What Warwick am I looking for?

Well I got many differnt warwicks with differnt pickup positions - they sound the same. They all have lots of differnt woods - they sound the same.

I got a corvette $$ flicking the switches and splitting coils makes the smallest change I can barely notice.

......

Sorry but I don't see how people can get picky with the all these things you have described.. At the end of the day you will be the only person who would know whether your pickups have magnetic whatever's or not.

Ps: all the crowd hears is BOOM BOOM BOOM

I think your over thinking things and should enjoy the high quality bass you already have.

I'll see myself out....
 
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I agree all Warwicks sound Warwicky. However flicking a coil switch whilst playing in a crowded, guitar laden mix does make a world of difference and subtle changes in some genres do make enough of a difference to matter. What the crowd hears or thinks doesn't interest me one bit it is all about me me me having fun on stage with my awesome battle axe. 8:
 
Herb, this warwick-player is looking for a stage 1 6 string ;)

Okay my last post was a bit harsh. I'll take it back. If it make you (and people) happy knowing that you have a sound that your comfortable with and it makes you happy and enjoy yourself then all for it.

Sorry, I'll keep my unwanted opinions to my self,

Good luck in your hunt uopt
 
Well, the thing is i kinda agree with DemBoneZ.
My band records every rehearsal we make.
So far, i Brought all my basses in there. It's plugged directly into an audio tube preamp and then recorded.
Very different basses sounds very different, yes, I can recognize my Stagg P over the Dolphin Pro 1, of course.
But to be honest, I quitted the subtle changes in dialing the bass/treble/Tone knobs. I do hear a difference playing by myself, but in the mix of the band... quite a lot harder. And I'm pretty sure live it will be even worse.
 
yeah, though I tend to be able to spot large changes if the mix is not earthshakingly horrible. It also depends what gear and technique is used from end to end as well as the acoustics.
In the end it boils down to what feels right, from the isolated sound to looks and feel.
 
Selling the dirty blonde for GAS reasons, I can totally understand. (Which sounds crazy to some but normal to me?) But selling it for reasons like pickup "position" or "neck wood" or whatever just sounds crazy (to me). A quality bass will be quality to play and will produce quality music.

In my collection, I don't have a special bass for a special tone or special song. When I go to a gig, I usually take the one I haven't played in a while to get reaquatinted with again and renew the love. And once again (to me) it makes no difference to anyone which bass I choose anyway. No one would know any different.

And when I say flicking the switch makes no difference (to my ears), it obviously does sound different, but I mean it makes no difference to the overall music. (To me) and no one would know what the song would sound like with the switch in the other position either.

And after the bass signal goes through the amp head eq into the pedal board eq into the bass pre amp eq you cant tell me whether the neck is ovankol or wenge could seriously make a differnce. It all sounds like a placebo. (To me)

I mean no disrespect to the people who obsess over their bass tone. Maybe it's becuase I haven't been exposed to many different scenarios to really experience it.

Anyway as you can tell, this area of the forum and these types of discussions are obviously not where I belong. I'll keep to the classifieds haha :)
 
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Since pickup position is just about the most important thing for tone, and pickup type is a close second, those are perfectly reasonable reasons to sell an instrument. If you don't like either the position or the type of pickup, you won't like the sound. That's a good reason to sell a bass. I'm with you on the neck wood thing, unless it's a feel thing for you.

This "tone for the gig" gimmick that's pushed in all the magazines and online is something specific to the realm of the bassist. Guitar players have their specific tone recipes. Drummers aren't expected to play to the track, the drummer is the track. A singer won't back off and just find "a sound that works". Only the bassist is expected to play parts that "just fit" with a tone that "just works".

If that's what you're after, great. Enjoy your Precision and Ampeg.
 
DemBoneZ said:
Selling the dirty blonde for GAS reasons, I can totally understand. (Which sounds crazy to some but normal to me?) But selling it for reasons like pickup "position" or "neck wood" or whatever just sounds crazy (to me). A quality bass will be quality to play and will produce quality music.
Click to expand...

I'm selling my Dirty Blonde mostly because it is a bit of a waste in my hands. Mine is still pristine with no marks and people love it. It is unpainted and can pick up dings easily. Since I don't overwhelmingly like it (especially the pickups) it makes sense to pass it on to somebody who appreciates it and get something that can take a knock and allows me to mess with the pickups without de-valuing it.

The good news is that the Warwicks I like are not overly expensive. I like dumb Corvettes and the Fortress one. The Infinity is a different matter of course but at least it is a lot more metal.

Overall I am selling my Music Mans to finance the Warwick of my dreams. The dirty blonde is just a side show.
 
If you like the Corvette/Fortress archetype, perhaps you should consider looking into a Katana (especially if you like NT).

The bodies are not small, can be had inexpensively, and have a similar pickup arrangement. It's basically an NT Fortress with the neck pickup closer to the neck and the bridge pickup closer to the bridge (the bridge pickup is where it would be on a Streamer LX/SSII).

What about the Streamer $$?

DemBoneZ said:
Well I got many differnt warwicks with differnt pickup positions - they sound the same. They all have lots of differnt woods - they sound the same.

I got a corvette $$ flicking the switches and splitting coils makes the smallest change I can barely notice.
Click to expand...

If you can't tell the difference between single coil mode and series humbucker mode, you really, really, REALLY need a new amp.
 
I'm not sure about $$. There is way too much phase and overtone cancellation going on, which might or might not be good at the time. Gives a bit of a roar, but if you can't avoid it at all. Dunno.

My last $$-like bass was a Bongo HH which I hated the living guts out of and traded it for a H which has the pickup where it belongs (also trade 4 for 6 string which in the case of the Bongo is critical to get critical mass of the body).
 
I think it's really, really stupid to use more than two coils along the string. I'd only ever use the pickups in either humbucking mode on its own, or blending using single coil. I'd never blend (real) humbuckers.

(People call any pickup that doesn't have 60-cycle hum a "humbucker", but that's overly simplistic, if technically accurate).
 
thefitz said:
I think it's really, really stupid to use more than two coils along the string. I'd only ever use the pickups in either humbucking mode on its own, or blending using single coil. I'd never blend (real) humbuckers.

(People call any pickup that doesn't have 60-cycle hum a "humbucker", but that's overly simplistic, if technically accurate).
Click to expand...

Yeah. The number of pick-up points does matter.

If you map out how many string overtones get canceled in a setup with 4 pick-up points (2 humbuckers), but how few of those completely you will find that the total response looks like swiss cheese.

2 pick-up points cancel in a way that is selectively but complete. It adds character (a bit of a roar to my ears).
 
The Bongo and $$ have different positions of the humbuckers, so tonally there already is a difference beyond the tonewoods
I liked being able to basically be able to try out all the different options. If you are able to try a $$ its worth it, if just to fins out what kind of PU styles you like :)
 
DemBoneZ said:
In my collection, I don't have a special bass for a special tone or special song. When I go to a gig, I usually take the one I haven't played in a while to get reaquatinted with again and renew the love. And once again (to me) it makes no difference to anyone which bass I choose anyway. No one would know any different.

And when I say flicking the switch makes no difference (to my ears), it obviously does sound different, but I mean it makes no difference to the overall music. (To me) and no one would know what the song would sound like with the switch in the other position either.

And after the bass signal goes through the amp head eq into the pedal board eq into the bass pre amp eq you cant tell me whether the neck is ovankol or wenge could seriously make a differnce. It all sounds like a placebo. (To me)
Click to expand...


In live situations this might be, but at home I clearly hear the differences.

Let´s have a test! Here two vids of the same song of us with not so good resolution. Both times played over the Ampeg SVT CL rack. Same bass or not?

[video=youtube;siYXTF7FMX8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siYXTF7FMX8[/video]

[video=youtube;CMvXd4_y-7A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMvXd4_y-7A[/video]
 
I would say that its a different Bass, though the change in tonality could also be other things including recording. The mids and response are definitely different :)
 
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