To be a modern musician means dealing with endlessly-shifting challenges related to styles, gigs, gear, and technology. It’s no different for luthiers, who have to deal with changing tastes and trends, ever-increasing competition, and environmentally-driven material shortages. Few have fielded these issues better than Roger Sadowsky, the absolute OG of the high-end Fender-style bass market. Sadowsky’s brand was literally built on necessity: The demand of 1980s Gotham session bassists and guitarists who needed a single, versatile instrument that could cover all the bases, so to speak—one they could tote on subways, in cabs, and in crowded studios, as they rushed through their busy day of record dates and jingles. Over the course of five decades, Roger has seen it all, spending much of the time adapting, evolving, innovating, and advancing the bass guitar, to the benefit of us bassfolk. His latest foray is into the 6-string bass realm. That’s just one of the reasons we were long overdue for a chat with him at his Long Island City shop, in the shadow of Manhattan.
Let’s begin with your recent partnership with Warwick Basses, how did that come about?
I had been manufacturing my Japanese MetroExpress line for about 20 years, and my partner in Japan was only focused on the Japanese market. That meant I had to handle all sales outside of Japan. As I’ve gotten older, I just want to be at my workbench, not dealing with sales or having to hire someone to handle sales. So for a couple of years I thought about who I could partner with that had both a great factory and worldwide distribution. I woke up one morning in early January 2019 and I said to myself, Hans Peter Wilfer of Warwick is the guy. I wrote him an email explaining that I was moving my license and that I thought he would be the best person to partner with. A few hours later I got an email back saying “Roger, I’m so excited, let’s meet at NAMM.” By August we had a signed agreement and we launched in January 2000. The first couple of years were difficult due to the pandemic and getting the MetroExpress line just right, but now the MetroExpress basses, which are made in China, are amazing. I think for a thousand dollars they are the best basses on the market in their price range. And the MetroLine series made in Germany, pretty much duplicates everything I’ve ever done and more. Warwick is able to make models I couldn’t even start to think about tooling up for and getting the hardware for. Their facilities in Markneukirchen, Germany are amazing and the whole operation is carbon neutral. Recently Hans Peter’s son Nico became the CEO and he’s brilliant and very talented. I couldn’t be happier with the partnership.
How does that affect your New York City shop?
Since the pandemic and with the Warwick partnership, I’ve downsized the shop by 50%. I’m only doing custom orders and orders through my website. All of the production instruments are being done by Warwick. We make between a dozen to 15 basses per month at the New York City shop.
That seems to suit your style.
It does. What I most enjoy is working directly with the player, and I’ve been doing that for the majority of my career. I had an epiphany in 1982, that as much as I love making guitars, when I’m done, that guitar can’t love me back. All the joy, all the satisfaction, was dealing with the person who was getting that instrument and playing it. So I’ve always tried to keep my business small enough to do that. There were periods where I had 12 employees, making 30 instruments a month, selling to dealers, but now I get to just interact with the players.
The guitar-making world has been dealing with challenges in getting materials for awhile now, how have you dealt with that?
I think the industry as a whole has opened up to using new materials and we’ve embraced that. We have been using roasted maple necks and master grade figured roasted maple bodies, but supply is still a huge issue. You wouldn’t believe the amount of time I spend sourcing woods. More recently we’ve been using a body wood called Okoume. It kind of looks like a lighter colored mahogony and it’s very lightweight. It has become one of my favorite woods and the entire MetroExpress line has Okoume bodies. Those are coupled with maple or Morado fingerboards. Lately we’ve been experimenting with roasted pine bodies, which is what Fender went to as an alternative to swamp ash in their production basses because swamp ash is difficult to source now. We did tests of six different alternative body woods and roasted pine scored the highest, to my ears. We will now offer it as a body wood.
Is the roasting process mainly about speeding up the drying of the wood?
It’s not just about drying the wood, it’s what it does to the wood. The roasting process was developed in Scandinavia over 30 years ago to make wood used for outdoor decking more weather resistant. When you put a drop of water on a piece of roasted wood it doesn’t soak it in, it stays on the surface. What roasting does is break down the wood. Wood is normally hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs moisture in humid weather and releases moisture in dry weather. This has long been the bane of guitars, violins, and even piano soundboards. When the wood is roasted the technical term is “torrified.” The cell walls break down and the wood loses its ability to absorb or release moisture, therefore the wood becomes much more stable and more resistant to changes in the weather. Now it is a little darker sounding. If you came to me as a funk player looking for the ultimate maple neck slapping sound I wouldn’t recommend roasted maple because it’s a little warmer and you lose that real high end ping.
You mentioned using Morado fingerboards, what do like about that wood?
I got turned onto Morado, which is also known as Bolivian Rosewood, by Stuart Spector in 1979. I fell in love with it because I never loved East Indian Rosewood, especially for basses. It’s warmer than maple but it lacks definition to me. The Morado brings a lot of rosewood type character, but it’s a tighter grain wood than most rosewoods. It’s silky smooth to the fingertips and it has more definiton while still remaining warm.
What are your thoughts on the single-cutaway basses you make?
It’s a fantastic model. At first I was a little skeptical about single cutaways because most of the ones I saw I did not find aesthetically appealing. So my first goal was to design one that I thought was pleasing to the eye. We made a few and each one of them blew me away by how much more solid and even every note was, all across the fingerboard. I realized the extra neck to body contact made a major sonic difference. I think it brings a lot to the table, and some players are realizing that. Others are just not fans and that’s fine, too.
Before we talk in-depth about your new 6-string models, what else is on the horizon?
I’m bringing back my satin series, which we did from 2017 to 2019; it was very popular. We’re trying to do a little more affordable, foot-in-the-door model here at the New York City shop. They’ll have either roasted pine bodies with maple fingerboards or Okoume bodies with Morado boards, both with satin finishes. We won’t take custom orders for them but they’ll be in the available instruments page of our website. I’ve also reconnected with my original electronics designer, Alex Aguilar, who was a big part of Aguilar Amplification and then worked for Fender and StewMac. We’re brainstorming some new ideas on the preamp side.
Let’s turn to your two new 6-string models. What led you to build those?
In 2023, a terrific 6-string bassist named Errick Lewis came to see me to say that he hadn’t been able to find a good Fender-style 6-string Jazz Bass, and to ask if I would build one. It occurred to me that through my partnership with Warwick I would have the opportunity to come out with an instrument, as they are set up to build 6-strings, which we are not. I approached them about it and they were enthusiastic. I knew from the start that I wanted to do two models: A traditional Jazz Bass-style and a model based on what I call my “modern position” 24-fret 5-string, which has two soapbar pickups. We started the R&D process and I spent a lot of time researching the specs of all of the 6-strings on the market to get a consensus. Then I reached out to Steve Bailey, who is a Warick artist I’ve known for years. I ran my ideas by him and he was very helpful confirming my instincts. I brought in Errick for some listening tests on the pickups and then I visited the Warwick factory last fall to make the final tweaks. Warwick did the YouTube videos with Steve, Nico, and me playing and talking about the basses, and the reaction to the two protoypes at NAMM was fantastic.
Forgive me for pointing out that you had long refused to make a 6-string, partly because of the guitar-like tone of the C string.
I was always concerned about the tone of a C string on a 6-string bass. Honestly, I never loved what some bassists did with the 6-string. I found players like Nathan East and Melvin Lee Davis to be among the 6-string bassists I liked best. I remember talking to Nathan about it and he told me whenever he does clinics, he reminds everyone to “play the bass.” That being said, I kept the 6-string scale length at 34”, which I think helps the tone of the C string as much as possible. A lot of companies make 35”-scale 5- and 6-strings, feeling the extra length is the magic bullet for a tight B string. But I’ve always been told that my 34”-scale B strings are tight and that enabled me to have the better-sounding 34”-scale for the C string. Also, I realized that I can have my personal opinions of what I like and at the same time understand that there are musical players out there who want a 6-string.
Let’s get into the components. What was the thought when it came to body and fingerboard woods?
To offer our usual combinations of woods on the two production lines, with more choice on wood combinations at the Warwick custom shop level. That’s where the prototypes were built. With regard to the fingerboard, we’re doing an interesting experiment with Steve Bailey right now. We’ve built him three fretless J-style 6-strings: one with a Snakewood fingerboard, which is what his Warwick signature bass has, another with an Ebony board, and a third with a maple board with a hard poly finish on it. That’s all part of the R&D process I enjoy in the partnership. We’re both committed to a process of continuous improvement and we’re not stuck in anything we’ve done previously. We’re always trying to make the instruments better.
How about the string spacing?
That was part of my getting a consensus of what’s out there. Many sixes use the Fender spacing of 19mm, which is what our 4- and 5-strings are, and there are a good number of 17mm sixes, too. So I went with 18mm spacing as the mean. Steve Bailey felt it was comfortable, as well.
What about hardware and the headstock design?
Our bridges are cast metal or brass on our existing lines, with stainless steel string retainers, so we obviously had to tool up for the new spacing and extra string. Same with our Just-A-Nut III nuts, which are made of white Tedur. The tuners are the same as our other models. As for the headstock, we thought about a 4 and 2 alignment, along the lines of our 4 and 1 5-strings, but from a symmetry point of view we decided that 3 and 3 worked best. That meant we had to redesign the headstock shape and move the logo. By the way, I’m sure these will be the lightest 6-strings on the market. There’s a little added weight from the slightly bigger neck and bridge, and the added string and tuner, but like all of our basses, the body is chambered.
String set-wise you’re adding a C string.
That’s simply a matter of tooling up to make the C string. I think ours will be a choice of either .30 or .35, to correspond with the two set gauges we offer. The bigger news is we are adding a more affordable third series of strings to our Blue Label and Black Label lines, called Silver Label. They’re made in China, where we found an excellent string manufacturing company.
Lastly, how about pickups and electronics?
Pickups were the main thing we were testing when I had the two prototypes at my shop for a month. As mentioned, I brought in Errick to do some listening tests and we worked on pickups for both the MetroLine and the MetroExpress 6-string series. A key in general is that pickup location is as important as pickup design. We have our J-bass styles and our modern location soapbar pickups that are a little closer to the bridge. They still have a J-bass quality but they’re a little tighter and punchier, with a wider tonal spectrum, including some P-bass flavor. I’ve always done a lot of P/J configurations, though not for the 6-string at this early stage, and what I’ve been doing more and more of recently is P and soapbar configurations. The P output is always hotter than the J output, but a soapbar in the bridge position can hold it’s own against the P.
As for the preamp on the 6-strings, it will be our our standard onboard Sadowsky preamp with volume, pickup balance, vintage tone control/active bypass, and the active two-band bass and treble boost.
What will the full line of production 6-strings consist of?
The MetroLine will have three different versions: 24-fret Modern, 24-fret Vintage J -Bass, and 24-fret Standard J-Bass. The available woods will be a chambered ash body with a maple neck and fingerboard or a chambered Red Alder body with a maple neck and Morado fingerboard. The fretless version will have a Tigerstripe Ebony fingerboard. The over a dozen colors and finishes the MetroLine 4- and 5-strings come in will be available, as will lefthand models. The MetroExpress 6-strings are still in development and should be available later this year, but the specs will be similar.
What did you learn from your design and build of the 6-string?
Probably what I learned, or what it confirmed for me is the signifcant time and cost of designing and tooling up for a new instrument. A lot goes into the creation of a model you’ve never made before. The other thing I learned is that I can trust my instincts when it comes to building something for the first time.
Have you had any thoughts about retiring?
I’m never retiring. I just extended my lease at the shop for five years. What I’m spending a good deal of my time on now is building acoustic guitars because that’s what I first fell in love with when I initially began building, in 1970. I’ve decided in my senior years to return to that, while also keeping my focus on the continued development of the bass guitar, which I feel very fortunate to have contributed to over the years.
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By: Chris Jisi