R
RealDeal
Guest
1 week ago to the day, I purchased a $$ fretted 4.
I've since become familiar with it at home, and in one rehearsal where it cut through and laid in the mix to perfection.
But last night, I broke the instrument in on the job- With one of my projects, a 3-piece rhythm section backing a Female Vocalist doing R&B-Blues based covers- Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, etc.
In this project, the bass guitar is a deal-maker, because the music is deep-pocket and groove-driven; also playing as a 3-piece requires solid
arrangements and tight, together, polyrhythmic interplay....!
Having said all that- and knowing that I may be "preaching to the choir" here ( where else better to do it though??)-
The Warwick bass was the FINEST most toneful instrument I can recall using for this groove. ( I have some pretty impressive other instruments as well, including a G&L ASAT, a Tobias, an amazing '69 P-Bass, and a Sterling...I'll comment more on that too...)
For the record, I was using an out-of-production Mesa Boogie amp, an all-tube combo (!) called the Buster Bass, a 2x10 200-watt tone machine.
The settings I found to be most pleasing and efffective to me were;
Both pups, dead center
Neck pup, parallel
Bridge, single-coil
Bass almost maxed, treble down about 2 clicks to roll off some mids-
And BAM!
Now I know what all the buzz is about Warwick Growwwl!
The $$ had bite, growl, funk,, and a phat, thick R&B tone- A combination of solid old-school with a very articulate modern edge added.
Unreal!
If I needed some more "juice" for dynamics, all I ever needed to do was switch the bridge pup to parallel, add a click more of bass, dial up the treble a little and it was like having warp-drive power. It could literally
DRIVE the section it was so deep and focused!
To be honest, prior to this 3-set performance, and buying the $$ I thought that the most musical and powerful of my instruments was my MusicMan Sterling.
But truthfully, the combination of tonewoods and electronics on the Corvette $$ was WAY stronger and more pronounced. and articulate.
I don't intend this as an "us against them" post, each of my instruments has a character and sound of it's own,
But the $$ was an experience!
Warwick really NAILED it with this bass... I don't know what kind of magic and mojo combination they have in the design department, but OH MAN, this instrument really delivers the goods.
Sorry if I seem to gush about all this... But you had to be there, and I imagine most of the Warwick bass players HAVE been there with their instruments and their musical projects.
In short-- It's a fantastic instrument.
OK, I'll relax now!
I've since become familiar with it at home, and in one rehearsal where it cut through and laid in the mix to perfection.
But last night, I broke the instrument in on the job- With one of my projects, a 3-piece rhythm section backing a Female Vocalist doing R&B-Blues based covers- Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, etc.
In this project, the bass guitar is a deal-maker, because the music is deep-pocket and groove-driven; also playing as a 3-piece requires solid
arrangements and tight, together, polyrhythmic interplay....!
Having said all that- and knowing that I may be "preaching to the choir" here ( where else better to do it though??)-
The Warwick bass was the FINEST most toneful instrument I can recall using for this groove. ( I have some pretty impressive other instruments as well, including a G&L ASAT, a Tobias, an amazing '69 P-Bass, and a Sterling...I'll comment more on that too...)
For the record, I was using an out-of-production Mesa Boogie amp, an all-tube combo (!) called the Buster Bass, a 2x10 200-watt tone machine.
The settings I found to be most pleasing and efffective to me were;
Both pups, dead center
Neck pup, parallel
Bridge, single-coil
Bass almost maxed, treble down about 2 clicks to roll off some mids-
And BAM!
Now I know what all the buzz is about Warwick Growwwl!
The $$ had bite, growl, funk,, and a phat, thick R&B tone- A combination of solid old-school with a very articulate modern edge added.
Unreal!
If I needed some more "juice" for dynamics, all I ever needed to do was switch the bridge pup to parallel, add a click more of bass, dial up the treble a little and it was like having warp-drive power. It could literally
DRIVE the section it was so deep and focused!
To be honest, prior to this 3-set performance, and buying the $$ I thought that the most musical and powerful of my instruments was my MusicMan Sterling.
But truthfully, the combination of tonewoods and electronics on the Corvette $$ was WAY stronger and more pronounced. and articulate.
I don't intend this as an "us against them" post, each of my instruments has a character and sound of it's own,
But the $$ was an experience!
Warwick really NAILED it with this bass... I don't know what kind of magic and mojo combination they have in the design department, but OH MAN, this instrument really delivers the goods.
Sorry if I seem to gush about all this... But you had to be there, and I imagine most of the Warwick bass players HAVE been there with their instruments and their musical projects.
In short-- It's a fantastic instrument.
OK, I'll relax now!
