FDC484950

2% duty plus 20% VAT plus £11.50 UPS handling charge.

Isn’t that the old saying - what’s wrong with the music business? It has the word business in it

I received a bass from them in 6-7 days including a weekend, door-to-door. Not bad considering customs clearance and it being delayed in Frankfurt for 2 days (presumably exit customs). However UPS were still showing delivery tomorrow when the van rocked up. I’d not had any invoice for Duty and VAT so had to hurriedly ring the local depot and pay it. Fortunately they texted the driver and he came back an hour later and dropped it off. However... forget about reclaiming the Duty and VAT if you want to return it. I gave up trying to get customs entry details needed (see other thread about Thomann). So I would advise either fixing any issues or don’t buy anything you can’t afford to lose Duty/VAT on if you return. Even more worryingly, I had a long chat with a very helpful person from the HMRC who said that the Brexit deal had not explicitly dais that Duty and VAT can be returned, so even if you do claim, there’s no guarantee you’d be refunded. I gather thinks will become clearer in the summer.

Thanks all, I plumped for the sparkle blue (Sire calls it lake placid blue but it looks more like a sea blue and appears to have a nice subtle sparkle to it (I am a sucker for block inlays, a bit of sparkle and a matching headstock). Due on Monday so fingers crossed it’s a good’un.

I’ve utterly failed in this challenge. However I haven’t purchased a bass in March... yet

That’s looks astonishing for the price - basically £300!

Sounds - good. For me heavy would be over 4.6-4.7Kg. If it’s in the 4-4.5Kg range that’d be fine, plus I’d hope that the alder version might be reasonable. I have a set of Ultralites ready to go on, which will probably improve balance and shave ~300g off the weight.

Hmm the ability to return it with the duty/VAT issue has unfortunately put me off ordering from outside the UK. That is cheap, though!

That’s all very helpful, thank you! Very interesting - I hadn’t considered that. Thanks!

Hi all, I fancy a 5 string super jazz. I initially tried with. Sadowsky MetroExpress, but for the money I wasn’t impressed - tone was good but the low B, although sounding good, was noticeably quieter than the other strings, no matter what adjustments I made - and one of the pots wasn’t working when I received it, so it went back. I’m looking at the Sire version 2 5ers. I prefer a more traditional sound so considering an alder/rosewood (or is it ebony?) model. Given the silly low price can any current owners answer the following? - What’s the weight like? Do they vary a lot of is the weight consistent? - What’s the B string like? - What’s the fit, finish and fretwork like? - Is the tone as good as the YT vids suggest? - How noisy are the single coils? I gather that they’re almost too good to be true at this price, but before pulling the trigger I thought I’d ask for the collective BC take

+1. Both of my dual humbucker basses (Fender Dimension and MM Sterling) have a more scooped sound in the middle position (all 4 coils). However it’s not that pronounced, and they both have 3 band EQ (and the EQ is excellent on both basses), so a tweak with the mid seems to sort it. However the un-tweaked sound is killer for both slap and with a pick

On a more positive note I thought Sadowsky had stopped making strings, but I see an update on their website a week or two ago says that Warwick will now be handling distribution and sales. I do remember when I owned one of the original Metro basses that the Sadowsky steels sounded really nice. Some basses don’t get on with a tapered B string but it really suited the Metro.

I’m not trying to stifle comment on this subject, just voicing an opinion. I wish Roger all the best, he’s made some stonking instruments and he certainly deserves a well-earned retirement. I think I’d best leave it at that as it’s really not that important in the grand scheme of things.

It’s called having an opinion Doctor J. You know, the point of a forum. Quality does matter, but so does integrity.

They launched it, obviously like many brands they have a company in Indonesia make it but it’s still their brand. It’s not MusicMan sold by Cort, is it? The point is if you’re handing basically the whole operation over, why retain the name?

No. Who supplied the sourcing, distributions, sales and warranty? The only reason he did it was to appeal to a wider range of pockets whilst ensuring quality. There’s an extensive interview with him on YT where he explained his reasons for the Metro series. IMHO once he started splitting between cheaper, limited option MetroExpress, the brand dilution started. Sticking your name on an entire range of basses from cheaper Chinese to ltd edition German models that are more expensive than an NYC made, marketed and sold by what might have been considered a rival isnt dilution, its selling out for a nice big retirement package. I don’t blame him at all - in his position I would probably do the same thing. Why not just sell the materials and licensing to Warwick and have call it a Warwick if the name doesn’t stand for something?

It’s about dilution of the brand. It doesn’t really matter what the quality may or may not be when the name on the headstock is meaningless. At least other manufacturers that have cheaper ranges elsewhere generally handle the sourcing, quality control, distribution and warranty. A Sadowsky bass used to mean something. A Sadowsky sold by Warwick is, to me, meaningless.

Not sure about the Japan arrangement. Maybe Roger wanted to go in a different direction. I’ve had a couple of the original Japanese Metro basses and they were excellent. I recently briefly owned a MetroExpress and although in the surface the quality should be the same (the only difference is that there are a few set finishes with no options), It arrived with a non-working VTC pot, very light in weight, but I think mostly a light alder body as the balance was terrible (and it comes with rebadged hipshot ultralites), but the tone was every bit as good as I remember and definitely on a par with the NYC models. Fit and finish was otherwise perfect and it played beautifully out of the box. Case was identical to the Metro series too. There are one or two left for sale in the UK and IMHO a bit of a bargain at well below £2K new! The German Sadowsky basses do not appeal to me at all. It made sense for Sadowsky to use a reputable Japanese manufacturer (whose head spent a year in the Sadowsky workshop learning the craft). It’s not that Warwick cannot manufacture a good bass, but if I want a Warwick I’d buy one. With a Sadowsky I expect it to be either the top end NYC or manufactured at a more affordable price point in Japan. £7K Warwick Sadowskys, even a limited run, are utterly pointless IMHO. And Warwick aren’t exactly known for making lightweight or super jazz basses, are they?

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Well, my Sterling 5 HH arrived from Thomann this week. It only took 6 days inc a weekend door to door, which is pretty good in the circumstances.

Haha. They do seem to have a ton of über-expensive kit. Just Google Warwick! I think they’re largely legit as quite a lot of the higher end custom basses on the Warwick gallery go to Japanese shops/customers.

Roger Sadowsky said that his experience is that lighter basses sounded better. He only chambers the body to save weight because he wasn’t getting lightweight woods anymore. I think there is a difference, bass to bass, but I’m not sure how much is down to different woods or different examples of the same wood. Ash is a perfect example. A super-light swamp ash bass can weigh 3.5Kg, whereas some 70s Fenders top 5.5Kg. Will they really sound identical mated to the same neck, hardware and electronics. And swamp ash isn’t a separate species, just a name for ash that grew underwater. There can be huge differences in cell structure in the same tree. Then there is the drying and residual moisture content. So it’s actually very hard to make any clear judgements about wood. In general, every bass I’ve played with a maple fingerboard has had more fret noise and more clank when played solo, but again I’d probably fail to recognise the difference in a blind test, and even the tonal changes between a passive single coil and active humbucker are quite nuanced. I’ve owned two basses with a wedge neck, a Warwick and an MTD. Despite different body woods, hardware and electronics the basic tone was almost identical. Logically, though, do this test: pluck a string and put your ear to the body, or rest the headstock against something wooden and solid, like a dining table. It amplifies the sound, and it is a distinct sound, without considering the electronics. How much that “sound” actually differs bass to bass may well be the hardware and strings, but the wood still resonates, so no matter how small, there must be some effect.

As I understand it, if you need to return an instrument to the EU, before submitting a claim you need the following info: - name, address, telephone number and UK VAT registration number of the importer (in this case UPS) - date of customs entry - customs entry number (6 digits and a letter) - EPU (entry processing unit) number. This is a 3-digit code and represents the location of customs entry, e.g. Dover is 060 - the precise amount of Duty and VAT paid - the original sales invoice I believe you then need to fill out form C285 online: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-repayment-or-remission-of-import-duties-c285-chief - choose the CHIEF option and in the form choose the option of a private importer without VAT registration and all the details above, plus your details and bank account info, should suffice. It looks like returning the goods is the same as sending the goods outside of the UK. 3 copies of the invoice on the outside of the box. So basically buying from Europe is a clear case of caveat emptor.