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DJ5 or RV5?

Which do you prefer?

  • DJ5

    Votes: 27 38.6%

  • RV5

    Votes: 23 32.9%

  • About the same

    Votes: 5 7.1%

  • Go practice!

    Votes: 15 21.4%
  • Total voters
    70
#41
If that last video is flat adjustments then it's a better comparison between the basses tones. I still prefer the DJ5.

Still the poll is basically 50/50. I think it just comes down to personal preference. Both sound good, ones just a little warmer, ones a little brighter. I'm sure with EQ settings you could get each pretty close to the other (it's probably at the max settings where you couldn't match them up very closely)
 
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#43
Murdoc_420 said:
If that last video is flat adjustments then it's a better comparison between the basses tones. I still prefer the DJ5.

Still the poll is basically 50/50. I think it just comes down to personal preference. Both sound good, ones just a little warmer, ones a little brighter. I'm sure with EQ settings you could get each pretty close to the other (it's probably at the max settings where you couldn't match them up very closely)
Click to expand...

The DJ5 can get a lot brighter from the amp alone. I will have to hear how it sounds. It could also use new strings too because it still has the ones on it that it got from Lakland. It was in the shop about seven months before I bought it. The bottom line is that I really like how this bass plays, and live its passive tone. An outboard preamp will just give me few more options.
 
#44
Dr. Cheese said:
I started this thread knowing that a lot of folks would prefer the Sadowsky active boost. I bought my DJ5 knowing it was passive and would need an outboard preamp for the active sound, so I am not going to get depressed or want another bass because of the poll. I enjoy getting the feedback. Let me post this clip I made before I changed the eq settings and tightened up my playing for reference:

Click to expand...

Much respect to @ Dr.Cheese
 
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#49
To me the Sadowsky just sounds a little fatter which I think would help it sit better in the mix. To me one of the things that set my Sadowsky's which I miss dearly apart from most of the other basses I've owned (J or otherwise) is that they stay warm and fat sounding up above the 12th fret with a good slap tone. A lot of basses really thin out when you go up the neck with a little sizzle dialed in. But both sound good. My other issue with the DJ5 has nothing to do with the vids, but with the neck profile. While the new ones have improved they never fit me quite the way my Sadowsky's did.

To be fair, you might want to buy a MV5 with single coils with all that extra professors cash and do another comparison.:bassist: To me the sweet spot in the Sadowsky line is the Ash/Maple (like the DJ) with SC's. They sound a bit less scooped. The RV Metro's sound more like a maple board bass then a lot of other fret board woods. The Morado fingerboards are actually quite hard and the RV Metros are more like a Alder/Maple, than an Alder/Rosewood.
 
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#50
burk48237 said:
To me the Sadowsky just sounds a little fatter which I think would help it sit better in the mix. To me one of the things that set my Sadowsky's which I miss dearly apart from most of the other basses I've owned (J or otherwise) is that they stay warm and fat sounding up above the 12th fret with a good slap tone. A lot of basses really thin out when you go up the neck with a little sizzle dialed in. But both sound good. My other issue with the DJ5 has nothing to do with the vids, but with the neck profile. While the new ones have improved they never fit me quite the way my Sadowsky's did.

To be fair, you might want to buy a MV5 with single coils with all that extra professors cash and do another comparison.:bassist: To me the sweet spot in the Sadowsky line is the Ash/Maple (like the DJ) with SC's. They sound a bit less scooped. The RV Metro's sound more like a maple board bass then a lot of other fret board woods. The Morado fingerboards are actually quite hard and the RV Metros are more like a Alder/Maple, than an Alder/Rosewood.
Click to expand...

That is something I did not know. I assumed that pretty morado was like rosewood or pau ferro, a fairly soft wood.
 
#52
That's funny, I assumed the first clip was the Sadowsky and that the second clip was the DJ5. I like the DJ5 better (this is coming from a Sadowsky user who has never owned a Lakland). To me the Sadowsky sounded lifeless by comparison and not as even string-to-string as the DJ5. I think a lot of people voting Sadowsky here are probably voting with their eyes. ;)
 
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#53
Dr. Cheese said:
That is something I did not know. I assumed that pretty morado was like rosewood or pau ferro, a fairly soft wood.
Click to expand...

As noted above, morado and pao ferro are the same thing.

A very dense, much harder wood than a true rosewood; and, it sounds and feels very much like maple. And that, to me, is why I don't care lots for the Sadowsky RV Metro. The bright pickups and preamp and Morado really don't sound like you'd expect an alder/rosewood bass to sound like.
Don't get me wrong, it still sounds great; but,
I'll go elsewhere for a "more vintage J bass alder/rw tone."

Now, a Sadowsky ash/maple MV5JJ with single coils...not much better at that sound, than that spec.
 
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#54
bass12 said:
That's funny, I assumed the first clip was the Sadowsky and that the second clip was the DJ5. I like the DJ5 better (this is coming from a Sadowsky user who has never owned a Lakland). To me the Sadowsky sounded lifeless by comparison and not as even string-to-string as the DJ5. I think a lot of people voting Sadowsky here are probably voting with their eyes. ;)
Click to expand...

You may have a point. I know this clip got a great response from my non-bass friends on Facebook.
 
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#58
I've never played the UV series fr Sadowsky, but I've played a few others, and all of them have this "zingy" modern quality to them that I find fills a role better suited by other basses. The Laklands are my go-to "Way better than Fender but still Fenderish" tools...

( I play a 55-94 and a JO5)
 
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#59
RolandMHall said:
Installed an audere in my DJ5 and love it. It sounds like a fender jazz but boosted. Just put an Mxr m87 compressor on my pedalboard and that tightened everything up. I love my DJ5 over all my Laklands. That combination of that bass with that preamp for me is a winner.
Click to expand...

A lot of people live the Audere preamp. I think I will leave my bass stock and use an outboard preamp.
 
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#60
pablomigraine said:
I've never played the UV series fr Sadowsky, but I've played a few others, and all of them have this "zingy" modern quality to them that I find fills a role better suited by other basses. The Laklands are my go-to "Way better than Fender but still Fenderish" tools...

( I play a 55-94 and a JO5)
Click to expand...

Well the UV series are the "zingiest" of all Sadowskys since the have the preamp AND Seventies pickup spacing.
 

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