1. Here is the review.
TONE
With the pups balanced and bass EQ flat, I used my outboard SWR preamp to cut some mids (through the aural enhancer) and cut a lot of treble as the bass was pretty bright. The end result was a deep, round, rich and mellow bass tone. Really, really amazing bass tone with complexity. Of course, it doesn't matter what the bass sounds like by itself. I tested it out by recording few songs--everything from disco, bossa nova, pop, etc--and in each one you get a bass tone that was amazing. It almost sounded like one of those refined, perfectly sampled tone you get from a keyboard bass--but with character.
With the pups balanced towards the bridge pup, you get a more midish tone that cuts through perfectly. Again, probably because of the new strings, the bass was very bright and I had to cut a lot of treble. It it as this setting that you get a Warwick growl. You will not get much of a growl with the pups balanced.
With the pups balanced, the slap tone is . . . well, listen to Emergency on Planet Earth. There's your slap tone.
Overall, you get a very usable rich bass tone--nothing too growly, too bright, too aggressive.
PLAYABILITY
Here's the amazing thing about this bass. I have pretty small hands, and when looking at this monster, you think there's no way you can play it. The neck is wide; though thinner than other pre-'09 Warwick 5-stings, still pretty hefty. Yet, when you grab it . . . . it just feels correct. Of course, with the string spacing, it never feels cluttered. You can slap, pop and feels like a 4-string. the neck is something you have to get used to.
OVERALL
I do not like expensive basses. With my home recordings, I've used basses that cost $700 and it has worked amazingly. But this bass--I don't know what they have done to it. The richness of the tone is something else. I've owned a Corvette Double Buck which was fat, punchy but probably didn't have the character that this bass does. I've also owned an FNA jazzman that was decent sounding. But the SS1 is something else. In tone and playability, it is a German engineering marvel! Whether it is worth the money, that's up to you to decide.
(which is a curse at the same time because i like thumbs too)
