=The Warwick Fortress Club=

jester

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So I ordered a new neck, but in order to get it, I had to destroy the old one

God it hurt taking a saw to this thing...take a look


Wow that escalated quickly @RIP.
 

jester

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Can I join this club with a RB Fortress 5? Warning - it's a lefty... ;) :D

It's a 2005 model, with the old-style one-piece bridge and a standard, shallow-ish neck which I love. No neck dive. Active electronics, with a 9V battery that seems to last forever :)

39667955560_5a888fb239_c.jpg


27605136678_75d323a2c6_c.jpg



It's got D'Addario Chromes on; the low B is thicker than most roundwounds, and it doesn't pass through the hole in the bridge unless you strip the string of its silk. (The new Warwick bridge has cured the problem on newer models.)
27605143718_686b5bc0da_c.jpg

Hey @bluejay , sweet bass, nice colour and awesome wood grain. Black hardware is very unusual for RockBass models in practice. Is that a one piece body? I can't tell easily.
 
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Thanks Jester! Yes, it's definitely bolt-on - I hate neck-through construction. The black hardware on that beautiful blue colour sold me that bass! (I was looking for my first 5-string Corvette at the time, but Thomann didn't have any lefty ones in stock, so I got the Fortress instead.)
Mind you, setting up the intonation and the saddles' height is a bit of a b*tch to do properly without shining a massive, bright light directly on the spot! But I can live with that. :D
 
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Yes, bolt on means it's one piece. Neck-through has a long neck where two wooden 'wings' are added at the bottom to create the body. :)
 

jester

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Yes, bolt on means it's one piece. Neck-through has a long neck where two wooden 'wings' are added at the bottom to create the body. :)

One piece for bolt-on is not always a given. For example, here's a close-up of my '94 Corvette Proline:

25u4211.jpg
 
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@jester - one piece, as far as I can see.
@Toepfer - I don't think it's common to have two-piece bolt-ons, at least in high-end instruments. Mine's a cheapo, so perhaps it looks like it's one piece but it isn't, and they managed to disguise it with the paint and the lacquer! :D
 
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I think it's mostly a matter of cost.
On certain occasions you can have a bookmatched body, made of two mirror halves. Slightly off topic, but the pic below shows my husband's original 1964 Höfner violin bass on the left, next to my recent, Indonesian-made model. Spot the one piece vs the (not quite perfectly) bookmatched! :D

40600008345_dc75cedbb7_b.jpg
 

jester

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@jester - one piece, as far as I can see.
@Toepfer - I don't think it's common to have two-piece bolt-ons, at least in high-end instruments. Mine's a cheapo, so perhaps it looks like it's one piece but it isn't, and they managed to disguise it with the paint and the lacquer! :D

I don't understand, is the Fortress a one piece or a two piece body? These two sentences seem to conflict. For the record, all my Warwicks are bolt-ons with two or even three piece bodies.
 
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I simply meant to say that, as far as I can see, the body of my Fortress is one piece; either that, or the join is very well disguised by the paint and lacquer.
 
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Can I join this club with a RB Fortress 5? Warning - it's a lefty... ;) :D

It's a 2005 model, with the old-style one-piece bridge and a standard, shallow-ish neck which I love. No neck dive. Active electronics, with a 9V battery that seems to last forever :)

39667955560_5a888fb239_c.jpg


27605136678_75d323a2c6_c.jpg



It's got D'Addario Chromes on; the low B is thicker than most roundwounds, and it doesn't pass through the hole in the bridge unless you strip the string of its silk. (The new Warwick bridge has cured the problem on newer models.)
27605143718_686b5bc0da_c.jpg

My MTD the Sadowsky (Labella) B won't fit the hipshot bridge so I have to use a Chrome

The wrap on the Chromes look a good match for your Fortress. Nice one
 
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I sent in a request and Florence e-mailed me back and said they'd do it, but I had to destroy the old one. Here's the deal though, when they send me the new one it will have the old Serial Number on it

If they couldn't do it, I was just going to go through Warmoth and get one....It probably would have been a lot cheaper

Just so you know, the neck on my RB was perfect, when I got this new one the neck was really, really chunky. I thought I would be able to get use to it, but in the end I had to swap it out..........I love these Fortress's that much to go through making this Bass a perfect playing machine

Crickey dick. Good luck with replacement
 
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jester

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I simply meant to say that, as far as I can see, the body of my Fortress is one piece; either that, or the join is very well disguised by the paint and lacquer.

That's very cool and unusual, even more unusual than black hardware on a RockBass. The RB Fortress certainly has something special about it. :cool:
 

RIP

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Wow that escalated quickly @RIP.
It did. I knew I didn't like the neck as soon as I picked it up, but I was willing to give it a go.

There is no way I'm going to sell it, I like the body style and balance to much, but to keep it in the rotation of my basses that I play all the time, I had to change the neck.....otherwise it would just sit and gather dust

FYI, and I'm not done yet.....I still have to work on the electronics

This will truly be a Franken-Wick when Im done
 
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Hey - please sign me up!

I've been prowling for ages for a Warwick Fortress. I love the build, sound and general vibe of Warwick but often struggled with the ergonomics. I've already got a Standard Bubinga Corvette and a gorgeous 89 Thumb Neck Through, but I seldom take these out when I'm fronting a band as the short top horn moves the neck to the left and throws me out position wise when I'm singing.

Anyroadup, a couple of weeks ago this beauty appeared on Basschat for a fair price and I snapped her up. She's a Fortress One, Two piece maple body, three piece Wenge neck (not as slim as my Corvette or Thumb but comfy nonetheless) and Wenge fretboard. MEC PJ pups and two band EQ.

Had a bit of a fright when setting her up as the D string wouldn't intonate and buzzed like mad resulting in a huge action - turned out to be a duff string. Also had an intermittent electrical fault which turned out to be the push/pull on the volume pot that was solved with a bit of switch cleaner. Eventually set up with a 2mm action at the 12th fret (a smidge over on the E string) and feeling good.

It's a bright sounding bass and i was worried it would sound bass light when gigged. I needn't have worried - played a pub gig last night - GK MB500, Barefaced BB2 and Zoom B1xon and wow. The long top horn makes it ergonomically perfect - sits just right. The tone with Warwick Red Labels was deep, tight and authoritative. Plenty of snap, body and growl as you'd expect from the wenge neck. More than enough depth in the bottom end and a 'Jazz on Steroids' tone from the bridge pickup. Wow am I one happy bunny, I think I've found 'the one'!

P1080439 by Colin Kempster, on Flickr

P1080441 by Colin Kempster, on Flickr

P1080438 by Colin Kempster, on Flickr
 
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RIP

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Hey - please sign me up!

I've been prowling for ages for a Warwick Fortress. I love the build, sound and general vibe of Warwick but often struggled with the ergonomics. I've already got a Standard Bubinga Corvette and a gorgeous 89 Thumb Neck Through, but I seldom take these out when I'm fronting a band as the short top horn moves the neck to the left and throws me out position wise when I'm singing.

Anyroadup, a couple of weeks ago this beauty appeared on Basschat for a fair price and I snapped her up. She's a Fortress One, Two piece maple body, three piece Wenge neck (not as slim as my Corvette or Thumb but comfy nonetheless) and Wenge fretboard. MEC PJ pups and two band EQ.

Had a bit of a fright when setting her up as the D string wouldn't intonate and buzzed like mad resulting in a huge action - turned out to be a duff string. Also had an intermittent electrical fault which turned out to be the push/pull on the volume pot that was solved with a bit of switch cleaner. Eventually set up with a 2mm action at the 12th fret (a smidge over on the E string) and feeling good.

It's a bright sounding bass and i was worried it would sound bass light when gigged. I needn't have worried - played a pub gig last night - GK MB500, Barefaced BB2 and Zoom B1xon and wow. The long top horn makes it ergonomically perfect - sits just right. The tone with Warwick Red Labels was deep, tight and authoritative. Plenty of snap, body and growl as you'd expect from the wenge neck. More than enough depth in the bottom end and a 'Jazz on Steroids' tone from the bridge pickup. Wow am I one happy bunny, I think I've found 'the one'!

27tLs6f

27tLs4w

N7aT87

Hmnnn how to post pics?
@King Tut The easiest way is to become a supporting member to post pic's

The other way is to create a URL by using Tiny Pics or something of the like, and you can post em' that way
 

RIP

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Hey - please sign me up!

I've been prowling for ages for a Warwick Fortress. I love the build, sound and general vibe of Warwick but often struggled with the ergonomics. I've already got a Standard Bubinga Corvette and a gorgeous 89 Thumb Neck Through, but I seldom take these out when I'm fronting a band as the short top horn moves the neck to the left and throws me out position wise when I'm singing.

Anyroadup, a couple of weeks ago this beauty appeared on Basschat for a fair price and I snapped her up. She's a Fortress One, Two piece maple body, three piece Wenge neck (not as slim as my Corvette or Thumb but comfy nonetheless) and Wenge fretboard. MEC PJ pups and two band EQ.

Had a bit of a fright when setting her up as the D string wouldn't intonate and buzzed like mad resulting in a huge action - turned out to be a duff string. Also had an intermittent electrical fault which turned out to be the push/pull on the volume pot that was solved with a bit of switch cleaner. Eventually set up with a 2mm action at the 12th fret (a smidge over on the E string) and feeling good.

It's a bright sounding bass and i was worried it would sound bass light when gigged. I needn't have worried - played a pub gig last night - GK MB500, Barefaced BB2 and Zoom B1xon and wow. The long top horn makes it ergonomically perfect - sits just right. The tone with Warwick Red Labels was deep, tight and authoritative. Plenty of snap, body and growl as you'd expect from the wenge neck. More than enough depth in the bottom end and a 'Jazz on Steroids' tone from the bridge pickup. Wow am I one happy bunny, I think I've found 'the one'!

P1080439 by Colin Kempster, on Flickr

P1080441 by Colin Kempster, on Flickr

P1080438 by Colin Kempster, on Flickr
Beautiful!.....love that color
 
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One piece for bolt-on is not always a given. For example, here's a close-up of my '94 Corvette Proline:

25u4211.jpg
My bolt-on Thumb has a three piece body. In fact, I would think most bodies would likely be two piece with a one piece top if it is a bit more custom.
 
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