Kev

Nothing scratchy about it I'm afraid, had a luthier look at it today ( Peter Alan, great chap who gave some sound advice) and it is very much a crack, probably caused by an over tightening of the truss rod, but the crack has been filled at some point and iv been told that all will remain okay providing I don't go messing with the truss rod unecessarily or try and play death metal with inch thick strings! The bass is setup nice with low action and plays really well, it's otherwise a stunning example

It's the SS1 with the crack in the neck, bought off here last week

But there must be a problem then considering it is a stock setup? I think I will have it looked at by a professional, needs the neck looking at anyway.

Messed around this evening and turned the bass n mids down on the amp and cranked to try and enhance the distortion, turns out it actually happens with both pickups, just less so with the j, and even with the p pup all the way down as in the pic it still distorts when attacked hard or using a plectrum. Preamp or some sort of wiring issue? Doesn't sound like a quick fix anyway, unless anyone else has any experience driven ideas??

No there is no sign it has, the output doesn't sound particularly hot either.

Sadly I'm fairly amateur when it comes to this kind of stuff, fairly sure the EMG's are active. Certainly is a MEC preamp in there and all visible connections seem secure, pots are quiet and the bridge pickup works fine and is quite close to the strings. My first thought was to check if the MEC has a internal gain trimpot, but cannot see that it does...

Thanks for your help, but the majority of old Pre 1990 warwick basses have the EMG pickup MEC preamp combination and iv not seen many complaints so surely the preamp should work fine with it??

As far as pickup height goes, the following picture is how i have it set now and at this height there is almost no distortion unless i dig in really hard. Raising the pickup reduces the heaviness of attack needed to trigger distortion. I shouldn't have to have the pickup this low, should i?? [IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i287/KevMan69/Snapbucket/6A80C7D5.jpg[/IMG]

It will be an MEC preamp.

Il just add that it does only distort if i really dig in hard; my normal playing will not trigger it. Its more common when using a pick hard too.

Recently acquired an Old Warwick with EMG pickups, one J and one P type. Whilst i am having no issues with the J, the P pickup is producing some distortion. If i have the pickup at a normal proximity away from the strings, EQ on the bass flat, when initially attacking any note on the bottom two string (E and A) hard, there is a distortion, less than half a second or so but very much there. Looking online, this is typical of the preamp in the bass being overloaded, or the battery being low. Given the EQ is flat i cannot see how it can be the former, and i have tried numerous fresh batteries with the same results. Also tried with two different sets of strings and ruled out my Amp being overloaded. Screwing the pickup right down almost as far as it will go removes the distortion, but obviously a lower output comes with it which i don't really want. All original electronics as installed in 1988 so should all be compatible with one another so i doubt pot values are a problem. Anyone any thoughts? I vaguely remember having a similar problem with an EMG P type pickup in a bass i owned many years ago, and not sure the problem ever really resolved itself.

My current pair [IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i287/KevMan69/IMG_0808_zps34618348.jpg[/IMG] '90 Thumb NT and '88 Streamer SS1