I wanted to share just a little snap shot into my day today dealing with the more boutique aspects of bass ownership.
Looks like I'm going to be taking my All Fender Masterbuilt Jazz bass hybrid.. going to swap to a Sadowsky pre-amp and a set of Joe Barden J pickups.. (photo's included). Having played thru the Sadowsky pre-amp a couple of times, I've definitely decided it's superior to the Fender pre-amp. Moreover, this is how Roger made his name originally before he began building basses.
I was originally going to swap my pickups to the Joe Barden J's for more "hi-fi" tone only, but the problem we had with this project was the pickups have a higher resistance than the standard Fender models and so we were worried we'd overdrive the Fender Preamp.. The Fender pre-amp has no way to adjust it (no on board pot), so we were stuck.. until we called over to Sadowsky, that is.
Frank and I conferenced with Roger Sadowsky and discussed my plans.. At first we got the scare of our lives when Roger said he won't sell his pre-amp to anyone unless they have a Sadowsky guitar.. I could see the look on Franks face (As it was his idea to contact Roger).. but that was a miscommunication on the receptionists part as he didn't say I had a Jazz bass, but rather a guitar. He also assumed this was the case since he knows Joe Barden as mostly a guitar pickup and not a bass pickup. Since Sadowsky made his name selling better pre-amps for Fender basses, I would have been shocked to see him stop selling those to anyone without a NYC bass.. We chatted a bit about the technical marriage of the pre-amp and the pickups. Roger felt that his pre-amp could handle any passive pickup, no matter how "hot" it was.. so we hope to be able to do this without the addition of a "Trim pot".
It's very nice to deal with the people here in the US who make your instrument, and it's components. I feel blessed to be able to do this, as it gives me peace of mind after spending large sums of money on this stuff to know it will work.
Prior to this, I also had a chat via facebook with Dennis Galuszka, the builder of my bass to get his thoughts on this project. So we discussed the technical aspects of the marriage of Fender, Sadowsky and Joe Barden and the two ideas merged together. Both sets of parts are on their way fromt their respective location to my place here in Portland via overnight and I hope to have this all pulled together by the end of this week.
BTW, I had been talking to Frank at Joe Barden (he's now the new owner) for a couple of days and I have to say he's a great guy, with a lot of patience and willingness to help. I know some have had issues in the past with their service, but I can safely say this is a company that takes customers seriously.
I will provide a full review of the project as it comes together over the next week.
Sam
Looks like I'm going to be taking my All Fender Masterbuilt Jazz bass hybrid.. going to swap to a Sadowsky pre-amp and a set of Joe Barden J pickups.. (photo's included). Having played thru the Sadowsky pre-amp a couple of times, I've definitely decided it's superior to the Fender pre-amp. Moreover, this is how Roger made his name originally before he began building basses.
I was originally going to swap my pickups to the Joe Barden J's for more "hi-fi" tone only, but the problem we had with this project was the pickups have a higher resistance than the standard Fender models and so we were worried we'd overdrive the Fender Preamp.. The Fender pre-amp has no way to adjust it (no on board pot), so we were stuck.. until we called over to Sadowsky, that is.
Frank and I conferenced with Roger Sadowsky and discussed my plans.. At first we got the scare of our lives when Roger said he won't sell his pre-amp to anyone unless they have a Sadowsky guitar.. I could see the look on Franks face (As it was his idea to contact Roger).. but that was a miscommunication on the receptionists part as he didn't say I had a Jazz bass, but rather a guitar. He also assumed this was the case since he knows Joe Barden as mostly a guitar pickup and not a bass pickup. Since Sadowsky made his name selling better pre-amps for Fender basses, I would have been shocked to see him stop selling those to anyone without a NYC bass.. We chatted a bit about the technical marriage of the pre-amp and the pickups. Roger felt that his pre-amp could handle any passive pickup, no matter how "hot" it was.. so we hope to be able to do this without the addition of a "Trim pot".
It's very nice to deal with the people here in the US who make your instrument, and it's components. I feel blessed to be able to do this, as it gives me peace of mind after spending large sums of money on this stuff to know it will work.
Prior to this, I also had a chat via facebook with Dennis Galuszka, the builder of my bass to get his thoughts on this project. So we discussed the technical aspects of the marriage of Fender, Sadowsky and Joe Barden and the two ideas merged together. Both sets of parts are on their way fromt their respective location to my place here in Portland via overnight and I hope to have this all pulled together by the end of this week.
BTW, I had been talking to Frank at Joe Barden (he's now the new owner) for a couple of days and I have to say he's a great guy, with a lot of patience and willingness to help. I know some have had issues in the past with their service, but I can safely say this is a company that takes customers seriously.
I will provide a full review of the project as it comes together over the next week.
Sam
