Sadowsky MetroLine 24-5 Modern Black (pre-owned)

Sadowsky MetroLine 24-5 Modern — Solid Black Satin

Say “Sadowsky” and most players picture a Jazz bass — the vintage-correct body, the single coils, that famous preamp sitting behind them. The Modern 24 is the model that quietly does something else. Undersized offset body, two soapbar dual coils, 24 frets and a deep cutaway to get at them, and no vintage reference point anywhere on the instrument. It is Sadowsky’s answer to the modern five-string, built with the same electronics philosophy but pointed at a completely different job.

This one is a German MetroLine, built by Warwick in Markneukirchen on the licensing deal where Roger Sadowsky stays fully involved in design, specification and quality. We have always liked that combination here — Roger’s ideas about how a bass should be voiced, running through one of the best-stocked and best-run wood shops in Europe. Solid Black Satin over a chambered swamp ash body, natural maple neck and board, chrome hardware: it looks like exactly what it is, a working instrument with nothing decorative on it.

Body, Neck & Woods

The body is chambered American swamp ash, and both halves of that spec matter. Swamp ash is the light, open-grained end of the ash family — scooped low mids, a strong fundamental and a bright, ringing top end that keeps a five-string from sounding boxy. Chambering it takes weight out of the middle of the body and lets the whole thing move more freely, which you feel as a bass that resonates against your ribs and hear as a slightly airier, less compressed note. The end result on the scales here is 3.75 kg, which for a 24-fret five with a full-size neck is genuinely light. The Modern body is undersized on purpose too — smaller than a Jazz outline, contoured front and back, with a long upper horn that keeps the balance level on a strap.

The neck is bolt-on maple in a C profile with a maple fingerboard on top, and this is the fingerboard choice that changes the instrument’s character most. The alternative on this model is morado, which is warmer and more percussive. Maple is the opposite: hard, dense, closed-grained, so the attack comes back at you faster and brighter, with more snap on the front of the note and more definition on the low B. Against a satin black body it also gives you that stark two-tone look — pale neck, matte black, chrome. Twenty-four nickel silver frets sit on a 12″ radius, which is flat enough for low action and fast position shifts without choking bends.

Two numbers are worth reading properly. The scale is a standard 34″, so any 5-string set fits and the neck feels familiar under the left hand — Sadowsky gets the tight low B from stiffness and construction, not from extra length. And the string spacing is 19 mm at the bridge with a 47.5 mm Graph Tech TUSQ nut, which is the sweet spot for a five: wide enough to slap and pop cleanly, narrow enough that fast fingerstyle across five strings doesn’t turn into a reach. Twenty-four frets means two complete octaves on every string, and the deep cutaway means the top ones are actually usable rather than decorative.

Condition

This one is in excellent condition. We can find no visible wear — the satin black is unmarked front and back, the maple board and the frets are clean, and the chrome hardware has no pitting or scuffing. Satin finishes normally tell on an instrument faster than gloss, because handling polishes the matte surface into shiny patches around the forearm and the back of the neck. There is none of that here.

Electronics, pickups and hardware are all original and working as they should. The neck is straight with a normal amount of relief, and it is still wearing its factory Sadowsky Blue Label strings. The serial on the back of the headstock reads SML F 004525-24 under the Made in Germany stamp.

It ships in the original Sadowsky Portabag. Case candy, strap and cable are not included.

Electronics, Sound & Feel

Two passive Sadowsky soapbars, both dual coils, sitting in what Sadowsky calls the modern positions — further apart than a Jazz pair and pushed toward the ends of the string. Dual coils do two things a single coil cannot. They cancel hum on every setting, so you can stand next to a wall of stage lighting or a laptop rig and hear nothing, and they read a wider slice of the string, which fills out the low mids and thickens the note without you having to boost anything. The bridge pickup on its own has bite but no thinness; the neck pickup alone is round and heavy; both together, balanced flat, is the sound this bass is really built around — even, wide, and clean enough that a compressor barely has to work.

Behind them sits the Sadowsky 2-band preamp: volume, pickup balance, a stacked treble/bass knob and the Vintage Tone Control. The EQ is boost-only by design, and the voicing is the reason people buy these — the bass shelf adds weight low down without any woof in the low mids, and the treble shelf lifts air and string noise rather than harsh upper-mid glare. The VTC is the clever one. It is a passive treble roll-off that works in active mode and in passive mode, so you can take the top off a bright maple board without touching the preamp, and pulling that same knob bypasses the preamp entirely. That is your safety net if a battery dies mid-set, and it is also a genuine second voice — passive, slightly softer, with a real tone control.

Who is it for? Anyone who wants Sadowsky build quality and Sadowsky electronics without the vintage costume. It is a modern five for modern gigs — worship, pop, fusion, function bands, session work, anywhere you need a clean, hum-free, full-range five-string that sits in a dense mix without a fight and does not colour the track. At 3.75 kg it is comfortable for a long night, and the Modern body balances better on a strap than most 24-fret basses this size. Full German MetroLine build, in excellent condition, at well under what a new one costs — this is one of the smartest ways into a Sadowsky five that we know of.