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Sadowsky Custom Shop Jazz with Soapbar Pickups
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
Difficult to imagine that bass surviving a mix with strong kick and multiple toms. Not impressed. Hard pass
Will Lee uses a version of his signature Sadowsky that has soapbar pickups pretty often, but I know his model comes with two mid boost frequencies.
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Whether a bass "survives in the mix" has 99% nothing to do with the bass but with the sound engineer who's mixing. That Instrument sounds fine. Owner is probably gone be very happy with it.
Beautiful bass, by the way. This bass has a mini toggle switch, which he didn’t mention. It could be a mid boost or a coil tap. Not sure about the soapbars, but my most recent Sadowsky has hum canceling Jazz pickups with a toggle that can switch them to single coil.
That could cut through a mix.
That could cut through a mix.
You should try a Sadowsky in a live mix. You'll understand why those basses are famous for cutting through without any effort. I don't see why this one would be an exception.
He has a point though, that is a very muddy sounding bass. I have heard Sadowski and even played one, this one is extra bassy. The passive mode with a treble cut usually takes care of the mids. MY experience with them in a very loud blues jam is that they have a hard time cutting through the loud guitars and B3 without help from the amp or the FOH. An passive jazz or precision was the better choice. When I played it in that situation I played on the bridge mostly and cut the bass a bit on the amp and this one has more inherent bass than the one I used. NYC jazz
Horrible tone IMO, but probably can sound better with the right settings. Where are the MIDS?
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Lakland 55-94’s with Bartolinis cut right through as well . I’ve never had issues with that. IMHO certain basses cut through the mix better than others. IME. Live Sound Engineers are either great or not so great. If they don’t know how to equalize those massive subwoofers it’s a big problem. That’s completely out of our hands. Just my take of course.
Sounds like the opposite of a Warwick to me. Warwicks can be very mid focused with those MEC pickups.
This guy never seems to get a decent tone in these videos. I don’t know if it’s how they’re recording them or what, but they always sound too quiet and muddy.
I’ve said this 1000 times!! The Sadowsky pre settings have to be tweaked lightly. They always seems to add too much bass and highs. Also he digs so much into the bass. Great player. Horrible technique
I hear what you are saying. I’ve come to appreciate it's a quilty of soap bars as my exploration of them has led me to believe recently. It’s a new sound for me coming from single coils and P bass pickups.
He says he is mixing a DI and a mic on the cab(s)
Myself, I might have run the bass DI and flat or no EQ to hear how the bass sounds on it own. Amps and cabs are always going to add their thing and I won’t be using most folks amps and cabs used on a demo.
