molan

2 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Ooof. That is very nice indeed Barrie.

As nice as #1139?

😂😂😂

1 hour ago, Alanbass said:

Stunning bass. Anyone considering a Custom Shop/Master Built Sadowsky should seriously consider this. I very recently got i  touch them with a view to ordering a german made masterbuilt bass and was quoted nearly £13,000 (yes that's right!) and over a year for delivery. 

Wow, I’d heard about the 12 months or more delivery dates but it sounds like prices have risen further since I last looked!

I guess this one of bought from the US would reach over £7K by the time it landed in the UK. 
 

To a degree, this is going to be simple supply and demand stuff. If you have to wait more than a year for a new one then the demand is certainly there!

Now Sold!

As I slowly edge my way towards owning just a few instruments, this stunning Sadowsky is the next one up for sale.

As an ex-Sadowsky dealer, I had first look at everything that came into the store. This particular one came from a customer in Canada, who had it custom made for him in NYC, and as soon as it arrived I knew it was 'the one' for me. It's quite simply the best J-style bass I've ever owned (and I've owned a LOT!). However, I pretty much only play my, shorter scale, Ritters these days and it seems a shame for this to be sitting on the wall & only taken down once a month or so.

Sadowsky basses really are designed to be pro-level 'gig-machines'. It's hard to explain but they just sit perfectly in a live band mix & that onboard tone control offers so much subtle tweaking across songs - perfect in a covers band environment when you need to go from a clear precise tone to something with more grind & then back right off in pure passive tone control mode.

It's been gigged maybe 10 times in its life and always kept under direct supervision. As a few people here know, I always keep every one of my instruments in excellent condition & this is no exception. It has some swirl marks on the pickguard, a few on the rear and some very tiny marks near the lower strap pin where I'm assuming it was rested on the ground at some point by the previous owner. Fretboard is a, pricey upgrade, Amazon rosewood and all frets, the board itself and the maple neck are in superb condition. The thin nitro finish on the back of the neck shows no signs of wear at all.

Official specs are:

Dark Cherry Burst

Quilted Maple Top - one of those that Roger does so well with amazing depth of colour

Chambered Swamp Ash Body - weighs just 8.2lbs / 3.7Kg

Amazon Rosewood Fingerboard

Mother of Pearl Face Dots (note that this is what the spec says but they look quite plain to me)

Maple Neck with thin Nitro Finish

1.5" nut

21 Frets

20mm Bridge Spacing - EDIT, checked with Roger (and a tape!) and this would have the regular Sadowsky 20mm spacing not 19mm

Sadowsky Humcancelling J pickups

Sadowsky Preamp - Master Volume, Pickup Blend, Vintage Tone Control (with pull for passive mode), Treble & Bass Boost

Current price for a new one of these with these specs is exactly $7,000 / £5,650 - that's excluding any delivery charges, VAT or Import duties. It is now possible to specify a Masterbuilt bass from Warwick in Germany but I don't think it would be any cheaper & the wait list is long - besides, it won't have had Roger's hands on it either, which, for me, was always something quite important as part of the 'brand experience' 😂

I've, therefore, priced it at around 25% off the base price for a new one.

It will come in a Hiscox hard case & with a nearly new Sadowsy neoprene strap (super comfortable and, at just 8.2lbs, great for long sets!).

I can potentially ship almost anywhere. EDIT: Checked direct with Sadowsky, and Gov sources, and this instrument would not require a CITES certificate for international shipping.

27 minutes ago, joe_geezer said:

So whats going to be her replacement?

Sitting next to it is are 2 Ritter Cora’s, an NYC Sadowsky and a pair of early 60’s Fender Js so there’s some choice already available. 
 

Another Ritter is calling out to me though. . . 

On 13/01/2023 at 10:35, Maxlo said:

hi the bass is stil available? thanks

Payment cleared today so it’s heading to Hong Kong next week. 

ON HOLD

A few questions from outside of UK. I have a multi-currency bank account. It’s currently set up to accept € & $, as well as £, but I can usually add other major currencies as well. 
 

Happy to ship internationally at buyer’s cost. 

1 minute ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

The nut width on mine is 40.3mm. One would presume it would be very close to that.

Sounds about right, 1.6”. 

Received a couple of offers on this already but not quite reaching a price at which I want to sell. 
 

Feel free to hit me up with a price offer for a quick sale though

8 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

19mm string spacing, but can be adjusted obvs. I would imagine the nut width would be standard Monarch size.

Yes, it’s that ‘in between’ size of around 1.625”. I can’t get my tape measure to get an exact figure but it’s somewhere between a classic thin J nut and a chunkier P. 
 

As a J player in the main, I’ve never noticed it being particularly wider when playing it. 

20 minutes ago, bassfan said:

That’s lovely Barrie… 😍

Having played, and owned, a few Foderas through the store, I think this is the prettiest top I’ve ever had. 
 

It hangs on the wall right next to where I work every day and every time I look at it, I smile. 
 

However, it just seems a shame that it’s not being used enough when I’m sure there’s someone out there that would play it regularly

NOW SOLD

I’ve realised that, despite its outstanding beauty, I’m really not playing this amazing bass anywhere near enough to keep it. 
 

It deserves to be cherished and played regularly!

It is in immaculate condition as far as I can see and comes with the, upgraded, USA custom teardrop case (much higher quality than the standard versions). 
 

Not sure exactly where Fodera prices stand these days but, with this spec and the highly figured top, I’d imagine it would be pushing £10K new. 
 

Here’s the full description from Fodera:

This Monarch 4 Deluxe was build for one of our international dealers and features the same tone wood and pickup combination as our Victor Wooten Classic: A Mahogany body, Indian Rosewood fingerboard, and EMG P/J’s. This bass delivers a rich, articulate tone with deep, warm lows, clear, bell-like highs, and an overall modern vibe.

This bass also features a dark Buckeye Burl top with lost of dark, intricate figure, as well as tulip inlays at the 12th and 24th frets!

Specs for the Buckeye Burl Monarch 4 Deluxe:

Body Woods
• Monarch
• Mahogany Body
• No Tone Block
• Buckeye Burl Top (Solid)

Neck Woods
• Indian Rosewood Fingerboard
• 3-pc. Hard Rock Maple
• Mother-of-Pearl Dot Inlays w/ Tulips on 12th and 24th frets

Construction Specs
• Birth Date - October 2014
• Dovetail Construction
• 34" Scale Length
• 4 String Configuration (19.0mm Spacing)
• 24 Frets (Large)

Electronics Options
• Fodera / Pope Custom 3-Band Preamp
• EMG P / J Pickups
• Monarch Control Layout

Will come set up with a brand new pack of Fodera strings. 
 

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

5 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

That looks fabulous Barrie. I fitting tribute. Is that 1139 I see on the wall behind him?

It is indeed - both it and the green Roya you can see, were mine at the time and the white Cora is still with me

A little reminder of Vic.

One of my favourite ever pics of him - taken next to a wall of Ritters at the London Bass Show. 
 

I was trying to get a sneaky pic of him in front of those basses and he spotted me - this was a classic Vic response 😂

Some of you here may remember the lovely, and very talented, Vic Davies - store manager at BassGear until his untimely passing way too young. 
 

Vic’s personal dream Ritter was finished just before we lost him 6 years ago and he has now been commemorated by special, and unique, new instrument:

A Cora bass named “The Victor”. It is an absolutely stunning instrument and with a core frosted black theme, white hardware, an amazing ‘dirty Ebony’ fingerboard and a meaty, overwound, humbucker, I just know Vic would be overjoyed with this special tribute ❤️

Full details here:

https://ritter-instruments.com/instrument.php?id=2208

I think the most I’ve ever paid was £6,500 - I sold it for just over £12,000 though so it was a pretty good ‘economic’ purchase 😂

In recent years I’ve bought one at £5,000 but I’ve been recently looking at something that’s around £8,500. 
 

On 18/11/2022 at 11:14, Al Krow said:

Anyone had a chance to try out the MB 58R CMD121 Pure?

 

Liking the spec a lot, particularly the sub 10kg weight & 300W (500W with an extension cab) power, and a much better set of EQ centre points on the amp-head vs the old LM II/IIIs, other than the treble which is still at 10kHz, which seems a little high still to be usable.

 

Choking on the list price though! 

I don’t think they’ll be over here until January. 
 

Looks like a great spec though!

Somebody buy this please 😉

On hold

Completely forgot that I put this up for sale!

How about a big drop to £575?

Beautiful ❤️

On 19/07/2022 at 23:16, Burns-bass said:

To be fair to Bass Direct, building an ecommmerce site with stock management and all the other stuff they need will cost tens of thousand of pounds, and it’s a lot of money to drop when inflation is biting. So they’re not as slick as Thomson or Amazon, but the cash is going to bass players not bald weird billionaires.

It really doesn’t. Building an e-commerce site and setting up stock control within the site is really simple using modern templates and something like Woocommerce. 
 

Anyone with a basic grasp of Wordpress could do this for a few hundred quid. 

If it’s the same one (and it looks like plus the weight is identical) then it was one we imported directly from Japan. 

It was on the wall at LBGS in the year when we had Roger Sadowsky as a guest. 

Roger explained to me why it was a little heavier than many of his Metro models. Because it was designed to look and feel like a classic late 70’s Marcus Miller type thing, he specified solid body ash to keep that big punch tone these were renowned for. 

They were a relatively short run and classified as Ultra Vintage 70’s if memory serves me well. 

At the show Roger was approached by Alex Al who had some shopping issues and had arrived without a bass. At the time he had played with people like Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon etc. 

He had the pick of all the instruments on our stand and Roger chose this one specifically for him as he felt it the closest representation of a classic/vintage Sadowsky tone and would match Alex’s style of playing. 

We had maybe 5-6 Metros on the stand and 3-4 NYCs so it was quite an endorsement to have Roger himself selecting it for the live performance from a top session guy. 

This looks remarkably like the one we had at BassGear. 
 

If so then I know a little history on it

3 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I haven’t, but I think I’d try Bass Bros if I was trading. I know @molan and others really rate them.

I have to say that I can’t rate Will at Bass Bross highly enough. 
 

Friendly, responsive, takes great pics of the gear he has for sale, promotes on Reverb with global coverage etc. 

Payment for goods sold often arrives the same day - sometimes within the same hour as something leaving his store!