buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
A good bass is a good bass. I've never heard of a good instrument that would not work live. You are thinking too much.
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Umm, some guy named Will Lee played one live every night of the week on the David Letterman Show if I recall, sounded pretty good
Every time that I've heard somone playing a Sadowsky live, its always sounded awesome. I attribute 75% of that to the quality of the basses and 25% of it to the players themselves who were great in their own right. Roger himself is a very good guy and has the kind of company you feel good about patronizing.
If Sawowskys looked less like Fenders and had fanned frets, I'd really be interested in one.
If Sawowskys looked less like Fenders and had fanned frets, I'd really be interested in one.
Doug Parent
Supporting Member
Sad pre specs 40hz and 4Khz on the bass/treble boost circuit. Lots of valleys when you start cranking. My favorite tone on every MV5 I've ever had (5?) Was cranking the active treble and then cutting a lot using the passive roll off. Left TON'S of upper mids to cut through with. I know. Counter intuitive but it works.
In the (almost) three years I've owned and played my Sadowsky I've used it in small churches, small bars, megachurches, festivals and a couple stadiums. Never had a problem with the Sadowsky tone live, but I also tend to bypass the onboard preamp and work any EQ from my amp itself. Any issues with the bass sound in the FOH has always been a direct result of an incompetent soundman, not the bass itself.
FYI - At the 55th minute in this video Roger says the preamp produces a sound that is scooped in the lower mids.
All I care about is the sound. The semantics of how it gets there I leave to engineers.
All I care about is the sound. The semantics of how it gets there I leave to engineers.
For a while, Roger was ruling the Late Night shows. Besides Uncle Will, Mike Merrit on Conan was playing a Sadowsky as well as Ricky Minor on the Tonight Show with Leno had numerous Sadowskys. Those guys didn't sound too shabby live either.Umm, some guy named Will Lee played one live every night of the week on the David Letterman Show if I recall, sounded pretty good
I've gotten compliments from FOH engineers on what my Metros give 'em on the DI line. The NYCs have the same electronics.
As to the question whether they're inherently scooped:
With the treble and bass EQ flat (i.e., no boost), they're not scooped at all. And you still have the passive tone control to roll back the highs if you want, plus the benefit of the pre buffering the pups against the loading of anything downstream of the bass.
If you want to _emphasize_ the mids, you have to do that on the amp. (Except for the Will Lee models, which do have a mid boost feature.)
As to the question whether they're inherently scooped:
With the treble and bass EQ flat (i.e., no boost), they're not scooped at all. And you still have the passive tone control to roll back the highs if you want, plus the benefit of the pre buffering the pups against the loading of anything downstream of the bass.
If you want to _emphasize_ the mids, you have to do that on the amp. (Except for the Will Lee models, which do have a mid boost feature.)
It's a two band preamp. Why all this argument about "scooped mids" like it's the Spanish Inqusition or something? There are gobs of both recorded studio and live work that demonstrate what that kind of preamp does with a Jazz Bass.
If a player is going for the big wooly P sound driven by mids; then, no, a two band is not how you get there. But, somehow extending that tonal objective to claims that a two band preamp Jazz Bass "gets lost in the mix" is inconsistent with substantial audio and video record.
BTW, two band preamps do NOT do the traditional scooped thing, as in putting a smiley on the EQ. The low frequency bump definitely contains what I consider low mid content. Which is actually where the magic is. Middle and upper mids do get de-emphasized; though, as @Ewo points out, Will Lee had Roger modify the circuit to restore some of those. IME, mids do not help a Jazz Bass to cut through the mix, as the content tends to fall into the lower guitar bands.
But, each to their own. The heavy overdriven mid focused P Bass thing is big with the Indie movement right now. Just depends what you are going for.
If a player is going for the big wooly P sound driven by mids; then, no, a two band is not how you get there. But, somehow extending that tonal objective to claims that a two band preamp Jazz Bass "gets lost in the mix" is inconsistent with substantial audio and video record.
BTW, two band preamps do NOT do the traditional scooped thing, as in putting a smiley on the EQ. The low frequency bump definitely contains what I consider low mid content. Which is actually where the magic is. Middle and upper mids do get de-emphasized; though, as @Ewo points out, Will Lee had Roger modify the circuit to restore some of those. IME, mids do not help a Jazz Bass to cut through the mix, as the content tends to fall into the lower guitar bands.
But, each to their own. The heavy overdriven mid focused P Bass thing is big with the Indie movement right now. Just depends what you are going for.
This is true. You have paid many thousands of $$$ for a bass for which the general population can consistently hear a quality issue when played live, as compared to studio.
All the other possible impacting factors between these two scenarios would likely be irrelevant.
I am truly not a sadow fan for me. however, with that said, they do sit very well in a mix in both live and in studio. I tend to just find US Lakland to be superior in playability and feel.
Turnaround
Commercial User
After listening to Tal Wilkenfeld play live, I would say no. Also, the tone doesn't particularily blow my socks off either. It isn't bad, but I actually prefer my Fender Precision tone... just my humble opinion...
I owned one metro v 70 jazz...it was awesome by itself but sounded too much refined and compressed to my ears when mixed with other instruments. If I had only this bass, maybe I would not notice it, but in comparison to my other primary bass, a G&L JB, wich is passive by the way, it wasn't so forceful and authoritative in the mix. Yeah, it did sit well in the mix, but, despite different gear or eq it did not cut. It was that refined, polished, classy active and slightly compressed behaviour that did not cut like I was used...
I sold it with no regret...my 2 cents
I sold it with no regret...my 2 cents
I presume you had the humcancelling pickups, and were therefore comparing a bass with single coils to a bass with humcancelling?
Sadowsky's sit well. If they don't it's user error. This is a different issue than liking the Sadowsky sound or not.
Thanks
Somewhat old video that I've posted too many times. But, it does show off the Sadowsky sound in the mix.
Bass line is actually a little to busy. But, in my defense, that drummer was so solid that I tended to get a bit exploratory.
