Killerfridge

Holy moly that sure is a piece of wood, that's exactly the look/grain that I'm looking for in my build!

I think some dead spots are just more pronounced than others. I can't find any on the basses that I own (I'm there they're there, just minimal/unnoticeable). I tried a Fender Custom Shop P the other week, and there was a dead spot so bad that I think I would have avoided even playing near that note - it was about half the volume and sustain of everything around it

Super cool, I've only heard great things about these Alusonics

To be fair, I'm pretty target audience for it; I am a big fan of both Nathan East, the Laney Digbeth line, and your reviews! Can't say I'm surprised to see the video, but I clicked on it thinking it was a BGM review!

It's a great video, got pushed to me naturally by 'the algorithm', so was nice to see just appear!

Can't believe I forgot this beast

That's much prettier than their previous version of the Ant

They were made by Yoshi Kikuchi, who originally founded Atelier Z and worked in Rogers shop. You might be thinking of the original MiJ MetroExpress

Yeah I guess that's probably a good analogy, although I would say its more like the Squire custom shop costing more than the Fender Custom Shop. I just don't really get what the market positioning of the Sadowsky Metroline is anymore. When they launched it originally, and it was run by one of his protégés in Japan I got it: they were the same as the NY ones, except you couldn't get custom options. That was it, that was how Roger positioned it on his website too ("If you don't want custom colours/woods/chambering, just a 'standard' Sadowsky, buy the metroline". They didn't even say Metronline on the headstock, they just didn't say NYC.). When he moved production to Germany with Warwick, there was a price creep, but they also made improvements (just-a-nut, invisible frets etc.). But now they it's very easy to buy one from Warwick that costs more than the NYC ones, just without the 'prestige' of saying either Warwick Masterbuilt or Sadowsky NYC.

Most of the big boys/girls have been mentioned already, but there's a couple that sometimes fly under the radar: Federico Malaman Vincen Garcia

Also, looks like Trickfish are doing pickups

The Masterbuilt Metroline series is a conundrum for me. It's Warwicks master builders, and they are some of the best in the world so I get the price point. But when the price of the Warwick shop exceeds the price of Rogers NY shop, but you get a "Metroline" stamp on it, as if to say "Well it's not a real NY Sadowsky", it just feels weird. It's almost a disservice having the Sadowsky name attached for all parties involved.

That's about right - I was in the shop last year and they gave me a new price list that starts around £3.5k

Fair enough. I know little enough about either company, but my initial thought when I saw the two-tone Headstock with the big "A" was Alpher - for all I know Alpher is based on their design!

The headstocks look like they've taken "inspiration" from Alpher, no? At least that's my first impression