New Bass stuff at NAMM 2026

[Sean]

13 hours ago, Misdee said:

New Sadowsky Special Editions for 2026:

 

 

The Masterbuilt  for 2025 was £8000+ and the Metroline Special Edition about £4300. These are not likely to be any less expensive. 

 

I'm not at all keen on a satin finish on any of the Metroline basses, let alone a Special Edition model. Gloss looks more finished and is much more durable in the long term. The Masterbuilt looks very nice to me. It's an awful lot of money, though.

£8k+ for what it is seems excessive to say the least. It makes Fodera, Spector USA, Valenti and F Bass look like bargains in comparison. If you look at European builders like Sei, Overwater, Brooks, Shuker etc, you're paying a heap of extra money for one of Roger's finest. 

Good work if you can get it and all the best to him but pound for pound, I just don't get it. 

[Killerfridge]

5 minutes ago, Sean said:

£8k+ for what it is seems excessive to say the least. It makes Fodera, Spector USA, Valenti and F Bass look like bargains in comparison. If you look at European builders like Sei, Overwater, Brooks, Shuker etc, you're paying a heap of extra money for one of Roger's finest. 

Good work if you can get it and all the best to him but pound for pound, I just don't get it. 

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.

[Killerfridge]

Also, looks like Trickfish are doing pickups

[Sean]

3 minutes ago, Killerfridge said:

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.

Wow. I didn't know that. 

It's a bit like custom shop Squier being more expensive than Fender. Sort of. 

Either way, now you've explained it I get it even less.

 

I could go to Woodstock and place my Spector order in person for that money. 

[SumOne]

11 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

 

Then again, I’m skint…so. Meh.

2 hours ago, BassApprentice said:

Basically my situation too.

 

Bae money for any of the shiny new stuff, still nice to look 😂

 

 

There is the NAMM 'Not Available until Mid May' thing, but I tend to think even more long-term when it comes to the expensive basses. If someone here wants to buy the Dingwall Sol in May 2026 then I'll happily take it off their hand in May 2027 for £1k cheaper once a 'NAMM 2027 must have' new paint-job is available. 

[Killerfridge]

13 minutes ago, Sean said:

Wow. I didn't know that. 

It's a bit like custom shop Squier being more expensive than Fender. Sort of. 

Either way, now you've explained it I get it even less.

 

I could go to Woodstock and place my Spector order in person for that money. 

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.

[BigRedX]

IIRC the MiJ Metrolines were made by ESP. I'd rather have a Japanese ESP bass than a German Warwick.

[BassApprentice]

17 hours ago, Misdee said:

I've just found out these are two different shades of gold. The "Donald Trump" bass is Liquid Gold ( on the right), the other bass is Molten Gold, which doesn't look quite as bad to me.

 

It's hard to tell with such scant images. You would think if EBMM wanted to show these basses off they would supply some better pictures, i.e so we could see what these basses actually look like on the cold light of day rather than treating us as if they are doing us a favour letting us look. 

 

[acidbass]

16 hours ago, BassAgent said:

I dig that Aguilar. I have an endorsement elsewhere. But I really dig that Aguilar.

Me too.  I love a front-ported vertical 2x10.  Can't hack the 40hz Bass control on Aggie gear tho.  Way too low a frequency centre to be usable as anything other than a cut IMO.

[Killerfridge]

41 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

IIRC the MiJ Metrolines were made by ESP. I'd rather have a Japanese ESP bass than a German Warwick.

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