Regarding chambered bodies: You can order a Sadowsky with a solid body, in fact, Sads with natural finish and no exotic top have solid bodies and they're still light weight.
My comments here are based in my experience with the following basses that I own/have owned:
- Lakland 4-94 (that's USA): I have owned 4 of these: One with Bartolini pickups and the rest of them with Duncan alnico pickups. 3 fretted and one fretless. All were ash/maple (the fretless had ebony fingerboard)
- Sadowsky Vintage JJ 4 string, ash/maple: I have owned 1 Metro and 2 NYCs.
...and the following basses I have played but not owned:
- Lakland 55-02
- Sadowsky Metro alder/morado.
The IMPORT models:
The two METRO Sads were as good as the NYCs: fit, finish, playability & tone. Both were as light as my NYCs. The only thing I missed were the Dunlop strap locks that come stock with the NYCs.
The LAKLAND 5502 that I played had a nice neck for a 5 string (I'm not a 5 string player), althought I didn't like the finish (on the neck). It was a very heavy bass and it had no mids, even with the mid control maxxed the tone didn't do it for me (amp was an Aguilar AG500 set flat). The store owner, a bassist himself and very used to high end basses also felt that the bass had no mids (this wasn't a problem with my 4-94s). The neck pocket wasn't the tightest and the knobs weren't installed in the same position, I mean, the center detents for the eq and the blend knob were in different points, as if the pots were rotated, very confusing to know how your eq/blend is set just by looking at them.
the USA models:
LAKLAND:
#1: Great fit and setup out of the box. I didn't like the Bart pickups much. Not a 10 for finish because there were some tool marks on the side of the headstock, nothing really important but something I didn't expect from a high end instrument.
#2: I picked up this one in NYC, the A string were out of its place at the bridge and the setup was messed (maybe something happened while in transit from Chicago to NYC). Back home I did a setup and it played and sounded great. You could see some shadows on the neck finish as if the oil wasn't applied uniformly. You couln'd feel them to to the touch. This shadows became more noticiable the more I played the bass.
#3: The fretless, I got this one shipped to California. It needed a setup out of the box because the G & D strings were unplayable in the first position even with a very light touch. The body had an stunning grain. First time I changed the strings I noticed that the E & A strings had left groves in the part of the fingerboard that extends past the nut. I suppose that this was due to the nut cut too deep for these strings. I also found that there was a small piece of wood by the bridge pickup that was missing prior to the bass being finished and it had been fixed with the polyester. Once I did a setup the bass played and sounded great. The minor finish flaws didn't interfere with playability or tone, but once again something I didn't expect from a high end bass instrument but not important enough to return the instrument.
#4: This one was again shipped to California and my wife brought it to Spain with her. Great setup, fit and finished out of the box. It came with the wrong bridge pickup and a couple of custom specs were missing.
All 4 4-94 necks felt great. I felt at home with them from day one (after playing a MM StingRay for 10 years) and the fret job was perfect in all cases (but the fretless
)
SADOWSKY:
I still play these and my GAS for other brands is gone since I started playing them a year and a half ago. It took me a long time to try a Sadowsky because I always thought that I needed a mid eq knob. I was wrong and once I tried my first one I sold the two Laklands I still had. As hard as I have searched I haven't found anything wrong with the two NYCs I've owned: perfect fit, finish, playability and tone. And I mean PERFECT.
After playing the StingRay and the Laklands for so long it took me a week to get used to the Sadowsky neck shape. In the time that I owned both (Sadowsky & Lakand) I got to the point where I preffered the Sadowsky neck.
I can't comment on the Fender style Laklands (Osborn, Glaub & DJ) because I have never played one. I know that they're made to get as close as possible to the vintage 60's Fenders, which includes no shilding, and hum is something I can't stand. I also find that the Sadowsky preamp is by far the simplest, most musical on board pre that I have heard.
This was a looooong post for which I'm sorry
) I have played a BUNCH of Metros (and NYC Sadowskys) and never played a bad one...some were better than others but none were outright bad. I can't say the same for the 44-02 and 55-02. I have not played a 44-94 at length but I did play a 55-94 and liked it a lot overall but I did not care for the preamp. I think with a different pre I may have bought one.
