The wife and I have an agreement. As long as she, the kids, and grand kids get to go to Disney World every other year, I can have my toys like Sadowsky basses and Mesa amps. She’s pretty easy to deal with.
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Sadowsky in distribution agreement with Warwick
- Thread starter burk48237
- Start date
My eldest daughter just started college and her little sister is a junior in high school, so I’m in the same situation. If an import Sadowsky that comes in at around $1500.00, I can swing it without too much grief from my wife. I’ve always wanted to try out their M5-24 model. Fingers crossed!
A Will Lee 4 string in stock currently on the Sadowsky website.
Maybe that is Warwick distributing Sadowsky in Europe. Their US distribution chain sucks. For such a big company they are nearly impossible to find in the US.
I guess the joke was too subtle. Welcome to talkbass, Mr Trouztrouz.He's been a member since 2000!! Long before you or I
I can be subtle but my resting state is dense.
Thanks for checking in Mr. Sadowsky.
I have a production question and don't profess to know how high quality production instruments are made.
I believe that the Chinese could produce a high quality bass but have they done so?
What would be 3 examples?
Totally agree on their electronics quality but have not seen this with mechanical parts, or overall fit and finish for assembled items
China has bought a lot of high end Haas milling machines and they certainly can figure out how to use them as well as anybody else.
A shop I know well makes very high tolerance parts for the Federal Government (CNC lathe or mill work usually in alloy and to the 4th decimal place or tighter). These go out for bid and are won on price and quality.
They lost a good sized job to the Chinese purely based on cost. The parts were found to be out of spec and rejected by QC.
The owner wouldn't make the replacements; he doesn't need the work and didn't like how the COTR and purchasing agent allowed an unqualified firm to bid on, let alone win, the project.
Not the only example I'm aware of.
PS - An owners age often has nothing to do with how a company is run; seems like production and possibly profit was an issue with the offshore instruments.
You think they'd go under if Roger was hit by a stray meteor?
No way!
I have a production question and don't profess to know how high quality production instruments are made.
I believe that the Chinese could produce a high quality bass but have they done so?
What would be 3 examples?
Totally agree on their electronics quality but have not seen this with mechanical parts, or overall fit and finish for assembled items
China has bought a lot of high end Haas milling machines and they certainly can figure out how to use them as well as anybody else.
A shop I know well makes very high tolerance parts for the Federal Government (CNC lathe or mill work usually in alloy and to the 4th decimal place or tighter). These go out for bid and are won on price and quality.
They lost a good sized job to the Chinese purely based on cost. The parts were found to be out of spec and rejected by QC.
The owner wouldn't make the replacements; he doesn't need the work and didn't like how the COTR and purchasing agent allowed an unqualified firm to bid on, let alone win, the project.
Not the only example I'm aware of.
PS - An owners age often has nothing to do with how a company is run; seems like production and possibly profit was an issue with the offshore instruments.
You think they'd go under if Roger was hit by a stray meteor?
No way!
Dingwall and Warwick Rockbass are the two best known quality basses made in China. I heard that Sire intends to move production to China too.
And this has to do with Sadowsky and Warwick how?
Add my new friends at Ampeg's parent company, Yamaha Guitar Group, to the list
Along with Squier, Epiphone, Washburn, Dean, Jay Turser, Hofner and several others who make very nice axes for the money.
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So I'd bet dollars to donuts that the people complaining loudest about this transition are people who never owned a Sadowsky or Warwick in their lives, never wanted to, and don't intend to now. You can add me to that list as well. I have played Sadowskys several times in the past and they are truly excellent, but I'm just as happy with more basic basses that don't cost what they do. And I just don't like Warwick basses. But you'll never catch me whining about something that affects my life in zero ways, least of all a guy who's been in business for 40 years who maintains the quality standards that Roger Sadowsky does, who wants to pass along certain aspects of his business to others now that he's in his golden years so he can spend more time enjoying what time he's got on Earth.
The only thing you can count on in life is things will change. Get over it, quit whining, and if you don't like what you see out of Sadowsky in the future under Warwick, THEN you can badmouth them on the internet with some actual credibility.
And for God's sake, quit badgering them about the damn Satin Series when they answered on page one that they don't know what's going to happen with it yet!!!
Peace and love, peace and love.
The only thing you can count on in life is things will change. Get over it, quit whining, and if you don't like what you see out of Sadowsky in the future under Warwick, THEN you can badmouth them on the internet with some actual credibility.
And for God's sake, quit badgering them about the damn Satin Series when they answered on page one that they don't know what's going to happen with it yet!!!
Peace and love, peace and love.
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Not sure what you might be looking.for but both GC and MF.both have them...also the Bass Place,. Ish Guitars
All I know is, an affordable to me, Sadowsky would be ideal to go with my new WD-800 
So I'd bet dollars to donuts that the people complaining loudest about this transition are people who never owned a Sadowsky or Warwick in their lives, never wanted to, and don't intend to now. You can add me to that list as well. I have played Sadowskys several times in the past and they are truly excellent, but I'm just as happy with more basic basses that don't cost what they do. And I just don't like Warwick basses. But you'll never catch me whining about something that affects my life in zero ways, least of all a guy who's been in business for 40 years who maintains the quality standards that Roger Sadowsky does, who wants to pass along certain aspects of his business to others now that he's in his golden years so he can spend more time enjoying what time he's got on Earth.
The only thing you can count on in life is things will change. Get over it, quit whining, and if you don't like what you see out of Sadowsky in the future under Warwick, THEN you can badmouth them on the internet with some actual credibility.
And for God's sake, quit badgering them about the damn Satin Series when they answered on page one that they don't know what's going to happen with it yet!!!
Peace and love, peace and love.
GC just started carrying the Rockbass series again. There are also a half dozen $9k custom shops scattered throughout the chain. Far from a good selection.
MF is worthless. You can't try out instruments from an online store.
One or two random stores isn't much of a distribution chain. Chicago music has them too. Am I going to fly to Chicago to try out a bass?
Warwick isn't some tiny company with one guy making basses in his garage. They have the means to have them more readily available.
I love the sound of their basses, but so many of their business decisions are baffling.
And this has to do with Sadowsky and Warwick how?
Add my new friends at Ampeg's parent company, Yamaha Guitar Group, to the list
‘It’ has to do with some aspects of Chinese production not meeting QC standards, cutting corners and not offering returns or being very ethical about how they treat their customers.
And yet ... your examples speak to the ‘some’ part of that, and my own experience (10 years in purchasing sourcing everything from castings/sheet metal/machined parts/buy-out items both domestically and overseas) can absolutely back up what Jim C said ... but more to those industries I mentioned.
I’ve had so many instances of the above personally and attested to by trusted vendors/competitors/etc. Too many to say that it’s a rare occurence
One ‘trick’ the Chinese will often pull:
give new client a tour of the modern, bells-and-whistles facility. Millions of dollars of CNC machines/horizontal mills/lathes/whatever ... a work force trained up in AS9100/LEAN/ISO-everything, with every QC and safety ethos in place ...
But when it comes to actually doing the production run, they outsource the bulk of the order to 3rd party contractors who (I’m not kidding) might have a 70-year old Soviet hand-me-down with little regard for tolerances/QC/etc, and the ‘shop’ is a village with mud instead of flooring.
Sample parts, even up to a healthy percentage shipped in advance of the larger sea-freight shipment, they look great.
Bulk of items come in with all kinds of issues. Seen it. Lived it. Had to pay local people to fix what they could so it was a total loss and then was able to convince management that using a domestic, or MIM option was the better way to go.
I’ve had the following exchange with Chinese vendors (paraphrasing, but not by much)”
ME:
‘Hey, these parts/prices/whatever are not what we agreed upon. You deliberately ignored my Purchase Order/emails and basically just pissed in my cornflakes’.
THEM:
‘Sorry to hear about your cornflakes. We can offer 10% reduction on next order. Would you like to place new order?’
BUT ...
A huge ‘what if’ when it comes to Made-in-China instruments. 5 years in music instrument retail, which in this example is very anecdotal ... and the majority of Indonesian/Chinese/foreign instruments I unboxed were serviceable, gig-worthy instruments after some tweaking.
The examples provided (really, you’re both right in a sense) tell me that with the right oversight/relationships/process implementation, a Chinese operation can turn out quality and consistent product. You just don’t have to pay the programmer with 30 years of experience programming CNC machines (and being able to turn out masterfully-crafted parts with manual tools if needed) 50-70k a year, and your material costs are dramatically lower, so ...
Labor hours + cost of materials for parts + qty of finished parts per day/hour/whatever that worker and machine can turn out + profit margins that business model will allow factoring in shipping/misc = kick-ass Sadowsky basses in the hands of more people, and a much less-stressed, Chill Roger Sadowsky who God-only-knows what he’ll get up to that will spawn huge Talkbass threads.
Warwick can only make them available. They can't force stores to buy them. But it seems a bit strange to me that with your proximity to the greater LA area that you can't find anyone who has any.
I really think that the bump in the exchange rate around 2007-2009 vis a vis the Euro really crushed Warwick. That was when GC dumped it’s German Warwicks. It took them a few years to get the Rockbass line really efficient and Proline needs better promotion.
