Scale length question

[blong]

H Roger I was wondering what your reason for a 34" scale for your 5 strings? and what you don't like about a 35" scale? and do you do anything special during construction to get a tight good sounding B with a 34"?
thanks Brian

[chasarms]

A quote from RS that I recalled from talkbass.com concerning this very issue:

"I have two main issues with 35" scale. First, it is not a magic fix to create a tight B string. I have seen many 35" basses with B strings floppier than ours at 34".

The other issue is tone. When I did prototype 35's many years ago, I felt the bass became more "generic" sounding and lost a lot of the tonal character I am used to hear in my basses. Finally, I especially disliked the sound of the G string in the upper register. At 35", it starts to get nasal sounding to me . . . "

--  Roger Sadowsky

I have owned four Sadowskys. I currently have two of them. It look me a while to acclimate to the B strings on them. I was coming off a Modulus Quantum, which has a HUGE B string. The Sadowsky B is more "balanced" with the other strings. It doesn't really have that giant sound like the Q.

I don't think there is anything that "special" about how a Sadowsky is made other than the extreme attention to detail and use of the very high quality materials. His methods for fitting the neck to the body are ridiculously tedious. That likely helps.

I will say of the four I have owned, my NYC Modern has the best B of all. There is a noticeable difference in sustain and and general "energy" in the notes compared to the others. This is apparent even when unplugged. Of course, there could be all sorts of explanations, but it is true that my Modern is the only one of the four to have the graphite in the neck. Two of the others were older NYCs and my other current bass is a Metro RV-5 PJ. None of those three has the graphite.

[bikeplate]

HI

I like the fact that when I switch from my 4 to my 5 string, both the scales are the same.  Also, a Sadowsky B sounds like the rest of the strings.  Not out of place compared to the rest of the 4 strings.  Musical w tone.  Many basses Ive owned dont sound like this.  The B string almost sounds like its from a different instrument.  Strange but thats what Ive experienced

Rob

[Sadowsky]

A quote from RS that I recalled from talkbass.com concerning this very issue:

"I have two main issues with 35" scale. First, it is not a magic fix to create a tight B string. I have seen many 35" basses with B strings floppier than ours at 34".

The other issue is tone. When I did prototype 35's many years ago, I felt the bass became more "generic" sounding and lost a lot of the tonal character I am used to hear in my basses. Finally, I especially disliked the sound of the G string in the upper register. At 35", it starts to get nasal sounding to me . . . "

--  Roger Sadowsky

I couldn't have said it better myself! 

Roger