I think I found the key ingredient

Samuel said:
I think MEC guts make the least difference. I have tried Wicks with all kind of different pickups/preamps, and the difference is really not that big. They all retain the W character. Personally I think WW sound the best with Bartolinis. They take away that treble edge that sometimes (IMO) make the sound a bit harsh and unpleasant.
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+1.
I got Wicks with Barts, EMGs, yada yada ... still very WICKed.
 
I personally go with the neck of the bass + fretboard, followed by the bridge. Always seemed for me at least it was the change in the neck that made the biggest change to the character of a bass.
 
I dunno... body is important too, especially when you try very different kind of woods. Like corvette std ash is different than std bubinga, but they have same neck.
 
WoodyWoodpecker said:
2)but if u have a bolt on bass then the body wood influense the sound a bit stronger then neck.
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I am not sure about that woody, since I tried similar basses with different necks, and they were pretty different too... It is safe to say that everything has an influence in sound, and don't try to give specific numbers to something that cannot be quantified. I mean ffs, they are serious builders that claim that wood has zero influence in tone. I find this hilarious...

I guess a little moderation is good when we touch this subject, haha!
 
I guess it's a combination of a lot of things.

Some things which I noticed last couple of years.

- Rivoli/Jazzmaster.
I bought a very battered Epiphone Rivoli reissie some years ago. It was dead cheap because of a fixed neck break and 'something with the pickup'. I plugged it in at home and it sounded just like I knew Rivolis sound. Big, fat and muddy. Of course that's because of the semisolid body, the set mahogany neck but mostly because of that fat chrome mudbucker at the neck.
When I removed the chrome cover I discoverd why the guy said there was 'something with the pickup'. Underneat the chrome cover was a Jazz Bass pickup mounted, with both sides sawn off to fit! With this singlecoil at the neck it still sounded like a Rivoli.
A friend bought a new reissue Fender Jazzmaster guitar. It's known that these guitars have Strat-like pickups underneath the soapbar covers. He replaced them with vintage voiced Seymour Duncan Jazzmaster replacement pick ups to let it sound like a real Jazzmaster, but nothing much happened. So pickups are ofcourse important, but just a part of a bigger thing.

- Fender P
I used to have a Fender P with a maple neck and similar one with a maple neck but rosewood board. Both, of course, bolt on and a big difference in sound. That made me realize the neck woods are important. If I rolled of the tone of the maple board one a bit I got more rosewood-ish sounds, so electronics and pickups do matter.

- Star Bass
My Korean Star Bass is the most non-Warwick of all Warwicks. Passive electronics, passive pickups, all maple, set neck, semi solid. And still the Warwick growl. I think it's the very stiff neck construction.
 
Warwick basses sound like Warwick basses, agreed?
Regardless of what woods or electronics they may have, they all sound very Warwick like.
The "only" common factor amongst all of them is the neck construction. They are ALL cut & glued in the same way. Some have 3 laminates, some more, but the end result is that dry, biting, growly sound.
The point of contact the string has is the fret (or fingerboard), which transfers the vibration directly into the neck, & the bridge saddle, which transfers the vibration into the body. The electronics pickup the signal & amplify it.
Weather the woods are traditional, exotic, African, European American or Australian, their necks are all built in the same way. This is consistent through the years & we all know that if there's a W on the headstock, it sounds typically "Warwick".
Now, lets keep this here goin till the cows come home or we're all blue in the face yeah?
 
I'd say neck, neckwoods, and overall construction make the specific Warwick sound.
 
Also the pickup placement. We have a pretty specific way of putting the pickups and that also brings the growl.
 
You guys don`t get anywhere with this. :)

What if you make a Warwick Streamer with the exact same specs and woods in an NT- and Bolt-On version, will it sound very different? If it souns VERY different, then yes, neck construction might have a lot to say. Now somebody do this please, and let us know. ;)

And when it comes to Spector/Warwick-differences, Spectors usually have alder as a main wood, like Fenders, and EMG`s. Great instruments, but the TonePump is really too sensitive. Just a milimeter down on the knob halves your bass boost.
 
Charmand G said:
You guys don`t get anywhere with this. :)

And when it comes to Spector/Warwick-differences, Spectors usually
have alder as a main wood, like Fenders, and EMG`s. Great instruments,
but the TonePump is really too sensitive. Just a milimeter down on the
knob halves your bass boost.
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"Usually" have alder ? Not in my experience. Maple and ash are the more
commonly encountered, at least where I live, about an hour from Stuart's
work shop.

When I read "the TonePump is really too sensitive" I nodded in agreement,
UNTIL I read the stuff about the knob. The manner in which the TonePump
is possibly "too sensitive" is that no matter what setting the knobs are at,
the RESPONSE of the TonePump is very sensitive. I always described it as
"hard to tame" .... which is what makes it a fun game just play it. I'd play
dinner gigs with it just to discipline my touch. Not easy to do dinner with
such a beast. Ms Diva always reacts to the Spector with "Golem, where's
that OTHER bass ? ?" .... which could mean almost ANY other bass :-)

TonePump Spectors [at least the USA version] are very touch sensitive but
NOT very 'knob sensitive'. Au contraire, since it's boost-only, you have the
entire sweep of the pot available for adjusting ONLY your boost. The more
typical boost & cut EQ's offer only one-half that sweep for adjusting boost.
The other half obviously is engaged in adjusting the cut.


-------------------------------------


Fool Disk Closure: My "not-so-dinner-wise" Spector is an all-maple bolt-on,
which in combination with the attack sensitive nature of the TonePump EQ
makes it an extreeeeme case of being "not-so-dinner-wise". FWIW, it's an
NS-5JH-CM. You can look that up :-) If you can't be bothered looking it up,
think of it as an all maple Streamer with a JazzMan PU config. It could hurt
you ears just to imagine it ... so insert your earplugs before you try.


`
 
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Charmand G said:
You guys don`t get anywhere with this. :)

What if you make a Warwick Streamer with the exact same specs and woods in an NT- and Bolt-On version, will it sound very different? If it souns VERY different, then yes, neck construction might have a lot to say. Now somebody do this please, and let us know. ;)

And when it comes to Spector/Warwick-differences, Spectors usually have alder as a main wood, like Fenders, and EMG`s. Great instruments, but the TonePump is really too sensitive. Just a milimeter down on the knob halves your bass boost.
Click to expand...

The sound and feel is pretty different between NT and BO with the same specs. Neck through basses have a more ... organic feel, while BO basses are somehow drier and faster.
 
Wow, it seems like the only things that these Warwicks have in common are the brass frets. I have an ebony boarded fretted bass, and it's as Warwick as the $$. Passive/active pickups, Warwick.

But... my fretlesses are unmistakably Warwick. One has EMG pickups, one has MEC pickups. They both, however, have a 2-band MEC preamp... I think the importance of electronics is really understated.
 
I do the mistake sometimes to let myself carried out into this kind of conversation :-) For me actually it is very easy - I like the bass - I buy the bass. There are many reasons for basses to sound different, so I just buy the bass that I like. Simple philosophy. When I switched back to Warwick, I bought from Ebay a lot of basses, different brands, and gigged with them. SSII was my choice, but after 2 weeks full of gigs.
 
@ GOLEM :

Hmm..most Spectors I`ve ran into usually have had alder with maple top, but that could be coinsidenses. Regarding "The Knob" I didn`t express myself correct. What I meant is, that the knobs don`t have enough resistance in them, actually almost none, so it`s very easy to knock it up (hah!) or down with a light touch. I almost considered to tape them up with gaffa on our last gig, just to keep the settings in place.
 
Florin said:
I do the mistake sometimes to let myself carried out into this kind of conversation :-)
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I thought we would have heard the 'krantz-krantz' of our fearless admin sitting back and watching this go round and round in circles by now!
 
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