Sadowsky in distribution agreement with Warwick

[Nephilymbass]

You gotta go to more stores! Haha! But I would assume that what I see at the shops around Nashville and my visits home to Miami, FL is probably NOT the norm for most of the country outside NY, Chicago, and LA.

It's funny, the problem I have here is not being able to find some of the mid-level gear I want... stuff I would think should be in every GC and Sam Ash.

I live in NC. GC in Raleigh used to carry a lot of nicer basses. I bought my first three Warwicks new from GCs. GC stopped carrying them when they parted ways with Dana B Goods. Which luckily I did get the thumb nt5 I had new for basically half price because they were trying to unload their Warwicks at the time. But yeah I haven’t seen a new Warwick in a store in years. Sam Ash here has very much become like guitar center with the exception of trying out some really nice NS design electric uprights at Sam Ash more recently. The smaller mom and pop stores in my area make their money renting instruments to students and doing PA installs for churches. Their bass inventory rarely changes and isn’t very interesting. Really now that I think of it every bass I’ve bought in the last decade that I paid over $1500 for I bought online.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

Experiences vary.

I have excellent opinion from Warwick service and Hans Peter himself, who never refused to deal personally with me via e-mail.

I was not so lucky as to have received even an acknowledgement to an email inquiry. But I guess I should be satisfied with just being lucky enough to have a great Warwick bass.

I fervently hope I won't need customer support for years to come.
Maybe my standards are too high, after dealing with folks at Kubicki and Spector.

 

[bass12]

I cant remember! This would have been like '97/98. I seem to remember it being a company called Dana B Goods or something that was distributing then. Maybe they connected me with efkay?

I'm not sure what year Efkay began to distribute Warwick. I had to deal with them in 2005. Very frustrating.

 

[MattZilla]

Dammit. A new WarSky piggy bank is going to slow the filling of the LPDC and G&L shorty piggy banks.

 

[madmaskbass]

what a great move! Warwick have an incredible distribution and probably the best tech building facility in the world. Sadowsky basses are also vastly different from most Warwicks so there's not really much competition. I think this is fantastic. Stuart finished last year now Roger scaling down this year.

 

[Kubicki Fan]

...
Warwick seem like a good match for this because they have factories and capabilities in place, a world wide network and probably most importantly - no jazz bass type model in their lineup that would be a competing product.

The Streamer CV is essentially a passive jazz that can hold it's own against all comers. (The CV also available in P, PJ, etc..)

 

[RudeMood]

Will the satin series be taken over by Warwick as well?

I have the same question... hopefully the Satin Series will remain in NYC shop. Sounds like they will...???

 

[Luke the Fluke]

This kinda makes sense - a few years ago Warwick downscaled their German production and focused more on high end quality. At the same time they kept making pretty good basses in the Far East. Being Warwick they are good with wood sources and they are good at that attention to detail thing you get with a lot of German manufacturing. But - I don't know who would want a Rockbass Warwick - it's kinda not the first style bass that you would go for as in fashion at the moment... until you get to the high end German stuff which is a good bass by anyones yardstick... (if sometimes idiosyncratic) They have fairly good distribution (at least in Europe, and with some of their accessory lines) A reputable fender-a-like would sell more than their rock basses so they do well out of this deal. They get to sell product, and get their other lines into more shops that want the Sadowskys - I wouldn't surprise me if theres' as much profit in strings and cases etc as there is in instruments.

Sadowsky has some good IP (pickups and preamp) and a great product... and is trying to branch out into higher volumes made in Asia stuff - and from what I'm hearing having supply issue. I imagine from Rogers POV the Warwick deal pays for his retirement, he can have his high end workshop in the US (which has echos of Warwick having their high end workshop in DE) and he gets his brand out there more - in a way that could actually compete with some of the bigger companies.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Wow. Seems like it's more than just distribution though:

"Warwick will build and distribute our Metro and MetroExpress instruments. Warwick will also distribute our strings and accessories. The new, Warwick-made Metro and MetroExpress Models will debut at the 2020 NAMM show at the Warwick/Sadowsky booth."

'Warwick/Sadowsky booth' just sounds odd! But hey, I like both companies. I've had Warwicks ever since I started playing in the 90's.

The distribution part is actually what surprises me, as Warwick does not have a good history of distribution (go right now and try to order some spare parts from their USA distributor).

Again I am making the mistake of not reading past the first post, but here it goes anyway.

1) The Metros were made in Japan before I believe.

2) Sadowsky has been sharing a booth at NAMM for a long time with Baer Amplification in the past.

So, I don't see a problem here, yet

 

[BergerHead]

Talking Metro, i just offered me a NOMOS Metro Neomatik for x-mas that fits nicely to all of my gear.

 

[gregbackstrom]

The dream arrangement would have been with a Japanese company like Yamaha or Ibanez. They could keep MetroExpress quality very high and really increase the level of distribution.

I agree. Sadowsky distribution rights could help Ibanez flesh out their product offerings a little. Last I checked, there are only a hundred or so models in their current product line!

 

[DJ Bebop]

I missed the botching.

Issues with the Fender Ultra Jazz 5

 

[MAJOR METAL]

I hope the Metro line remains hand built. The quality of the Sadowsky Tokyo shop, has been really great.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Perhaps Roger or a company Rep will chime in on this.....

As they have been

 

[DJ Bebop]

deepestend (Sadowsky employee) made a comment or two over in the Club Sadowsky thread.

And a few here.

 

[slagheap]

I'm optimistic, but only time will provide the answer. I certainly don't blame Roger for making a change, he's been hard at it for a helluva long time.

 

[Nenor]

Life goes on. Things eventually never stay the same. Anyone is entitled to make decisions for himself and even change his mind. Sit back and enjoy the new episode. All good, there's plenty of great basses out there.

 

[DJ Bebop]

I hope the Metro line remains hand built. The quality of the Sadowsky Tokyo shop, has been really great.

I think the problem with the Tokyo shop was It's also a small shop, like Rodger's shop and they were just not getting basses out fast enough. I think I read a long time ago but, I could be wrong, that the Metro basses were made there and then shipped to NYC to be checked and set up then shipped out to the customer.
Someone help me here if I am wrong

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I agree. Sadowsky distribution rights could help Ibanez flesh out their product offerings a little. Last I checked, there are only a hundred or so models in their current product line!

Ibanez does not need variety, but Sadowsky could have given them high end credibility.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I think the problem with the Tokyo shop was It's also a small shop, like Rodger's shop and they were just not getting basses out fast enough. I think I read a long time ago but, I could be wrong, that the Metro basses were made there and then shipped to NYC to be checked and set up then shipped out to the customer.
Someone help me here if I am wrong

I follow Sadowsky’s website, and even the “factory” MetroExpress basses rarely arrive in batches larger than four at a time.