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Club Sadowsky!!!

#19,483
MF_Maher said:
I was in a bunch of music stores these past couple of days and didn't care for the look of all those factory-reliced Fenders at all...but that's just me! :p
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And me, too. I really just don't agree with the whole relic'ing of a new instrument thing at all.
 
#19,485
johnnydi said:
I'm just wondering about the quality of the Braz we get now a day. I know that Roger as different grades and I'm curious if it as something to do with that. Kevin told me that if you get the Master grade, you get a darker and straighter grain Braz. At the same time, I have full trust in Roger with quality. If he puts anything on the bass, you know its good.
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Grading is basically an aesthetic choice that I make. I can select for dark & straight grained or more highly figured. If you want the pick of the litter, that is master grade. But I have to brag, that my standard grade would be someone else's master grade. I also cannot bring myself to charge some of the premium prices for Brazilian that I see others charging.

All of my sources for Brazilian have dried up. I cannot replace anything I have. All of my wood is old. But I have enough great old Brazilian fingerboards for the next 10 years. 5 string boards will run out before anything else. It was very hard to get fingerboards that wide as they are almost the size of acoustic guitar sides.

R
 
#19,486
johnnydi said:
I know its important to me but owning both, I can say that the difference is never gonna be perceivable in a live situation for sure. And maybe not to most ears.
I've been playing for 30 years and I know I was not able to hear the difference until maybe 10 years ago. That's just me.
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It's wood and there is no solid consistantancy really between two boards.
IMO.

You could have braz on one and mad on the other. Then two others and they could really yield different results.

Again, IMO, telling the difference between the two is almost moot.
It's not like they are so different that you would reach for one over the other for a track or gig.
It's not a maple/rosewood degree of difference is what I'm getting at (and even then, the difference can be worked around with various hand positions etc..).
 
#19,487
johnnydi said:
I own a few of old late 50's and early 60's Fender p and j bass with Brazilian R/W and they are all really dark without anything to look at. That's when Braz was easily available so I suspect that Leo was taking the best.

Now as far as sound I don't have any highly figured Braz neck to compare it to
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johnnydi said:
Check the Braz on this. Now I'm not sure what time does to it. maybe it gets darker but I can't see any sings of grain what so ever.
HPIM2166.jpg
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johnnydi said:
No really! More shinny but not darker. And if you look at the pic of the old P-bass, you can see even pass the last fret, its really dark, almost ebony.
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johnnydi said:
Your right, Its really dirty and that may contribute to the darkness. I'm really reluctant to clean it. Although my Sadowskys are always kept clean.

At the same time, I've never seen a Braz old neck from that era that was not dark, even if it was maintain clean.

I'm just wondering about the quality of the Braz we get now a day. I know that Roger as different grades and I'm curious if it as something to do with that.

Kevin told me that if you get the Master grade, you get a darker and straighter grain Braz.

At the same time, I have full trust in Roger with quality. If he puts anything on the bass, you know its good.
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Not to nitpick, but this has NOT been the case IME. I don't think that Brazilian RW was used everysingle time in Pre-CBS Fenders. Every piece of Braz RW I"ve seen has a lighter, reddish hue to it, whereas the darker boards that 'look like ebony' (dead on description) are almost always indian rosewood. My 62 was made in Aug of 62, when Fender transitioned from a Slab board to a thin veneer, which was usually indian rosewood. At the same time, I have a friend locally who has a 61 Pbass, and though the Braz Board IS darker compared to my Sadowsky's (probably due to the build up of dirt and oil that has been mentioned), it isn't nearly as dark and 'ebony-like' in appearance as is my 62' P. I imagine that Leo Fender used whatever he could get a deal on at the time, IMO at least.

For what it's worth, I'm on my second PJ5 with an alder/braz rw setup, and this one is ten times the instrument, both tonally and aesthetically.
 
#19,497
5 string = built in thumb rest! :hiding:

I just bought a cool jazz/fusion CD on iTunes that Will Lee plays on. It's called Metro "Express", it sounds pretty good so far, I am sure all these great bass lines I am hearing were played on a Sadowsky, even though there is ONE shot on his website of him playing a Lakland :eyebrow:
 
#19,500
SpectorDetector said:
5 string = built in thumb rest! :hiding:

I just bought a cool jazz/fusion CD on iTunes that Will Lee plays on. It's called Metro "Express", it sounds pretty good so far, I am sure all these great bass lines I am hearing were played on a Sadowsky, even though there is ONE shot on his website of him playing a Lakland :eyebrow:
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I have that as well. (Thumb rest that is!)

It's alright playing by Uncle Will!

I've seen him use a Lakland, his custom Yamaha and Sadowsky's.
Funny, I don't think he was too worried about the type of rosewood on the fingerboard. He just sounded GOOOD......:ninja:
 

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