I've had a LOT of Warwicks over the years. In my own opinion, I still have a lot of them. Maybe too many, but that's not for anyone else to decide. Each has her place, along with pros and cons. Do I actually need all of them for some concrete purpose? Hells no. Are they pretty to look at and even better to play with? Hells yeah. When I travel for work, trips which often last for months at a time, I take one or two of them with me - usually whichever one hasn't gotten much love recently or that I didn't really appreciate as much the last time I played with it. Isolation and new environments seem to help point me in new musical directions most times so getting to know the dusty one that needs new strings often makes me remember why I got it on the first place. At this point, none of my current arsenal is in danger of being sold and I have nothing waiting on my GAS list, just new strings and maintenance at this point. This next year will mark the 20th year I've been playing (making noise) and I can break it down into 3 basic Eras of GAS:
Years 1-3: No f**king clue what I was doing or where I wanted to go musically. I bought gear based on competing principles of "More Lights & Buttons = Good Equipment" and "That one guy played that one bass on that one song and that sounded badass, so I should get one of those then I'll be able to do exactly the same thing!" Neither of these principles worked. At All. It did cost an enormous amount of money and was extremely fun, not to mention very educational. I currently have none of the gear from that time left in my possession except maybe a few cables.
Years 4-10: Much better clue in general. Settled on Warwick with the baseball bat neck profile as the most comfy for me. Went through well more than a dozen basses whilst chasing others' sound (still) and beginning to develop a taste for my own sound (this was NEW and thoroughly invigorating musically). That period ended when I got my Streamette and after about a year with it, I found My Sound for the first time. Major Life Revelation and the end of uncontrolled GAS. Now I knew at least what sort of sound a bass should naturally have in order to put me in the place I wanted to be. Ordered CS Corvette with Streamette specs since I prefer 5 strings. Still confused with amp and string selections, but I did at least finally get out of my "More Lights and Buttons" phase, which was warmly received by my bank accounts and resulted in a much more streamlined rig and cleaner sound overall.
Years 10-Present: Having found My Sound, now I get to explore the boundaries of it, change it , deny it, embrace it, argue with it, get drunk with it and rediscover it, and all the other adventures and disasters that make this whole thing worth it. New basses at this point are either replacements for Ones That Got Away in the earlier times or they represent new directions I want to go because I know there will always be another of those Moments we all have just around the corner. And if that corner happens tomorrow or in twenty years, so be it. As was previously said, and quite correctly, it is always about the journey. People who think they can point to some discrete destination as the End-All, Be-All of Music have totally missed the whole point of participating in art and are the ones lost in the woods. My .02 anyways...
