lowquality.net // Justin Dohrmann

My first decent bass was a black Jackson Concert EX (without the sharkfin inlays or the bound fretboard). It was totally a heavy metal bass. I bought it as a step up from the Epiphone P-Bass copy I had. I played that Jackson bass for a really long time. So long, in fact, that it never even occurred to me to replace it and I ended up, instead, replacing every component on the damn thing (by the time I retired it, it had Grover Tuners, a Leo Quan Bad Ass II bridge and active EMG P-J pickups).

Suffice to say, the Jackson served me well, but I was about to go to college and it was time to move up in the world. I did a lot of window shopping in my favorite music stores, but I was still not seeing the instrument I wanted. Throughout the 1990’s, it seemed that everyone in Hampton Roads was playing “pre-Gibson” Tobias and Roscoe basses. That was the trend. Keith Roscoe makes great instruments but they’re just not for me; too flashy, too many damn knobs and not enough balls.

Fender’s new basses, advertised heavily in the “Daddy’s Home” campaign, were also nice, but just didn’t offer the level of craftsmanship I felt I deserved after paying my dues on that Jackson for all those years. For a while I was scoping out a Candy Apple Red 5-string Jazz Bass, but it just didn’t make me warm and fuzzy inside. I wanted something top-notch but not constructed with a dozen laminates and fifteen kinds of wood. I wanted something simple, vintage in design, but built like a high-end boutique instrument.

Enter Sadowsky Guitars.

I’d first seen Sadowsky’s ads in Bass Player magazine, and thought the basses looked awesome; simple Fender-style designs with impressive options like custom sunburst finishes and figured tops. They also had a Featured Artists list that made my jaw drop: Will Lee, Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, Verdine White, Don Was, and Keith Richards??? Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that, when five or size A-List players and producers use instruments made by a certain manufacturer then that company is doing something right. Sadowsky has way more than five or six A-List players preaching their gospel, and they still don’t give these things away to anyone. Not even Keith Richards.

Like many young bassists of the 90’s, I was really into slapping and popping and that mindset affected my judgement at the time. I was pretty positive I wanted a five string bass, but I was having a lot of trouble finding a five that “fit” because many of the basses I checked out were made with the strings very narrowly spaced. This made it difficult for someone with big hands to play comfortably, especially when using a “thumb-and-pluck” slap technique. Sadowsky boasts a five string bass made with the string spacing of a four. This feature definitely peaked my interest.

Sadowsky also enticed me with their two-band active EQ circuit. A lot of people prefer a three-band, but I can never get a good sound with a “mid” knob. A Jazz Bass, to me, has a built-in mid control when you blend the bridge and neck pickups. That bridge pickup offers all the mids you need to cut through a mix and if you don’t believe me, listen to any Jaco album. An extra knob just confuses things for me, how can I be getting the real sound of the bass if it’s going through all of these crazy electronics? Passive single-coil pickups and an active two-band EQ to boost the signal a bit, seemed, to me, like the best of both worlds.

So, my decision was made. I could get exactly what I wanted from Sadowsky. I took some of the meager savings I had set aside for college (hello, FAFSA!) and bought the most expensive school supply ever: a Sadowsky 5-string Standard with a caramel sunburst Swamp Ash body, and a Maple fretboard (”you’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”). Actually, this is a very basic model, no carved top, no rare woods, no special specs or anything– exactly what I wanted. It’s a basic configuration, but that piece of Ash sings. It is a naturally loud bass with a low-mid frequency honk, exaggerated by the raw single-coil Jazz Bass pickups (they are totally noiseless when blended flat). It only weighs 9 pounds and is balanced perfectly. The bass’ light weight has spoiled me; I can’t bring myself to buy another instrument that weighs too much more than that.

So here it is. It’s been my main bass since 1998; I’ve played every gig since and endured Berklee College of Music with this bass. Sometimes it just feels like an extra arm or leg that I pull out of a gig back and strap on. I guess that seems weird, but I can’t imagine being in the studio or playing live without it. Ever since I bought this bass, I’ve been dreaming about getting my next Sadowsky, which hasn’t been in the cards lately, but the day will come.

I’m not the kind of player that likes to coddle and baby my instruments. It was made to be played. So, yeah, the neck’s finish is wearing through, there’s dings and scratches all over it, but they are all mine. I know I paid a lot for it, but if I hang it on the wall and don’t play it but once a week because I am afraid some stupid drummer might throw a stick in the air without looking, or some drunk might spill beer on it, or a klutzy singer could knock it off its stand, then it would be spotless, but also worthless. That’s like a buying a Ferrari and not driving it. You gotta drive it, man!!