Sadowsky Metroline 21-5 Vintage J 59 Burst Transparent High Polish

Roger Sadowsky established his reputation for outstanding restoration and repairs on guitars and basses almost 40 years ago. In the ’80s, when the price of vintage became out of reach, he started to build instruments from scratch for working musicians, incorporating all improvements he had developed over the years including experience from building acoustic guitars.

He also worked with legendary musicians like Will Lee, Marcus Miller, Verdine White (to name a few) to create unique instruments with a legendary sound heard on numerous recordings.

Roger Sadowsky is today one of the most respected instrument builders in the world. At the head of an experienced team, he continuously works on improvements and innovation to deliver the best instruments for his customers.

Making music with a Sadowsky instrument can only result in complete satisfaction.

Sadowsky Metrolines

The new German-made Sadowsky Metroline is made by Warwick on a licensing deal with Sadowsky where Roger Sadowsky is fully involved and behind all decisions regarding design, branding, and most important quality.

We here at Bass Buddha see this as a great match, the genius of Roger Sadowsky with the incredible strong factory that Warwick has where the Production Manager Marcus Spangler roam controlling everything from bass guitar making to buying woods with great expertise. Marcus has collected over the years one of Europe’s probably biggest amount of woods ready to get build into basses.

So American and German engineering kind of rimes with excellent quality and supreme tone that we all like and know from Sadowsky.

Metroline 21-5 Vintage J

The first thing I notice is how light it is even though it’s a solid alder body it weighs 3.9kg which is very comfortable. The slim C-shaped neck feels smooth easy to play on.

The sound of the bass is very clean with a lot of information in the tone which is the perfect starting point for sculpture your sound in many directions without fighting with the electronics and overdoing EQ to get the result you want.

The alder body gives you a very balanced sound with the mid-range cutting through with a great sustain and extra attack this combined with the Maple fingerboard gives a fast and punchy tone that cuts through the mix.

The classic near-legendary onboard preamp is also in all of the metroline basses. It features a volume, balance, and VTC (Vintage Tone Control) which basically is a cutoff that works both in active and passive mode if you pull out