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Warwick to become 'Exclusive Licensee' to Sadowsky!


warwickhunt

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  • 2 weeks later...

The new MetroExpress/Warwick were announced for july, and were finally expected to be in stock this week @Thomann.

But now the estimation changed to 5-7 weeks for the 4 strings and 7-9 weeks for the 5 strings.

Somehow I think this is not the last delay ....

Edited by TonyMontana
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  • 4 months later...

Thread revival. It seems that Warwick have now added Sadowsky instruments to their annual Limited Edition series. 

https://www.bassgearmag.com/sadowsky-press-release-sadowsky-metroline-masterbuilt-limited-edition-2021/

The basses look really nice, don't get me wrong. However, the price tag of $6,999 for the 4 string 'Masterbuilt' and $7,100 for the 5 string 'Masterbuilt' means that a 'Masterbuilt' Sadowsky by Warwick is about $1,000 more expensive than the current NYC Sadowsky instruments available for sale on the Sadowsky site which were actually built by Roger Sadowsky and his original team. 

Yes, the Masterbuilt instruments are released in limited numbers and feature some exotic woods, but you could probably provide Sadowsky NYC with a similar spec with a custom order for pretty much the same price, with the added benefit that the bass would actually be made by Roger Sadowsky and that it would be made to your own individual specs. I'm guessing that the Masterbuilt line is designed to cover the demand for high spec custom ordered Sadowskys now that the Sadowsky team in NYC is a lot smaller. I don't doubt the Warwick Masterbuilt quality at all, it is just tough to get my head around the notion that a instrument made under a licence can be considerably more expensive that 'the real thing', so to speak. 


 

Edited by thodrik
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Sadowsky now being reduced to a joke brand under the helpful "management" of Hans Peter Wilfer. That guy must have a massive trophy cabinet filled with brands he's destroyed, screwed over, claimed  credit for inventing their products and generally being a tool.

He now goes over tonight to the cabinet, looking at the Spector, Alembic and Status Graphite trophies he has collected and now adds the Sadowsky trophy knowing that nobody will buy them as the pricing structure is now more ludicrous than Musicman's recent announcements which has no doubt been sponsored by "Mickey Rooney's crazy Pills."

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The crazily priced ones are a limited run of 30 basses for all those getting their panties in a twist about these, even the Metroline ones are a limited run of 100. Warwick do this sort of thing every year, they're always expensive and not meant to represent the regular ranges. 

This one looks the nicest IMO:

Sadowsky-MasterBuilt-2.jpg

 

Edited by lemmywinks
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51 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

The crazily priced ones are a limited run of 30 basses for all those getting their panties in a twist about these, even the Metroline ones are a limited run of 100. Warwick do this sort of thing every year, they're always expensive and not meant to represent the regular ranges. 

This one looks the nicest IMO:

Sadowsky-MasterBuilt-2.jpg

 

I think the point made earlier was that despite being masterbuilt and limited run, the fact that you could spec that bass, or even something more for yourself  direct from big Rog for the same price or less from the original team, rather than a licensed team.

 

For that reason we think HPW is probably taking the Michael or smoking crack

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27 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

I think the point made earlier was that despite being masterbuilt and limited run, the fact that you could spec that bass, or even something more for yourself  direct from big Rog for the same price or less from the original team, rather than a licensed team.

 

For that reason we think HPW is probably taking the Michael or smoking crack

Exactly, most NYCs are made on a limited run of 1, so I don’t get how a Warwick made run of 30 identical spec basses under a Sadowsky license agreement is somehow more special than a Sadowsky bass built to your own individual spec by Roger Sadowsky himself.

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2 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

I think the point made earlier was that despite being masterbuilt and limited run, the fact that you could spec that bass, or even something more for yourself  direct from big Rog for the same price or less from the original team, rather than a licensed team.

I just wonder how long you would wait and how much you'd actually pay for a new NYC build ordered now, given the worldwide craziness (shipping, Covid etc etc). 

Warwick Custom Shop does make nice stuff but I'm not entirely sure what parts for these Sadowski by Warwick Custom Shop basses are actually made there - is it the hand assembly and fittings and finish which differ or are the basic parts from NYC stock? 

Does anyone else remember when the Metros first came out - I think they were £1500 - about the price of a concurrent Stingray - probably mid/late 2000s? I was very tempted but didn't take the plunge - I've played one or two and they're very nice.

2 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

How come pretty much everyone knew this would happen apart from my old mate Rog?

Yeah I wonder - however the cynic in me does wonder if Roger is gradually exiting from the business and they will eventually just be made by Warwick or from the Far East? 

I presume the initial quality issues with the Metrolines has now been resolved? 

Edited by drTStingray
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3 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

I think the point made earlier was that despite being masterbuilt and limited run, the fact that you could spec that bass, or even something more for yourself  direct from big Rog for the same price or less from the original team, rather than a licensed team.

 

For that reason we think HPW is probably taking the Michael or smoking crack

You could spec it yourself and order from Roger, that's true. What's also true is that Warwick have already done that, planned a small run of them, taken pictures, comissioned demo videos and offered them for sale which is an entirely different thing. 

 

The good news is that you aren't obligated to buy from either manufacturer. Never seems like HPW has these limited run instruments gathering dust around the factory and they seemed to be aimed more at collectors, I'm going to go out on a limb and say these will sell out and HPW will make a tidy profit on them just like all the other limited runs seem to.

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