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Sadowsky Metroline Vintage PJ 5 - Excessive output from A-string

MentalBass

MentalBass

Mar 1, 2005
130
21
Ontario, Canada
#1
Hey all,

I've been playing a new Sadowsky Metroline (German) Vintage PJ 5 for about a year now. I've read a lot about the historical practice of angling the P pickups downwards towards the outer sides of the fretboard, i.e. according to the radius of the fretboard. The bass came set up like this, but I noticed that the E and B strings were dramatically weaker sounding than the others. The A string had the highest output by far.

So now, I have the bass-side P pickup angled like this: closest to strings at the B-string side, and farthest away from the strings at the A-string side. The treble-side P pickup is angled as it should traditionally be (i.e. according to fretboard radius). This has evened out the output across all 5 strings (still not ideal), but I'm left wondering whether there is something wrong with either the setup, or the pickup.

Any input from you wonderfully knowledgeable lot?

Cheers,

J
 
#3
Not the answer you are looking for but is this a german metroline? Mine has a similar thing - the a string is noticably louder. I think pickup or string height is the issue. Mine is not a vintage and the fretboard radius is pretty flat. I don't much if any angle is needed to the pickups. Fwiw
 
#4
I have the same issue on a few p basses. I set the height with my ears and not eyes like you did. The 5 string required a bit more tweaking as there is 3 strings on one pu half. I had to do some string height adjustments.

I’ve seen great p basses with flat pickups and super angled pickups.

coming from a j type pickup world, I didn’t have the opportunity or as many variables to adjust so I never freaked out about how it looked.

good luck!
 
#5
I appreciate the replies, folks. It helps to hear that I'm not the only one. I gave up on trying to angle the pickups the way they're "supposed" to be, and settled on pickup height that resulted in even volume across all strings. If it sounds good, it is good, y'know?

And yes, it's a German Metroline.
J
 
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#6
MentalBass said:
I appreciate the replies, folks. It helps to hear that I'm not the only one. I gave up on trying to angle the pickups the way they're "supposed" to be, and settled on pickup height that resulted in even volume across all strings. If it sounds good, it is good, y'know?

And yes, it's a German Metroline.
J
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hello can you write a review about this bass ?cause i am close enough to buy it
 

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