Industry Musical instruments Key people Roger Sadowsky Founded 1979 | Area served Global Website Sadowsky.com Type of business Private | |
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Products Electric guitars, bass guitars, preamps Headquarters New York City, New York, United States Profiles | ||
Sadowsky Guitars Limited is an American high-end guitar, bass guitar, and preamp manufacturer in Long Island City, New York.
Contents
Sadowsky guitars by andrea cordoba
History
The company was started in 1979 and took its name from its founder, Roger Sadowsky, who is known for "being one of the industry's master craftsmen". As of 2011 the company has 10 employees involved in instrument manufacturing excluding Sadowsky himself. Sadowsky started out modifying vintage Fender basses, which were at that time inexpensive, to improve their sound by adding more noise reduction technology and replacing the passive electronics with an active preamp, which increases the bass's signal-to-noise ratio. Once the price of vintage bass guitars began to increase, Sadowsky started making new bass guitars, and then signature models.
Product lines and models
The Sadowsky "NYC" line of instruments consists of four- and five-string bass guitars and six-string guitars. The bass guitars have a 34-inch scale length with no current models offered in longer or shorter scale lengths.
The Sadowsky Metro line are the basic models of Sadowsky NYC basses made by Sadowsky Tokyo and offers most of the same features, minus the custom options, of the NYC line at a more affordable price.
Sadowsky, as of 2003, also offers a line of archtop guitars. There are currently five models available, the Jim Hall model, the Jimmy Bruno model, the semi-hollow model, the LS-17 (long scale/17" lower bout) and the SS-15 (short scale/15" lower bout).
Players and endorsers
The various archtop guitar models are played and endorsed by many professional guitarists.
Sadowsky bass models are used by high-profile musicians