Now NBD (Warwick Corvette $$): Modern bass recommendationfor £4-700

guitargeek62

Hmm, that might just work...

Creed_Clicks

guitargeek62 said:

Creed_Clicks said:

That upper horn always reminds me of a wooden dildo. I just can't...

Yup, genuinely does - my wife said the same thing when I just got home with it, she asked if I could take the strap button off so she could “borrow” it 

Other than that, I'd say that bass is pretty darn great!

guitargeek62

fretmeister said:

Nordstrand Big Blade Man pickups. Nordy will make any of their pickups to fit any string spacing if it needs it. 

Get some Wal type grown too. 

So after a week of playing this lovely beast (now it's official name) I thought I'd give some rose-tinted first impressions. Remember that I'm very much coming from the 6-string world, and don't have a huge amount to compare to!


Fit & finish
Nothing to fault here at all, the build is wonderful - no issues at all that I can see in Warwick's production, or from it's prior owner. The finish is a lovely open-pore satin, I don't think it's an oil finish but I could be mistaken - might email Warwick to check. This is my first experience with Wenge and Ovangkol and I'm already a convert to them - particularly the latter! The grain is stunning, and it seems to be a very nice material to work with (usual toxicity cautions aside!) - I think I'll use this on some future builds.

Hats-off to Warwick for some superb design choices too - the control cover is ingenius, no tools required to access it, although I can't honestly say I'd need to very often except to get to the battery, so maybe it's overkill when a separate battery box would have sufficed? Similarly, the bridge is brilliant - nice and comfortable, but supremely adjustable on 3-axis. I'm also very impressed by the adjust-a-nut III - it's simple, but effective. I'll keep an eye out for a brass one to put on there, but that's more for curiosity than anything, as the plastic one is working fine.

Sound
Bloody awesome. 

The stock MEC MM set seem to handle everything I was after very well, and having 3-tonal options for each (series HB, split-coil, parallel HB) is more than enough versatility. They have a bit more poke than the Sire M7 did, but not OTT at all. That typical Warwick growl is there in spades too, so at this point I can't really say I'm feeling the need to change the pickups. That said, I spotted your (@fretmeister) post over on BassChat where you pointed out that bassdirect.co.uk have the big blademan pickups for £135ea. (+ p&p) in the UK. That's a very tempting proposition, so I may yet succumb to one or two.

I was expecting to miss the mid-frequency controls that the Sire M7 had, but I'm quite liking the natural range from the MEC pre-amp. Curiosity will likely get the better of me over time though, so I'll likely try and add a mid-control and move the treble & bass controls onto a stacked pot. I'm not sure if the MEC pre- is modular enough to do it without replacing the whole unit yet though - need to do some more research.

Ergonomics
Slightly neck heavy, but nothing untoward or unexpected. The body itself is nicely contoured and very comfortable on your lap and forearm. The controls are easy to access, and the bridge is comfortable to rest on for palm-mutes. To @funkfingers point, yes the MM pickups take up a lot of space, but I keep gravitating to the gap between the neck and neck pickup as a natural picking position and it seems to work for me without any trouble.


Overall I'm very happy with this acquisition. Although the Sire M7 (and likely, the M5) was a truly brilliant instrument, this one just feels a bit more special, and was only £150 more than the Sire. I can't put my finger on why exactly, but it's there. Tonally I'm not hearing a night & day difference between the two either, just a bit more grunt and growl from the Warwick, so I feel I've made the right choice for me.

ICBM

These are pretty much the only Warwicks I like - which is mostly down to the pickups and their position - the classic models sound thin and clangy to me.

They’re so powerful that you can wind them down far enough not to get in the way, and still have plenty of output.

Tex Mexico

I have the $$ config on my 5-string Streamer with ash body and flame maple neck, wenge board.

What I like about it is that the huge range of switching and EQ just yield more or less subtle variations of the excellent core sound. I've previously had basses with this kind of active layout where there was a really broad palette of sounds but none were that great and if anything it led to option paralysis. Yamaha and Ibanez in particular. I also had a Washburn where all the sounds were some variant of mud.

I have on the way a 6-string Corvette with the dual soapbars and push-pull active/passive. Ash body again (I hear the bubingas are proper boat anchors) but ovangkol/wenge neck. Couldn't find a $$ 6-string anywhere, but this is probably for the best as it won't be too similar to what I already have.