Fender Marcus Miller 5 vs Sadowsky RV5

First of all, I generally think "vs" threads can easily head in the wrong direction. Players get defensive, and unconstructive exchanges go on. Please let's not get into that here. That is not going to help anyone out.

I simply post this because I had and happily played an RV5 for several years and recently changed to a Marcus Miller 5 for my own reasons. These are both excellent basses, and no disrespect is intended to either bass.

The RV5 was a bass that I purchased directly through Roger. He worked very closely with me for some upgrades. The bass weighed in at 9 pounds even, and Roger installed single coil pups and the VTC. My intent was to get really close to a '60's J feel in a 5 without going for the NYC price point. Roger was an outstanding guy to work with, considering it was a Metro. He gave it full support. I played this bass on many gigs with blues and R&B acts. It sat in the mix really well, and delivered excellent tone into whatever amp I plugged into with no help from any other preamps or other input devices. These preamps put out a chunk of output volume with good tone, and are brain dead to get a good vibe into almost anything.

But...I did not personally dig the string spacing. And, I did not really feel like I was getting the J clanky tone in the lower mids that I was looking for. (shrugs)

Then, I happened by the Bass Place intending to try out a Shuttle and happened to check out this Marcus Miller 5.

Long story short, the RV5 was sold on eBay and the Marcus came home. My wife and I have an agreement that something has to go before something else comes in. It is the anti-accumulation clause.

The eBay sale only netted a little over $1500, which surprised me a bit. I would have predicted closer to $1700; but, I guess that is the state of the current market.

Now, on to the Marcus.

This bass weighs in at 8 pounds 10 oz. It has (Gasp) a slight gap in the neck pocket, which affects absolutely nothing at all. The neck is rock solid. The string spacing is a bit tighter than the RV5, but, I think still wide enough without being too wide. It just feels like a J with an extra string. In fact, the overall neck feel and profile is just exactly what I would have expected for a J, but in a 5 string format. Perfect. Oh, the B string is ultra tight and punchy.

The preamp may have some lineage, at least in design, to Roger's circuit. It adjusts in the same sense that a little bit goes a long way. It seems that the circuit is 18V on the bass and treble boosts. But, the overall volume output is passive; which is where there is an enormous difference with the Sadowsky circuit. This literally plays like a passive Fender (which it essentially is), but the tone controls are active. This means that I sometimes need a tube preamp to help the input to some amps. That is kind of a delta for the Marcus. However, the tone is 100% pure Fender clank. The real stuff. Harmonics absolutely scream out of this circuit, and it doesn't hurt that the bass is really resonant. Great bass for pizz. Of course, the slap tone is also there in spades. This is an awesome effort by Fender which absolutely meets my needs for a 5 string jazz bass with a few exceptions noted below.

So, what I don't care for.

Well, for one, the Marcus pickguard is great for Marcus, but I would prefer the standard format. I'm not Marcus, and don't really care to ape his thing.

Then, I would also have preferred a rosewood board. Sorry that is just my '60's pref showing through.

Finally, I adore the tone, but I wish the overall output was hotter, like Roger's circuit. You can boost the treble and bass, but that makes the tonality out of wack.

These are kind of nitpicking things, but what the heck. All in all, Fender and MM did an amazing design on this bass. If Fender would only use it as the basis for the rest of their 5 string line up, they would finally be delivering what a lot of cats have been looking for in a J5.

To summarize: both great "production level" professional basses, depends on what the player is looking for. Isn't it nice to have choices?

My 2c. Enjoy!

 

Hey Mo, maybe this is just an artifact of my "old" amps. The Sadowsky let me set the bass' volume at about 80% with plenty of input structure to the preamp. I like that because it leaves space to boost the instrument for solos etc. The Fender passive circuit gets run at 100% all the time; and then, I never feel like it is really loading the input to either my Woods or T-E heads. I have to set the pre's around 75% gain, and they just feel like they are running out of space. Maybe that is just my perception. Inserting an ART preamp in the chain gives adequate boost, but is a PITA to set up night after night. Again, maybe this is just my perception. Anyway, my 2c is Roger got this one right and Fender still has a little work to do, IMO.

Good point. The simple fact is that this bass just had "it," to the point that I can look past my whining complaints.

 

Yup, I totally agree that the neck on the MM5 is a winner. That's exactly what I meant regarding the other Fender models. They would do well to use this profile across the board, IMO. It's the bomb.

 

Definite possibility.

Being somewhat of an old crank, I like to play stock for a good while before getting into the mod'ing game. For one thing, the tone is exactly what I have been after. So, I'm hesitant to mess with it. You may be correct that the Sadowsky pre would produce exactly the perfect result. Then again, I've been surprised too many times to find out that 2 + 2 does not equal 4 in bass synergistics. As Mo points out for the time being I just crank my input gain at the amp and whine about it. Eventually, I may get around to checking out alternatives. Maybe.

 

Yup, plus I brow beat Dennis, Lee and Dave at TBP about it. Ultimately, when the player likes the existing tone, it is a roll of the dice to mess with things. Basses, like people, are never perfect, thank God.