Warwick Survives House Fire

Mr Ryan Mix

Mr Ryan Mix

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On 14 August 2003, the same day as the CAN-AM Northeast Blackout, my house caught fire and destroyed nearly everything in my room. However, since my Warwick was tucked tightly under my bed, no oxygen, and therefor no flames were able to reach it.



The case was badly damaged by heat and debris, but intact.



I braced myself for the worst when I opened the case, but was ecstatic to see that I at least had one possession to call my own on this dark day.



You can see the case was saturated from fire hoses, and some markings had stained the wood.




Some of those marks are still there, but remarkably, it plays great today.



I've decided to give it a thorough cleaning. Since the fire I’ve noticed a few rough spots on the wood and the hardware is caked up with wax and dirt. Please tell me if my plan makes sense:

- remove all hardware and brush and wipe clean
- take bass apart
- hand sand body with 400 grit paper
- apply linseed oil to body
- hand sand body, neck, and fingerboard with 600 grit paper
- apply linseed oil to body, neck, and fingerboard
- clean frets with 0000 steel wool
- put bass back together with some new strings and calibrate nut and bridge


I just don’t want to damage my bass, so if anyone sees any red flags, please let me know. Thanks a bunch!

Ryan
 
That cat now has 8 lives. I'd definitely have to say that you lucked out there :D

Your plan sounds pretty good to me. It would also be a good idea to give it a good waxing, too.
 
bass_lord_mutha said:
That cat now has 8 lives. I'd definitely have to say that you lucked out there :D

Your plan sounds pretty good to me. It would also be a good idea to give it a good waxing, too.
Click to expand...

Agree! Try it out! What does it sound like? I can imagine the neck taking some hear-able (but invisible) damage but if the sound is alright why dismantle it completely. Just give it a good waxing.

If it's more serious than that, there are a couple of persons here who made a complete renovation by dismantling the whole instrument. They will probably chime it in a minute.

If the neck is damaged (totally skewed) I guess you could ask Warwick for a new one but they need the original one back.

Good luck and sorry for the tragedy! Good luck!

/P
 
Thanks for writting back (in the time that it took me to get the photos up no less!)

The neck seems to be fine- it's just a ten year old bass and I figured it was time to clean it up. It's got ten years of oily hand prints all over it, you know?
 
nice bubinga there, smooth right grain. Love that. keep her clean and give her a nice facial. She will be happy with you after, =D.
 
I thought you might be interesting to see these:



The futon my bass was under during the fire.



View of my room from outside.



My room on the inside.


Everything is rebuilt now, but it was quite a fire.
 
Warwicks are survivors eh?

Just like that eden advertisment with the WT800 that survived a fire and turned on.

Warwick should advertise with that.
WARWICK TOUGH
 
Yep... looks like you got it about right with refinishing it Ryan. I usually do the last few coats with a wax/linseed oil mix polished on with a soft cloth. Also, Try oiling the cavities on the body with a tung oil. It should help protect it from any further moisture damage :)
 
fuck diamonds..warwicks are forever :D :D
this reminds me to go buy a flight case for the other $$ too :wink:
the refinishing procedure sounds good to me :D
 
My father's G5 still worked too, but not the monitor. The trick is, if you are expecting a fire but somehow decide to leave your bass there, to sandwhich it between things that will not burn or burn slowly. My 4x10 cabinet was toast too, but my brother's diploma, sitting on the floor against the wall behind it was fine. I also had things under layers of tightly packed blankets which were spared from fire, but not water damage.

That night I was burning candles due to the power outage. I blew candles out when I left the room, but I think it went down like this:

A hot ember either lifted from the candle and floated to the garbage, curtain, or couch. I was two floors below when I heard windows blowing out from the heat- too late to do anything about it at that point. It was a night I'll never forget.

I finished cleaning and oiling my bass. It's back together (except for strings) and looks great. I'll post some photos when I get strings on there.
 
Ok folks, he's the restoration (if I can call it that).








Check out the custom gards I made out of index cards to keep the steel wool away from the wood as I cleaned the frets.


That nut looks NEW!
 
Wow! That's the only word I can utter regarding this entire thread. Wow!

I always tell people that Warwicks are built like tanks, and this just proves it. Yours is quite the beauty, and that she looked that f'n good after a blaze... man, survival is sexy.

And judging by the blue silk, are those Rotosound RS66LDN "Pure Nickel" strings I see on the baby now? I just put a set of those on my 'Vette (also a '97 bubinga) and they're killer.
 
WOW sweet!!! Congrats on the beatiful result!

What did you treat the wood with?

Is the setup ok?

I bet you had a lot of fun doing that :D /Pat
 
Thanks!

The strings are Zon stainless steel (C125-G90-D60-A35 octave cello tuning). I've never tried nickel, but I would like to someday.

The treatment was pretty much as I mentioned earlier in this thread:

- remove all hardware and brush and wipe clean
- take bass apart
- hand sand body with 400 grit paper
- apply linseed oil to body
- hand sand body, neck, and fingerboard with 600 grit paper
- apply linseed oil to body, neck, and fingerboard
- clean frets with 0000 steel wool (check the picture above for a neat tip)
- put bass back together with some new strings and calibrate nut and bridge

It took me several hours to get it fine tuned just right (as you can read about in this thread:

She feels like new again. It was a lot of fun working on her and it was good practice because I'm going to school next year to be a piano technician.

On a final note, I've decided to name her 8 lives based on some earlier comments- I like the way that sounds.

Thanks for your help and comments!
 
Very interesting thread, but this has to be the most amzing looking wenge neck I've seen!!! What vintage is your Corvette?
 
'97 Corvette

That picture of the neck is with linseed oil soaking in- it's not that shinny all the time.
 
warwick should put up your story in the news section. that would be a great testament to warwick's quality!

edit: btw, that is one heck of a finish. it looks brand new! good on you for doing it up!
 
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