Sadowsky Modern Jazz

This is my second Sadowsky bass (my other one is the blue one mentioned below). The layout is basically the same as my other one. Maple/maple neck, ash body, gorgeous caramel sunburst over a quilted maple top. Gold hardware, Schaller bridge, Hipshot D-Tuner. This one doesn't have the passive tone control, although I'll upgrade that shortly. I bought it used.

Much the same as my other - amazing! It's interesting to have one bass with and another without the passive tone control - you'd think you'd need the extra functionality, but I'm not sure it's absolutely necessary. Sure, I'm going to have one installed on this bass, but really, the bass sounds amazing as it is, so I certainly wouldn't say it needed the extra control.

Again, same as my other bass. Being used, it's got a few little dings, but nothing worth worrying about. Also, the bass is 5 years old, and it's nice to see that after that period, it still looks to be a great shape, which is a testament to the original build quality.

It's been sturdy enough to have survived 5 years and to still look near mint. One thing that was interesting was that, when it arrived, it had taken 4 weeks to get to me (seriously!!) This is in December/January, so you can imagine the temperatures it had to endure. I took the bass out of the case, and the neck had straightened a bit too much, so I gave the truss rod a quick tweak, and it was back to amazing! And I haven't needed to touch it since.

Roger's been quite helpful sorting me out with a new passive tone control, and also fixing up a few little problems with my other bass. Again, I've no doubt that my being in Europe makes the whole transaction far more difficult, but he does seem very willing to get things sorted out.

As per my other review.

I had my bass made for me in late 2001, and it was delivered in 2002. Made in USA, it has 21 frets and is a four string model. The controls are volume, pan, passive tone control, bass/treble (stacked), and a switch for the preamp. The pickups are two Sadowsky Jazz humbuckers, controlled by a Sadowsky preamp. Neck is maple/maple, and the body is ash with a quilt top. Colour is trans blue.

I'm a fairly eclectic style of player, and will play almost anything. I use all the usual techniques - fingerstyle, pick and slap/pop, and the Sadowsky feels equally at home with each of them. The sound is incredible. The bass frequencies in particular are very full sounding, yet very focussed. The one thing I've definately found is that it has an amazing ability to sit in a recorded mix very well, and with very little attention required to the eq. It's a natural studio bass.

The finish of the instrument was perfect, and displayed exactly why Sadowsky has earned the reputation of being one of the top shelf builders at present. Amazing fret job, and just a simple neatness to the whole instrument that you don't usually see. The only problem I had with the bass was that it came fitted with 45-105 strings, as per their suggestion, but I found they felt too heavy on the bass, and moved over to my usual 40-100.

I couldn't see any situation where this bass wouldn't shine. It's a solidly made instrument with a great sound, and my only concern would be someone stealing it! Recently I've noticed the polepieces on the pickups have started to rust slightly, and I'm not terribly impressed by that, as I've always taken very good care of the bass.

As I live Europe, I've not been able to take full advantage of Sadowsky's customer service, so it would be difficult for me to give a fair evaluation. I would say, however, that for a North American customer, the service would be difficult to beat.

I've been playing for over 20 years. The only thing I wish I'd asked is whether the fact that I don't live in America would be a problem for them, as I get the impression that it is. But despite all this, I'd still buy another if it was stolen - in fact, I have bought another!! I've got a fairly large collection of basses, and while I won't say that the Sadowsky can cover every aspect of every bass I own, it is without a doubt the most complete instrument I've ever owned. I honestly can't think of any improvements I'd make to the bass - maybe a slightly nicer quilt top, but that's being REALLY picky!