warwickhunt

I've owned a pair of JO 4's and a DJ 4 and they were all very heavy basses nothing less than 10lb and closer to 11lb for 2 of them. This won't bother a lot of people and some may consider it might add to the tone but if you're doing a long stint it can be a pain... quite literally! Fit and finish was good on all of them, so I reckon the 44 series would be as good. I do think your going to have to search methodically and for a while to find one within your fixed budget of £450, though you may well be able to do it if you are patient.

I've also used Interparcel for UK and International bass transportation and never had a problem. One thing that did concern me the first time they collected; you get no receipt to say the drive picked it up! Now I'm just an old fashioned guy but I like to have some form of signed receipt or evidence so I contacted them and they recommended that I print off a second delivery note and get the driver to sign it (first time he collected I grabbed the digi-cam and took a snap of his van numberplate outside the house... thinking the digital time signature would at least be better than NO proof ).

Aside from everything else, when did they stop running the earthing strip across the body? Hardly ties in with any of the spurious attempts at dating this pos!

Remove the metal corners. Unscrew the Aguilar badge then 'partly' reinsert the screws and use this to help you pull away from the velcro... be warned it is secured VERY tightly! I had to assist the removal with a pair of pliers to grip the screws and some very gentle persuasion with a wide flat bladed driver (watch you don't get too forceful as it will damage the cab edge... and no I didn't ).

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='616070' date='Oct 3 2009, 09:23 PM']i finally got a reply from H&K. As the speaker output is wired in series you can use either a 4 ohm or an 8 ohm speaker. I would advise going for the 4 ohm option and make sure it’s rated around 200 watts. In terms of output produced, in theory it will be less because the overall impedance will have been increased but in practice it will probably sound about the same but the definition will be better as the extra speaker will share the load. so there you go, not even the engineers can tell me what kinda output i will have....[/quote] If you must have a figure you are probably looking at about 150w into 8 ohms but it is true the greater cone dispersion will offset the output reduction... However, extension cab in series; it's a stupid t*t of a way to do it!

Do 'Bassfaces' have to be cringeworthy? I like this pic because our drummer has just dropped a major b*llock mid-song and he [u]knows[/u] that I know! I've worked with him for over 16 years and we just know how to have a laugh at each other and it is soooo much better than some of the tightar5ed folks in some bands.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='615513' date='Oct 3 2009, 09:42 AM']and again to £850..... only £50 more than I sold it to him for, how much will ebay fees be?[/quote] Insertion fee + 10% final value fees + PayPal fees if a buyer pays that way... you'll be looking at about 14% of £850 i.e. a loss!

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='614199' date='Oct 1 2009, 08:31 PM']No John not at all (I did used to be a copper - ABC, Accept nothing, Believe nobody and Check everything out), BUT, it would help explain why the extension might be in series. [b][u]If you get my drift[/u][/b]?[/quote] Absolutely! If it is a 4ohm internal speaker then any extension will likely as not be in series but that has to be the daftest extension option EVER.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='614180' date='Oct 1 2009, 08:06 PM']The manual says that the driver is 4ohm (with a 4ohm tweeter). If 4 ohms is the nominal impedance I can see why the extension o/p is in series although why bother [/quote] Do you believe everything you read Peter? I've known some 'right' clangers in manuals (though I do confess that the H&K ones are better than most ) but unless I saw something with my own eyes (or heard it with my own ears perhaps) I'd not be inclined to have great faith in the printed word.

I'd be inclined to think that it would be an 8ohm cab as well... here's a thought; get the speaker out and see if it has the impedance marked/labelled on it. If it is 8ohms I'd be amazed if it weren't a parallel socket and intended to operate at 4 ohms with an 8 ohm extension cab. I owned a H&K BassBase 250 combo that had a 4 ohm internal speaker load but it DIDN'T have an extension socket.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='613835' date='Oct 1 2009, 02:15 PM']I bought some Black Label strings and the 'D' was dud, I sent Warwick an email last Wednesday and I haven't had a response. Am I wrong in thinking this is poor?[/quote] Always worth contacting the manufacturer but if the strings were bought from a shop, that is your point of complaint. Obviously if you got them direct from Warwick then that's a different matter... I'm not defending their lack of response by the way

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='613372' date='Sep 30 2009, 10:31 PM']If the amp has a max output of 200 watts or thereabout into 4 ohm, and you add an extension cab in [b]series[/b] to increase the impedance seen by the amp then the output will fall. The whole idea of a 4 ohm combo with a series output to increase the impedance seems strange to say the least. I'd argue that adding an extension cab to an amp that will have its output reduced is a waste of time.[/quote] I have to agree... is it a typo in the manual? re. the OP comment: "ok so final questions, is my amp currently delivering 200watts? if i added a 200watt cab will i have 200watts being delivered from both amp and cab? and finally will this have a major impact in my overall loudness and presence?" Adding more speakers will give you a greater spread and get the drivers nearer your ears BUT it will be offset by the reduction in power! I wouldn't worry too much about [u]what[/u] is being delivered from [u]where[/u]; power is from the amp, your cab simply has a rating based on what it can take... but that is very misleading so don't pay 'too' much heed to it. First things first, establish if the output on your combo is genuinely series.

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='612605' date='Sep 29 2009, 11:05 PM']I can accept that some finishes could influence the tone & resonance of an acoustic instrument but not an electric bass. Not to my ears - too much other stuff rendering any tonal perturbations insignificant. I do enjoy these debates though [/quote] Perfectly reasonable assumption/expectation. However, I did have a SSII that was originally a natural finish that was professionally refinished solid black and the respect luthier who did the job commented on the fact that he was as surprised to find that the finish did alter the tone of the instrument. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has done the reverse and what they found.

[quote name='henry norton' post='612398' date='Sep 29 2009, 08:03 PM']Was there a general trend with the solid colour/lacquered? ie. brighter, punchier? Does the the construction or choice of woods differ with solid finished Warwicks? Less neck laminates, cheaper varieties of wood, that sort of thing. If so, that could have a big effect.[/quote] Someone used the term 'Woodier' when applied to natural finishes and the definition that there was more 'warmth' and less 'tightness' in the upper-mid register... I'd agree with that. I found that the lacquer/paint finishes were more 'up-front' [u]in isolation[/u] BUT when applied to a band mix the more aggressive/toppy sound actually cut through the mix better; not to say that the natural finishes were lacking in the band mix but the paint/lacquer had some merit. The construction that I'm talking about was with regard to NT Streamers (predominantly late 80's early 90's models and most being Stage I's); number of neck laminates was of no consequence as I owned both types of finishes and in all of the various combinations of number and type of laminate. Body woods invariably consisted of Maple (with the exception of a couple of Cherry wood bodied models that epitomised the Warwick phrase " The sound of wood") and fingerboards were almost always wenge. There were no cheaper/inferior versions of these basses in respect of my experience. Actually Luke (LukeFRC) recently contacted me re. his experiences with a coloured/lacquered bass and his recent acquisition of a natural finish bass (both Streamer Stage I basses) and he was actually stating exactly what I had found from past experience. [quote name='mrcrow' post='612408' date='Sep 29 2009, 08:07 PM']leo used an unvarnished/unpainted lump of breadboard and he got on ok with the precision marketing and as noted hiding inferior wood/ply is a feature when the spec says alder...it means alder...in the woods all the alder trees are browny tones etc paint is to...gild the lily[/quote] I'm not saying one is better than the other 'painted v unpainted' a P bass body/pup will give you a P bass sound that will be absolutely fine but unless BO basses are less susceptible to the affect of paint I'd say that a painted model would sound different to a stripped natural model... IMHO! I've owned multi laminate basses in the past and though they may be cheaper to produce I'd be hard pushed to say that they were inherently 'inferior'; they are just different, the way that Alder v Ash is different OR painted V natural is different.

My £0.02 worth... I've owned painted/lacquered and natural/waxed Warwick Streamer basses and the finish HAS had an affect on tone. I accept that it it could be said this could be down the the individual instrument and or my change in playing style/approach to each instrument BUT I am talking about a sample of over 20 Warwick Streamer basses owned over the last 25 years and they have without exception had a different tone [u]dependent upon finish[/u]. I will add that I know full well that each bass has had some difference in tone (mainly dependent upon pup manufacture) but without exception the painted/lacquered basses had an overall tone that differed from the natural finish. Just my experience of a particular bass manufacturer but hey... the OP asked for opinions.