carlsim

3 minutes ago, SurroundedByManatees said:

I bought the 5-21 hybrid a few weeks back. A green one with the Pao Ferro fretboard. The tag says it has been made in 2021, so it had been in stock for a while.

 

Given the mixed reviews I kinda expected to have some flaws that would need attention. But actually I can´t find any flaws. The bass plays beautifully with a low action, and there are no sharp fret ends to be found. Fit and finish is better than you´ll see on many USA Fenders in my experience. Soundwise it´s great too, I can´t see a reason to change the pickups or preamp. 

 

The only thing I need to do is change the stock strings. I play them, but they feel a bit rough. So I´ll probably fit a standard set of d´addarios.

 

All in all I´d say these basses can be a very good deal for a modest price.

 

Edit: the only downside is that the headstock decal is as ugly as F*ck. I´ll keep it like this though, as in 30 years this will be one of the rare ones that doesn´t have the decal sanded off.

Completely with you - although I hadn't thought about the headstock from that perspective! I have probably just devalued mine! 🤪

Stock strings are a bit naff... I need to change my fretted one when  get the chance.... I put some EB flats on my fretless - it sings! I with you about the Preamp and pups... mine is nice and quiet and I don't think £200 is worth it just to add the VTC...

It's a funny thing, when I first started playing, i got involved with a local jazz big band playing DB and electric on some numbers. It was a lot of reading dots which was a great learning curve and I did notice that with big bands, arrangement - due to the transposing nature of brass and woodwind instruments, you tend to find yourself reading flat keys a heck of a lot more than sharp keys. That's not to say that ALL big band arrangements are in flat keys, but arrangers definitely seem to prefer flat keys when writing for big bands... that's my experience anyway! 

Now, 30 years down the line of reading gigs, function, theatre work etc. I always seem at ease when I see a flat key signature but pucker up a little when I see 5 sharps! 5 flats.... no worries, 5 sharps... concentrate!! It's not so much of a tone thing, but maybe you get used to hearing your instrument more in certain keys so maybe it becomes more familiar to you? I certainly feel happier playing wise and sound wise when I see flats rather than sharps....

Just my opinion of course!

21 hours ago, Paulhauser said:

I personally would go for a clear plate that is the exact replica of the existing pickguard ( I have a jazz with clear pg and love it the way it is, pic below for reference)

Then I would choose an inverse self adhesive tape / paper/ whatever it is called  (where the color / design / motif is on the adhesive side) that I would cut to a shape that looks cool and covers the cavity and put that to the underside of the guard facing outward so it blocks the view of the cavity. 

 

Yeah my atelier z jazz has a clear plate and clear control cover, exactly as the pic…

luckily, my work has a laser cutter so gonna have a go at making one myself by scanning in and vectorising the image… hopefully if the scan is accurate, it will match up perfectly!

10 minutes ago, Josh said:

I think the best way to describe the difference of having the VTC over the standard EQ is that you effectively have a hi-pass filter which helps tame the treble if it’s a bit too harsh. I can’t speak for the passive tone side because I’ve never used any active bass in passive mode for more than a few minutes. 
 

You can buy just the VTC control individually at a fraction of the price of the whole drop-in unit, but apparently it’s a right faff to install. 

Yeah, I saw the separate VTC option - I'm not sure if I fancy that!

Clear plate is the obvious idea... it just struck me! Any other ideas...??

I have recently acquired a Sterling Ray35 (big SR5 fan, had plenty over the years) and this new has a particularly nice quilted top - see pic! 

It has also been routed nicely around the pup so that just leaves the control cavity to cover if I wanted to leave the scratchplate off.

Any ideas? A chrome cover? Would need to get this made... or maybe a thin aluminum sheet or something which is then powder coated? I'm open to ideas... a black 3 ply small cover would probably look a bit naff... something quite statement-ey??

Anyone else done this? 4 string players are lucky, they can just take the plate off. 5s need a bit more thought....

I find that these days a lot of the cheaper far east instruments are all of a similar quality and standard. They all need a little fettling to suit the player, but that's the deal with cheaper instruments. I don't think manufacturers can afford to try and offload cheap rubbish these days - word of mouth travels quickly these days via 't'net' and can destroy a brand very quickly. The 1st gen of the chinese metro express basses is a great example of that. Roger came out and said himself that he wasn't happy with the first iteration and problems would be fixed on the next batches. Credit to them, I never saw a first gen model but the next batches seem to be great basses for the money. Sires the same - great basses for the money although I don't think they have ever had QC issues like Sadowsky had to deal with on the first gen ME. 

Having said that, I don't think I would have spent £700+ on a ME, just for £350/£400, as others have mentioned, they are a great platform to mod and tinker! 

I keep thinking about the VTC but I don't know if it brings enough benefits to warrant the outlay! I may see if I can pick up a used one to try out. To spend money I like to see an obvious difference, I'm not sure if it would bring me that much to warrant a near £200 spend.

I recently put in a Glockenklang preamp in my Atelier Z DAL5 and that sounds amazing! It has the passive tone, 2 band EQ and is cut and boost rather than just boost. And it is just over half the cost of the VTC. A difficult decision but luckily not an urgent one as my MEs are not my main gigging basses.

9 hours ago, ProjeKtWEREWOLF said:

Only played it for 10 minutes. I got the Minty green and copper one. It's a very nice bass for the money. I wanted a passive J bass, and that's what I got! 😁

The sadowsky metro express basses have a SME or SMX serial on the rear of the headstock… metrolines and other sadowsky basses have simpler serials on the rear… would be quite obvious from the serial on the rear… plus it isn’t just printed, it seems to be embedded into the wood… I don’t have a picture at hand but can post one.

https://www.guitardecals.co.uk

all the information is on the other thread...

3 minutes ago, martthebass said:

For those of you who’ve changed the decal, how easy was it? Can someone give me the lowdown on how they did it before I attack mine? Maybe PM to avoid thread derailment.

I made a thread about this - it isn't totally detailed about the process but should cover most of what you need:

Basically,

sand the headstock (make sure the sanding is nice and even)

apply a few dust coats of your chosen finish (I used a matt finish poly which I buffed to a satin finish...)

wet sand a little and apply the decal

lay on some dust coats to seal the decal and then you can apply a few more heavier coats to level out.

I then wet sanded with 1200 W&D and buffed to a sheen. reassemble.

i couldn't get around not having a very fine outline of the decal showing (you can see it in certain light and angles) but I can live with that.

Hope this helps.

Carl

6 hours ago, mattpbass said:

Looks great but please pop the E string back into the bridge saddle, that extra wide gap is making my OCD hurt. 😅

Yep, spotted this about 2 seconds after I posted the images! All sorted now...

4 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Looks great.

 

The string spacing at the bridge is pretty wack though.

 

To me it looks something like 15mm - 18mm - 17mm - 16mm, from low B to high G string.

 

It's not at all, the E string wasn't in the saddle correctly - all fixed now. It's a great bass for the cash - would be hard pressed to find something this good for £350 new.

Received my CAR 5 string a few weeks ago and only just had the chance to do the decal change and also put a carbon vinyl wrap on the scratchplate as the plain white was booooring!

Hi all... just a quick question to all the B6 users out there...

I have a B6 that I use with my QSC 12.2 as backline and monitoring, much better IMO than a backline amp. Anyway, that's another discussion... The only issue I have is fine tuning overall volume control. I have plenty of headroom, but I don't like to control overall volume on the bass and can't be going behind the QSC or bending down mid-song to alter the volume on the B6. The B6 has a master output volume control for each patch assigned to the right side button (the 4 encoders under the screen) - if I connect a volume pedal to the B6 (I have an old Bespeco one that still works), will that default to controlling this volume control or will I have to assign it in the patch? I just want it to control this volume output globally, I'm not interested in wah control or anything, just for volume so I hope that if I plug it in it will default to this control automatically. Anyone tried this?

I haven't tried it yet, will do when I get time, I just wondered if was as simple as I hoped!

8 hours ago, glassmoon said:

 

Last question... What are the dimensions you used for the decal. The "Sadowsky" part I mean? 

To be honest, Rob already had the Sadowsky logo so just amended the design he already had and added the MetroExpress…

initially he made a mistake and put a space in between the metro and express, but when I mentioned it he sent me another set FOC!

definitely recommended… read the instructions it comes with and you can’t go too far wrong…

don’t do what I did though - as per my thread, I tried to remove a hair in the poly, pierced the decal and it melted!

good luck and post results…

I went here for my decal:

https://www.guitardecals.co.uk

really helpful guy and you get 2 decals for about £10. I saw this as a just in case but it also persuaded me to buy a second bass!

My process:

rub the headstock down

mask up (get some good quality masking tape, I used frog tape for the edge.)

apply a few dust coats of poly (I used rust oleum satin poly)

let it dry for a couple of days and do a very light wet sand with 1200

apply your decal

Apply at least 8-10 very light dust coats of your chosen finish, after this you can layer it on a bit thicker to get the finish you are after…

the question lies with what finish you are after - gloss, satin or Matt. I didn’t bother doing a wet sand at the end and buff, I was happy with what I had. 

hope this helps - certainly improved the overall look in my view and it wasn’t a lot of work. Very gradual and don’t rush it!

carl. 

I have an Atelier Z 2 band preamp for sale. 4 pots, Volume, Volume, Bass and Treble setup. Works great. The only reason I changed it was for a volume, blend bass and treble. This suits me much more as I much prefer a single volume control, otherwise it's a great little system. For reference, the pics show the yellow and purple pickup hot wires so you can identify each of the volume pots.

Will include postage in the price.

Any questions, please ask.

47 minutes ago, pineweasel said:

The fretless fives have caught my eye. Does anyone have any experience of the PJ version of these basses?

That's what mine is... a PJ 5 fretless... I think I must have got one of the last ones Thomann had as they only did the fretless ones in black...

It's great though - a bit of fine tuning for setup but it plays great and as it has an ebony board, tons of mwah!

Carl.

On 20/03/2024 at 16:54, martthebass said:

I picked up a later first Gen fretless one off here and to be honest it's a great bass.  Put together nicely, lightweight but well balanced can't fault it really.  The fretboard is a great slab of ebony, the paint job is gloss (hate cheap satin finishes) and flawless to my eyes  Things I don't like; the headstock decal (yes, I'm shallow) and the adjustable nut isn't the prettiest.

You should do what I did… £10 for a new decal and voila!

sand it off, couple of coats of poly, apply the decal and a few more coats! 
reassemble and the Tesco style logo is gone…

I did my fretless and I’m waiting for my CAR fretted 5 to turn up and I will do the same to that one…

Having just pulled the trigger on a new bass - will do the bass with FREE POSTAGE for 1 week!

11 hours ago, jrixn1 said:

 

The manufacturer (Warwick) states "All basses are lightweight with max. 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg)."   Seems like quite a claim, although I suppose I've no reason to doubt them.

 

https://shop.warwick.de/en/instruments/electric-basses/sadowsky-metroexpress/21-fret-hybrid-pj-bass/22817/sadowsky-metroexpress-21-fret-hybrid-p/j-bass-morado-fingerboard-5-string

 

I've previously emailed Thomann ([email protected]) to ask for the weight of a specific bass (not a Sadowsky), and they did weigh it for me.

That feels about right for my 5 fretless... not super lightweight but certainly not boat anchors either... 9/9.5lb is a good weight in my mind...

My fretless 5 is amazing… I think the early ones were a mixed bag… later ones do seem to have fixed the issues… 

no idea what the new ones are like though.

For anyone interested, i picked up today a Sadowsky Metro Express 5 String in CAR for £369 from Thomann! Considering I paid £479 for a fretless 5 one of these a few months ago, this is a bargain!

I know these had a bad rep in the beginning but the newer versions of the old headstock design were much better... my fretless 5 plays great!

Anyway... just thought I would mention...

https://www.thomann.de/gb/sadowsky_metroexpress_5_21_hybrid_tb.htm - sunburst 5 at £369

The CAR and Greens are also at £369... some of the 4 stringers are even cheaper!! Considering these were £700+ when they first arrived... that's a second hand price for a new bass!

I feel your pain… genuinely I do. 
 

I just had to sell one of my favourite basses to raise some capital…

8 hours ago, glassmoon said:

Soooooooo want this bass. 

Soooooooo broke ass

For the money they can’t be beaten… if it was a p7 I would probably keep it!

I took this in on a trade recently and although it is great and plays amazingly, I just don't need another jazz 5 in the stable. Happy to look at trades - sterling Stingray 35, something with soapbars perhaps, p-bass maybe... would be happy to add some cash to the right deal.

It's brand new, still has the sticker on the plate and comes with a basic fender gig bag. The previous owner bought it new and took it out of the box and put it back as he has about 20 other basses.

It plays really nicely and is a lot lighter than a pervious Sire I had, the maple board and blocks looks great against the sparkly blue. Excellent versatile sounding preamp, for the money, the basses can't be beat. Way better than squires et al. I just don't need another jazz bass which is a shame.

Price is firm at £350 plus postage if needed. I can chuck in a fender hard case if postage is required instead of the gig bag. The case has been repaired with an ABS slurry in places but is still perfectly functional and looks fine. ( I can send pics of the repairs...)

Any questions and trade offers - get in touch!

Carl.