106 BASS MAGAZINE ; ISSUE 4 ; bassmagazine.com
S
oon after Roger Sadowsky opened his
New York City shop in 1979, many of
the town’s top session musicians were
his customers. One of them was Will Lee,
who had come to New York from Miami in
1971 and quickly established a reputation
as one of the best studio bass players. “I was
doing general repair work: fretwork, re-truing
fingerboards, cutting new nuts, shielding,
electronics — that kind of stuff,” says Roger.
“Will just came in the door one day.” Will is
quick to praise Roger’s “uncanny ability” to
understand his sometimes-vague requests for
maintaining and improving his instruments.
“My tech-speak is very limited,” he says, “but
with Roger it doesn’t matter, because he’s got
such a great way of interpreting what you say.”
Roger started to build his own basses
in 1982. “At that time, I couldn’t make a
creative original instrument and think that
any working musician could walk into a jingle
session and expect the engineer to deal with
it. There was pressure on me and my clients
to have a bass that essentially looked like a
Fender, which is why my instruments are so
Fender-derivative in style.”
It wasn’t long before Will adopted Roger’s
J-style basses for both studio work and live
performances, including his 33-year gig with
the World’s Most Dangerous Band on Late
Night With David Letterman (1982–1993)
and its successor, the CBS Orchestra on The
Late Show With David Letterman (1993–
2015). Over the years, Will played a succession
of Sadowsky basses, having Roger tweak the
instruments to suit his style, so it was only
natural for the two of them to collaborateon a signature model. “I was keeping Will’s
basses in good shape and constantly making
things for him to try,” says Roger. “One day,
he was at my shop and I said, ‘Will, when are
we going to do a signature model?’ And he
said, ‘Whenever you want. Let’s do it.’” Work
on the Will Lee Model began right away.
Will wanted a J-Bass-style neck that was
slightly under spec at the nut, so instead of
1.5" it measures 1.45". His second request
was for 24 frets, but Roger saw a problem: “I
called to his attention that if we do 24 frets
and put a bell cover over the neck pickup,
which he has always used as an anchor when
he plays, he would have virtually no room
for popping the G string between the end
of the fingerboard and the bell cover.” The
compromise was a 22-fret neck, with the bell
cover pushed slightly back toward the bridge
rather than being centered over the pickup.
Will’s third request had to do with his
desired tone, especially for live gigs. “Over
the years, he had always said, consistently,
‘I’m looking for more punch,’” says Roger.
Will explains that he wanted more midrange,
“because I was coming to Roger and saying,
‘I’m pounding this instrument. Is there a way
I don’t have to pound it anymore?’” Roger’s
standard active circuit, installed in his basses
and also available as an outboard preamp, has
only bass boost (centered at 40Hz) and treble
boost (centered at 4kHz). “We experimented
with a half-dozen prototype op-amp circuits
that had a mid control, but Will kept saying
they didn’t sound right,” says Roger. “So I
came to the conclusion that we had to retain
my circuit for the treble and bass and add aJim Roberts was the
first full-time editor
of Bass Player and
also served as the
magazine’s publisher
and group publisher.
He is the author of
How the Fender Bass
Changed the World
and American Basses:
An Illustrated Histo-
ry and Player’s Guide
(both published by
Backbeat Books/Hal
Leonard).Will Lee & Sadowsky Guitars
Partners | By Jim Roberts