Indigo_blues
New member
Hey just wanted to share with you guys a strange problem I encountered with my Sadowsky Metro MV4.
The bass was purchased from Sadowsky online the previous year and it arrived last Febuary 2009.
On first play the truss rod had to be adjusted slightly cause of fret buzz.
However the thing that got me was a lack of sustain on the 5th fret of the E string. This was a really weird problem which I emailed Roger Sadowsky about and he said he had never encountered this before.
I sent it to Malcolm for a check but he couldn't find anything wrong with it.. initial suspicion was that of a loose fret but the frets turned out fine.
I changed a new set of strings (sadowsky nickels) but the problem remained.
Anyway I lived with it for a year or so..
The sustain seemed to be better at times on truss rod tweaking but sometimes it would be just more obvious again.. only on the 5th fret of the E string.
Finally I got so annoyed a few months ago that I thought about selling the bass.. maybe it was psychological or I was too 'picky'???
But I decided to give it one last shot.... I bought a new set of Sadowsky blue steels 40 gauge (instead of 45 gauge) and installed it...
Viola! to my pleasant surprise the problem disappeared and the sustain on 5th Fret E string was perfect.. :O
There's no audible loss of low end with the slightly thinner gauge string too.
The bass is now 'perfect'! I adjusted the action really low and it plays amazingly well now.
Just to share an odd problem with you guys....
In the end I think its just a problem with the neck wood resonance at a particular frequency which cancels out the resonance on the strings.... a change of string gauge solved it.
Anyone encountered this before?
cheers
The bass was purchased from Sadowsky online the previous year and it arrived last Febuary 2009.
On first play the truss rod had to be adjusted slightly cause of fret buzz.
However the thing that got me was a lack of sustain on the 5th fret of the E string. This was a really weird problem which I emailed Roger Sadowsky about and he said he had never encountered this before.
I sent it to Malcolm for a check but he couldn't find anything wrong with it.. initial suspicion was that of a loose fret but the frets turned out fine.
I changed a new set of strings (sadowsky nickels) but the problem remained.
Anyway I lived with it for a year or so..
The sustain seemed to be better at times on truss rod tweaking but sometimes it would be just more obvious again.. only on the 5th fret of the E string.
Finally I got so annoyed a few months ago that I thought about selling the bass.. maybe it was psychological or I was too 'picky'???
But I decided to give it one last shot.... I bought a new set of Sadowsky blue steels 40 gauge (instead of 45 gauge) and installed it...
Viola! to my pleasant surprise the problem disappeared and the sustain on 5th Fret E string was perfect.. :O
There's no audible loss of low end with the slightly thinner gauge string too.
The bass is now 'perfect'! I adjusted the action really low and it plays amazingly well now.

Just to share an odd problem with you guys....
In the end I think its just a problem with the neck wood resonance at a particular frequency which cancels out the resonance on the strings.... a change of string gauge solved it.
Anyone encountered this before?
cheers
