throwoff Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Just seen some big changes on the Warwick site. I know there was some confusion over the Pro-Series/Korean/Chinese stuff last year but they have made the range much easier to follow. They now have 3 distinct lines. Custom Shop German Pro Series Chinese RockBass The price list for the German Pro Series makes very interesting reading material, you can now pick up a German Made Corvette, made in the proper Warwick Factory, out of the same high end materials it has always been for 1100 Euro MSRP... That is a price drop of about 60% plus... $$ models now start at 1600 Euros MSRP, again a huge price drop and I believe a very fair price for a bass made in Europe, by quality luthiers of high end woods with a great electronics and pickup package. The only difference I can see is that now you have a limited colour option, natural, around 5 oil colours, a couple of high stains and a sunburst on most, really no different to any other builder. The Custom Shop range is still at the Warwick insane prices we know and love but you of course can get almost anything you want so it justifies it. Rockbasses are still frankly madly overpriced, 800 Euros for the Chinese built Corvette.. when you can now get a German one for 300 euros more I think they will struggle on that! Seems they might have finally listened to customers though and I for one think that's great, maybe the second hand market will pick up a tad with the new pricing in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Be interesting to see if this has any impact. I've never owned a Warwick, maybe I ought to be thinking about changing that in the not too distant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I love Warwicks but theie custom shop prices are just mental. Will be interesting to see how the new pro series compare to the older German models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) They've also moved their Custom Shop from New York City to Nashville. I now have another excuse to re-visit the town next time I'm in the US... Edited February 10, 2015 by bluejay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lw. Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Looks interesting; the German Pro-series seems to be going for what Warwick was maybe 10/15 years ago - which is a good thing for me because I'd quite like a Streamer this year & couldn't afford the custom shop prices. Not that I think the custom shop is over priced - you get what you pay for & the quality will be at least equal to most of the other custom builders out there. Any word on if the rockbasses will have the W on? I always thought that was a mistake so will look out for what they've decided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40hz Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Much much better from Warwick, IMO this is exactly what was needed. Pro series Streamer here I come! Edited February 10, 2015 by 40hz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I bought my Streamer in '93 - was about £1k. Didn't order it, it just happened to be in my local music shop. As we know - biggest hurdle for german Warwicks is no UK dealer can afford to stock them. I was fully up for buying a new German made last year, but none to demo meant the money went elsewhere. Quite glad I didn't now. This should mean we'll start seeing them stocked in shops again. Be interesting to see how they spin the climb down on price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 [quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1423589026' post='2686741'] Any word on if the rockbasses will have the W on? I always thought that was a mistake so will look out for what they've decided. [/quote] Looks like they all have the "W" on the headstock now: [url="http://www.warwickbass.com/en/Warwick---Products--Instruments--RockBass.html"]http://www.warwickbass.com/en/Warwick---Products--Instruments--RockBass.html[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) There may be a little confusion here. Basically, the only thing that has changed is the Pro Series is now being produced in Germany, rather than overseas. The Warwick 'Custom Shop' series are still the same german basses that were built last year, and those prices I believe have gone up slightly as would be expected. There hasn't been a climb down in price, simply a relocation of where the Pro Series is made, which will appeal to many. The woods and such are not the quality of the 'proper' german Warwicks (Ovangkol rather than Wenge, lower grade maple, BO rather than NT e.t.c.) and they have limited options, hence the lower price still being offered. I think as a result we will see some stockists in the UK again, which will be great to see Edited February 10, 2015 by Kev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M@23 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Looks like good news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Looking again, I can still see they offer the Streamer Stage I on the Rockbass line, but to have an NT Warwick now you will otherwise still need a full blown model. They offered NT models on the Pro Series of previous years, did they not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 No prices for the Pro Series Star Basses yet. I fancy a spare for my MiK version if the price is right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) [quote name='Kev' timestamp='1423594157' post='2686834'] There may be a little confusion here. Basically, the only thing that has changed is the Pro Series is now being produced in Germany, rather than overseas. The Warwick 'Custom Shop' series are still the same german basses that were built last year, and those prices I believe have gone up slightly as would be expected. There hasn't been a climb down in price, simply a relocation of where the Pro Series is made, which will appeal to many. The woods and such are not the quality of the 'proper' german Warwicks (Ovangkol rather than Wenge, lower grade maple, BO rather than NT e.t.c.) and they have limited options, hence the lower price still being offered. I think as a result we will see some stockists in the UK again, which will be great to see [/quote] Thanks Kev for spelling that out, didn't wholly appreciate the difference (or lack thereof) in the Pro models. I'm sure the broad message of German made = quality will flow through to all their marketing and in store sell. Agree good news all round for retailers. Edited February 10, 2015 by Drax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 [quote name='Drax' timestamp='1423594822' post='2686859'] Thanks Kev for spelling that out, didn't wholly appreciate the difference (or lack thereof) in the Pro models. I'm sure the broad message of German made = quality will flow through to all their marketing and in store sell. Agree good news all round for retailers. [/quote] It will make a huge difference, I feel. German built Warwick's available at that price should be very popular indeed. I'm sure it has cost Warwick a little to manufacture them this way, and they have dropped some models as a result, but I think this could be a good move for them. It also further makes those top end German models that little bit more special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TolerancEJ Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Not that I can afford one, but custom shop prices make sense to me. The cost of manufacturing an instrument with unique specs is far greater than if the factory has a group of 10-20 identical spec instruments to manufacture at the same time. Edited February 11, 2015 by TolerancEJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machines Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Does anyone know why they stopped the Korean Pro series? Mine is just as good as a German made instrument (I had a Corvette $$ a few years ago). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I got my Korean-made Corvette last month. This is the review I have submitted to Thomann (they haven't published yet, maybe they won't publish it at all). It may go a little way towards explaining why Warwick weren't happy there. [quote] The Warwick Pro series has been discontinued, and the instruments that are still on the market represent excellent value. I bought a fretted Corvette 5 last year and have just got myself its fretless twin. Only it's not its exact twin: the more expensive fretted instrument is a 2013 model, while this fretless one is a 2010 model. Its body is shaped slightly differently and the model in general has a few design shortcomings which were clearly overcome in the years that followed. First of all, the sockets in the body where the two-piece bridge is installed are too deep, requiring the section of the bridge that carries the saddles to be lifted as high as possible by grub screws; the saddles also need to sit high to avoid the string action being too low even after tweaking the truss rod. In the case of my bass, even with the grub screws extended to the maximum, the bridge was still too low to sit straight in the socket, and had been mounted at an ugly angle and with one corner higher than the others. One of the grub screws is also missing, clearly because such horrid mounting method made it impossible to insert all four grub screws correctly. Functional, yes, albeit barely, but well assembled it definitely wasn't. So I unscrewed the bridge, disassembled the lot, placed a couple of layers of thick, hard foam in the body's socket, and screwed the bridge back in again, now at the correct height and perfectly square. It's still missing the fourth grub screw, mind, but for the moment it seems to be all right. Once the bridge was set up correctly, and flatwounds installed to replace the roundwounds (why on Earth install roundwounds on a fretless in the first place?), setting up string action and intonation was a doddle, as always with Warwick's wonderful engineering, and the bass plays like a dream and sounds ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. Just bear in mind that, to set up the intonation on the low B string when using certain makes or gauges of flatwounds, you may need to get rid of the spring on the saddle screw, in order to gain a little more space to push the saddle back as far as it can reach. Make sure to store the removed spring in a safe place![/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle psychosis Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 [quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1423600787' post='2686975'] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3](why on Earth install roundwounds on a fretless in the first place?),[/size][/font][/color] [/quote] If only Jaco was alive, we could ask him... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 One more reason to install flats on a fretless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Bluejay, do you want a grub screw from a Warwick bridge. I may have one somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesBass Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Never liked Warwicks, but this simplifying of things is great! Wish Fender would do the same! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 [quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1423605455' post='2687049'] Bluejay, do you want a grub screw from a Warwick bridge. I may have one somewhere? [/quote] That would be lovely, Bartelby, but only if you don't need it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicavenger Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) [i]I'm a big fan of the original early Warwick Basses[/i] and own some of them but I'm very disappointed with the way the company took since the mid 90s The once coolest basses in the world are having a time of disrespect in the bass community because of their fall in quality and rise in price. If you check new bands, nobody is using Warwick today, no music store stocks them and their (affordable) range is poor quality compared with (for example) Spector Basses of the same price. (Spector is also making shi..., but their top instrument don't have the silly Warwick prices) The beginning of the problem started with the unavailability of wenge during the 90s until not long ago and the highly automated process in the manufacture that killed the instruments real soul. Lots of players in the last 20 years had very bad experiences trying Warwick Basses with very uncomfortable fat necks for an instrument of that price and more if you ever experienced one of their instruments of the golden age. Hope someone at Warwick is reading this and this helps them to recover from a bad period like Fender and Gibson had in the late 70s early 80s. The problem many companies done was overstock the market with their Chinese/Korean/wherever production and now the world is full of crap instruments nobody wants, with no resell value and giving a bad impression of the brand their represent. Too many new models with horrible shapes, too many sponsors that are actually the only pro users of Warwick Today................ Edited February 10, 2015 by musicavenger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 [quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1423607191' post='2687075'] That would be lovely, Bartelby, but only if you don't need it! [/quote] I have a knackered old bridge. I'll pm you tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Aw, thank you! That's really nice of you. Our community at its best once again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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