=The Warwick Fortress Club=

[King Tut]

And here she is in action

 

[Stainless]

I proudly present my Fortress collection
One is missing, she will get a new colour

 

[Hoggles]

Very nice!!

 

[Foal30]

There is a black fret less on TB
The seller is offering 4-5 Warwicks.

 

[Toepfer]

Yesterday my new Fortress One arrived.
It's a fretless with fretlines, a three piece maple body - with the neck I'n not shure whether it's two pieces or one - I don't see any changes in the grain, but who knows. The bass was built in 95.

I have to make some changes, but it's a great bass - with the fretlines even I hit the note I want - the action is awsome.
The bass came with crome hardware - I think I'll switch it to black ( I just don't like crome hardware on basses)
The bass came tuned E - C (no flats) which I strangely like (but have already ordered flats with a low B string)
The old owner had the electronics changed to a passive setup, but also sent the original active electronics. I guess I will change it back to the original one.

I just took a picture with my phone, better ones will follow (when there is daylight and you can actually see the grain). I already switched the bridge and the knobs to black.

 

[Hoggles]

Beauty! Congrats!!

 

[Florin]

Beautiful instrument!

 

[jester]

Yesterday my new Fortress One arrived.
It's a fretless with fretlines, a three piece maple body - with the neck I'n not shure whether it's two pieces or one - I don't see any changes in the grain, but who knows. The bass was built in 95.

I have to make some changes, but it's a great bass - with the fretlines even I hit the note I want - the action is awsome.
The bass came with crome hardware - I think I'll switch it to black ( I just don't like crome hardware on basses)
The bass came tuned E - C (no flats) which I strangely like (but have already ordered flats with a low B string)
The old owner had the electronics changed to a passive setup, but also sent the original active electronics. I guess I will change it back to the original one.

I just took a picture with my phone, better ones will follow (when there is daylight and you can actually see the grain). I already switched the bridge and the knobs to black.
View attachment 19295

Cool bass. Is it your first Fortress? How do you find its balance compared to other Warwicks?

 

[Toepfer]

Yes, this is my first Fortress. I only had different Streamers and Thumbs.
Balance is very nice. But never had a balance problem with my Streamers. Thumb is adifferent matter.
The main difference for me is the neck profile and the fretboard radius.
The fretboard feels almost flat. I have to get used to that.
The neck feels wider and flatter compared to the Streamers. But in a nice way. Almost like the korean p-nut I had but in Wenge.
I only played a cheepo Harley Benton fretless before and the Fortress is a hole different animal. Feel and soundwise.
I like it a lot.

 

[Toepfer]

Sorry, it took a while - here is a better picture.
The neck is a two piece wenge neck - in daylight you can see it a lot better.

But I also have a question regarding the electronics. Does someone have a wiring diagram for a 2 band mec electronics from the mid 90s?
The one on the Warwick page has different wire colors on some wires and if you wire the output jack the way the diagram shows, there is no sound at all. The intersting thing is, in every diagram I saw, there are two wires (black and grey) from the balance to the volume pots. Mine has only one green one.

 

[verb]

I have an earlier schematic, it has the single wire from the balance pot to the volume pot, but it doesn't state the colour.
It is not a great pic, but hopefully it will help.

 

[Toepfer]

Thanks a lot - that looks almost perfect. Mine has the electronics on the pots, but the colors look good.

 

[verb]

It occurred to me that you would normally have an earth wire as well as the signal wire. I dug out the electrics from my 97 Fortress one and that has the black and grey wires. Could you post a pic of your electrics?

 

[Toepfer]

Will do tomorrow - still no sound.

 

[Toepfer]

Here is what I got so far

 

[verb]

It isn't easy to see exactly what is connected to what, I have taken these shots of my F1 electrics which might be helpful.

If you want any more photos, PM me what areas you want and I will email them to you.

 

[verb]

Do you get sound with the EQ section bypassed?

 

[Toepfer]

Thanks again.
No sound- not even passive.
On your pictures there are two cables (black/grey) between balance and volume. Where I only have a green one (plus ground).
I'm thinking about swapping volume and balance with other warwick pods I have without the circut boards and see, where it goes from there.
I don't get it. Thats the first time I can't get a Guitar or Bass electronics to work.
I could also try the Glockenklang set I have laying around. But the pots are so small for the holes.

 

[verb]

The grey is the signal wire and the black is the earth, does your green wire connect to the same points on the PCBs?
Do you have a multi meter to check continuity around the circuit?
Are the wires on the correct lugs on the output jack?
It could be the output jack itself.

 

[DiMarco]

Here's a more clear version of verbs document.
The one green wire between balance and volume pots should be correct.
Since the bass is also silent in eq bypass mode you should check the wiring from the battery and on the right hand side of the image - through pickups, balance and the volume pot, which is wired directly to the jack output and ground from the two bottom right pins.