The Heads Up Thread

The German dolphin bolt on were really poor quality
basses I remember reading so they started being built under licence instead.
 
I believe there were some concerns with the necks in particular, however I own a German made (allegedly according to the available data) Pro II and it is unequivocally one of the best basses that I have or 'have' owned... and that includes all of the vintage NT basses and several Pro I Dolphins. ;)

Saying all of that, there is so much misinformation regarding many thinks 'Warwick' that I've never seen an emphatic statement re. where all of the Pro II Dolphins were made. :)
 
There are two versions of the Dolphin pro2 story circulating.

First one is that up till '93 they were being produced in Japan by Morris and after that by Shadow pickups in Germany. The german built ones were taken off the market because of inconsistent quality.

Second version (Wikipedia) tells us the first 2-300 basses were made in Germany and due to the inconsistent quality production was moved to Morris in Japan.

Alledgedly the "bad" ones were not only taken off the market but were also destroyed by Warwick.

I do not know which, if either, of these stories is correct.

Fact is there are some VERY nice pro2's out there but you will want to check before buying.
 
That´s all that misterious. :eek: Some say the Dolphins were brought by an ancient folk, originally living near Warwick, England, which had left the planet earth some thousand years ago and who only returned twice to gift us the best basses man can think of. First landing was in Germany. They threw out the basses off their spaceship mounted on balloons for a secure landing, but some crazy general gave order to shoot and so destroyed 99 Luftballons. Those basses which landed were collected by a man with a writing in his trousers to read HPW. Second landing was in Japan, because the Japanese knew that this spaceship means no harm. HPW had sent them a secret message, that the spaceship is not manned by Godzilla. This way all went good.

But maybe this is just another weird story about the Dolphins. But what, if not? :eek:


By the way: now you know why people say "heads up!" when they look out for great basses!
 
DiMarco said:
There are two versions of the Dolphin pro2 story circulating.

First one is that up till '93 they were being produced in Japan by Morris and after that by Shadow pickups in Germany. The german built ones were taken off the market because of inconsistent quality.

Second version (Wikipedia) tells us the first 2-300 basses were made in Germany and due to the inconsistent quality production was moved to Morris in Japan.

Alledgedly the "bad" ones were not only taken off the market but were also destroyed by Warwick.

I do not know which, if either, of these stories is correct.
Click to expand...

Yep heard both of those and 'W' have refuted nor acknowledged neither! LOL

My Pro II is a 92 and I was informed was of German origin... or is it Japanese? ;)
 
warwickhunt said:
Yep heard both of those and 'W' have refuted nor acknowledged neither! LOL

My Pro II is a 92 and I was informed was of German origin... or is it Japanese? ;)
Click to expand...
are there no identifying marks on anything? Was all the hardware Warwick/Schaller/MEC and shipped out to Japan or did they use japanese pots or something?
 
LukeFRC said:
are there no identifying marks on anything? Was all the hardware Warwick/Schaller/MEC and shipped out to Japan or did they use japanese pots or something?
Click to expand...

EVERYTHING on my bass appears to be 'German'; pots, tuners (branded W made in W germany), frets, JANI, preamp etc. I have to say that the neck is identical in profile, dimensions and 'feel' to my German made Infinette (down to the 3 piece maple construction and wenge fingerboard) and they are from the same period. There's nothing to link this Pro II to MIJ but I'd love to hear the official line. ;)
 
Rusty! But it seems they loose rust with age! :eek:

$_72.jpg

https://kleinanzeigen.ebay.de/anzeigen/s-anzeige/warwick-corvette-rusty-4-string-bass-special-edition-2011/197663732-74-6078?ref=search
 
Your telling me that the wood of the bass is not actualy really rusted??!?!


Jokes..
 
in 1990 we started the production in Germany, but they were NOT Ok... In November 1990 we moved the production to Japan.
The ones produced in Gemany by a 3rd party manufacturer were 1000 - or 1200, 90% of them we returned back.
10% were OK. Of some 90% returned some were sold backdoors, so yeah... the really early ones, made in Germany should be tested before buying.
So since November 1990 all of them were made in Japan. We built them until the end of 1993- beginning of 1994, then we stopped.

That's the story :-)
 
Thank you Flo! We finally got to hear the proper version of the Pro2 myth!
 
That's where I'm a tad lost. the serial number of my Pro2 says 91, and is labeled "made in Germany" on the back.
Which one is wrong, the serial number or the label ? (I'll try to post pics later on if interested).
 
Please read carefully my post, the part with what happened with the returned German ones...
 
Ah, OK, so mine is a lemon, ! :-)

I understood that the first batch (until Nov 90) was made in Germany and afterwards in Japan. Hence, that the production stopped in Germany. That must be why I've seen some Pro2 without any serial number on it.
Anyway, thanks for the info, it'll be helpful.
 
Henrythe8 said:
That's where I'm a tad lost. the serial number of my Pro2 says 91, and is labeled "made in Germany" on the back.
Click to expand...

My serial number is also 91 (E*** 91) but unsure where your bass says 'made in Germany' but if you refer to the control cavity cover I 'think' that all of the basses will say this because the cavity covers are made in Germany... and the necks... and the pups... and the preamp... and the pots... and the tuners... and! LOL

If Flo says the basses after Nov 90 are MIJ then that is the official story and we go with that! ;)
 
Ah, ok, did not think of that for the cavity cover. Japanese or German, I don't really care, she just sounds great anyway :-)
 
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