never get a round, smooth bass to sound snappy or agressive. Part of the reason the VTC is standard on all Sadowsky's.

I think you'll love the ash/morado setup if you order that. I owned an ash/morado JJ4 for years. The longest Id ever owned a Sadowsky. Prolly did a thousand shows with it. Always had a great tone. Nice snap to it, even when you slapped. Not as bright as a maple board but a nice alternative to "regular" rosewood.

Id talk to Kevin in the shop. Rob L., whos a builder there, has one with an ebony board and it flat out kills. Might want to message him, also. I think coelho's WL is morado. I had one of the first demo's for a couple weeks while mine was on order. Did about 10 shows with it. Was ash/morado, about 8lbs. Killed. That being said, my ash/maple/maple top is snappier for sure but not night and day.

Have fun with it. Did you see the one for sale in the classified? Theres also a 59 burst on sale at the shop in Brooklyn, brand new

Rob
 
#9,442
Hummm…nice, err, bass! ;-)

tal_wilkenfeld.jpg
 
#9,444
HI

Ive never owned that combo. Did have an alder/braz NYC PJ. Was a bit too mellow for my likes but everyone else who ever played it flipped out. Was a nice bass with a great neck. Basskadet owns it now. Id message him, see what he thinks. Keep in mind its a PJ. Wills are JJ

Rob
 
#9,449
The thing I don't really get is, if you make a signature bass like the Will Lee and pass hours and hours trying to figure out with the artist what is the best combination of wood and electronic etc.. And then your done with whatever you came up with. Then if you change the combination. Is that still a Will Lee?

What makes a Will Lee a Will Lee? The mid bump switch? The 22 frets, The bell cover?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing here. I love every thing Roger Create. I'm just wondering.

I'm in the process of buying one and it can be a little confusing.
 
#9,450
Well, it think the Braz board adds a degree of sweetness and warmth with nice clear highs - I'm very happy with the fingerboard selection, I must say. As you can imagine, with the Braz RW board, the bass certainly doesn't have the brightness of an ash\maple combination, however so it is a matter of personal preference\taste.

I think the ash and SC pickups in the bass mean there is a bit more complexity, presence and "ping" in the midrange than an alder\HC combination would bring (which is inherently a touch wider and more pure\polite to my ears). Not sure I could say it is vastly more aggressive sounding\growly than alder as with the Braz board since the differences are more subtle than with a maple board (but certainly there). Balances nicely with the sweet\warm\round RW, though.

My next Sadowsky will be ash\maple (and 5 string) - nicer to have the brighter snap at times. Definitely sticking with ash...

Hope my rambling helps. :cool:
 
#9,451
johnnydi said:
What makes a Will Lee a Will Lee? The mid bump switch? The 22 frets, The bell cover?
Click to expand...
I don't know anything about a bell cover, but yes, the mid bump and the 22 frets, but also a slightly narrower nut, the strictly ash body, and the hipshot d-tuner, too.
 
#9,452
Vic said:
I don't know anything about a bell cover, but yes, the mid bump and the 22 frets, but also a slightly narrower nut, the strictly ash body, and the hipshot d-tuner, too.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that you can get a Will Lee Model with whatever body (or fingerboard) wood you want (if it is otherwise an option on a NYC model), but I do see that the webpage says ash only for the body and maple/rosewood only for the neck.

The model is defined by the narrow nut, 22 frets, deeper cutaway, mid-boost circuit, D-tuner, and yes, the optional bell cover (which is mounted such that it just barely covers the neck pickup - instead of being centered on it - to give more room to slap).

Tom.
 
#9,453
Hey all. I did a simple little point proving recording tonight. It is not the best quality, nor is it the best playing. But, I wanted to demonstrate my theory about some tones and my experience with them.

I love my Sadowsky (as stated before), but I really don't care to hear the bass by itself too often. There are some annoying frequences and little character sounds that come from this bass when I play it all by its' little lonesome. But! When I play along with ANY music, the bass just finds its' home and sits there and gives me the warmest of warm fuzzies.

My setting on the bass are the VTC full on, the bass is about 65% and the treble is about 75%. Both pickups centered and volume full on. The strings are Sadowsky Blue-Nickel 45-130.

Just so everyone knows, I was really bored tonight and had a conversation with a co-worker about MY experience with basses tones. My point of the convo was that sometimes (more often than not for me) basses that just sound perfect by themselves, don't always cut it in a band mix. On the flip side of the coin, basses that just don't sound great by themselves can really fill up a band. My previous best live basses were a P-bass, Dingwall and Smith. I thought they sounded awful by themselves, but when I went back and listened to our live recordings from church, I was blown away. So I can clarify any misleading statements. I don't think the Sadowsky sounds awful by itself, but it does have what I believe to be those annoying frequences that I hate to hear when it is just the bass being played.

While I know everyone has "The sound in my head is...", this is just my little piece of the puzzle pie! Oh yeah, this is also just for entertainment purposes, so please feel free to fire away at me.

Peace,
Chris

PS-Have I annoyed everyone yet with my love for this bass?

Go here and download the .wav and let me know your toughts. I think the link is only good for like 7 days.

https://download.yousendit.com/YkxJWGJEQzdYSHdLSkE9PQ
 
#9,454
All I can say is that you are running with a lot more EQ boost than I use. Have you tried backing both of them down a bit? IME/IMHO, I try to use as little EQ as possible to achieve the desired results. Perhaps you have already tried this, but I thought I'd mention it.
 
#9,455
tombowlus said:
All I can say is that you are running with a lot more EQ boost than I use. Have you tried backing both of them down a bit? IME/IMHO, I try to use as little EQ as possible to achieve the desired results. Perhaps you have already tried this, but I thought I'd mention it.
Click to expand...

+1

Yesterday at rehearsal I tried my new Mesa Fathom/GS112x3 combination and it sounded horrible!!!!
Then I recognized the error: the lows on my PJ5 Sad were fully boosted.

I turned the lows back to +- 30% and "my sound" was there!
 
#9,456
Sounds awesome Chris! Love the fills! However I think there was a little too much compression when playing finger style...


On another note, does anyone haver a Sadowsky with a '59 burst, maple fretboard with a tortoise pickguard? Tortoise looks awesome on a '59 burst with a darker board just not sure what it'll look like with a maple board :)
 
#9,458
Pehaps 10-20% bass boost, a smidge of VTC if my strings are fresh and the treble flat. Less is more!

LR


tombowlus said:
All I can say is that you are running with a lot more EQ boost than I use. Have you tried backing both of them down a bit? IME/IMHO, I try to use as little EQ as possible to achieve the desired results. Perhaps you have already tried this, but I thought I'd mention it.
Click to expand...
 
#9,459
tombowlus said:
All I can say is that you are running with a lot more EQ boost than I use. Have you tried backing both of them down a bit? IME/IMHO, I try to use as little EQ as possible to achieve the desired results. Perhaps you have already tried this, but I thought I'd mention it.
Click to expand...

That is a good call. I will try that. I noticed I have been slowly backing off the eq the more and more I play. I am trying to find that balance I guess. I think I run it that way because when practicing, I am running through my Korg PX4D in bypass mode and try to get a tone that I can live with through my ears. I know that when I run through my amp, I will probably use a lot less eq. I have not had a chance to open my rig up with this bass. We are having our NOVA GTG this weekend, so I will toy around with it then.

Thanks for the tip!
 
#9,460
crispygoat said:
Sounds awesome Chris! Love the fills! However I think there was a little too much compression when playing finger style...


On another note, does anyone haver a Sadowsky with a '59 burst, maple fretboard with a tortoise pickguard? Tortoise looks awesome on a '59 burst with a darker board just not sure what it'll look like with a maple board :)
Click to expand...


Thanks. The compression may be coming from the actual recording itself. Not sure. I just ran directly into my laptop via the sound recorder on a windows machine. I was using the Korg PX4D, but in bypass mode. Then I had to covert the file which may have added some compression. But, I can understand the compression thing.
 

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