Warwick Streamer Stage I 5 String (2013)

[Kev]

Warwick basses are instruments that are loved and hated amongst bass players, some for the right and some for the wrong reasons. They have been through many transitions in the three decades of their existence. Models made in the eighties and nineties were hand-built and are desired by many over any others. It seemed to become more about quantity than quality as the nineties progressed, with features like brass bridges and nuts being taken away and the introduction of cheaper neck woods (Ovangkol) and, of course, the switch to machine made instruments. My personal experience of basses made between 1999 and 2009 has been dim and, due to the sheer number Warwick were pumping out their factories during this time, these are probably the most played Warwicks of the lot. This is a shame, as many people's opinions of Warwicks are based on these instruments. Don't get me wrong, some basses made during that period were top notch, but many lacked the quality and finish of the earlier basses. I would go as far to say that a Streamer LX 5 I owned was one of the worst basses I have owned for both finish and tone.

However, Warwick have now really tidied up there game. Mass production of basses has now moved to the far east and as such concentration on making German instruments has improved exponentially. Features such as brass hardware has been reintroduced, superb IFT (invisible fret technology) and glow in the dark side markers have been developed and wenge is once again the primary neckwood. As of 2013, only around 250 are made in Germany a year, which is less than some boutique manufacturers I know of, and the basses are a world apart from the basses of the previous decade. In my opinion, the instruments being made now are the best they have ever made, fitting as they are also the most expensive!

Up for review I have now is my Warwick Streamer Stage I Broadneck 5 string, built in 2013. I am the first owner, purchased as ex-demo following it being used for Warwick promotional material and in shows as a demo instrument.

[i][b]Features: 9/10[/b][/i]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]34" scale 5 string bass, 47mm nut with 20mm spacing at the bridge give this the feel of a 4 string with an extra string. A broadneck, but I only have small hands for a man and have no problems whatsoever. I am used to 5 strings with 18mm spacing but this was an easy transition. Perhaps not such an easy transition from a 16.5mm spacing fiver (standard Warwick and many other basses spacing).[/font][/color]

The bass has two active MEC soapbar pickups in traditional Warwick positions, hooked up to a 9v 3 band MEC preamp. The preamp has a very musical voicing, standard treble, mids and bass, with a balance control and volume control stacked pot. Pulling up the volume knob bypasses the preamp, however it is important to note that the bass will never be passive due to the active pickups. A mistake often made by Warwick when describing this setup! Access to the electronics is easily gained through the quick release cover on the back of the instruments.

The bass has highly figured AAA flamed maple body wings (not a top) with a 4 piece wenge through neck, complete with a wenge fingerboard. The bass is finished in a wonderfully smooth satin finish that feels fantastic under the hand. The neck is a flattened U shape and fits perfectly in the hand. The neck tends to feel larger than you may expect but this is simply due to it being a broadneck. The shape really, really works and fits your hand absolutely perfectly. All this wood comes at a price; the bass weighs in at a little over 12lbs. It is however perfectly balanced with not even a hint of neck dive and feels lighter than some basses weighing a couple of pounds less.

Holding the strings in place is the superb Warwick 3D 2 piece Brass bridge, together with a Brass Just-a-nut III. In my opinion, this is the best intonation system out there; the bass can be set up exactly as you want it. Standard Warwick (gotoh) tuners on the headstock, not the best tuners out there but ones Warwick have been loyal to since about 1987-1988.

Warwick Strap Locks complete the bass. I do not trust any straplock other than Schaller and so do not use the system. Schaller buttons fit to the bass without any modifications required.

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The bass comes with the full Warwick user kit and tools, a fresh set of their best strings (EMP Coated) and a heavyweight aluminium/plywood flightcase.[/font][/color]


[i][b]Sound: 8/10[/b][/i]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The bass has a very punchy sound with deep lows, musical midrange and crystal clear highs. The rich tone of the bass is attributable to that weight, I have never come across a lightweight instrument that can achieve this kind of tone. [/font][/color]

[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]With the pickups balanced, you get a deep powerful tone with slightly scooped mids. Adjustment of the MEC preamp dials any missing mids straight back in or scoops further for a more 'heavy metal' sound. Rolling towards the bridge pickup gives that typical snarl with strong mids presence. Boosting the bass here really helps the sound thicken out with fat, punchy lows. Dialing towards the neck pickup and you have a wonderfully woody rock tone. Again, not being shy with the preamp works superbly here too. A very Warwick tone at all settings with a nice level of signature growl. I have set the bass up with DR nickel strings and they compliment the bass well. In my experience, all Warwicks sound best with nickel strings.[/color][/font]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Overall, a great modern sound that can be tweaked to your liking with the EQ. You will not get vintage P or J bass tones out of this and if you have bought the bass for these sounds I would question your judgement. What it does it does very, very well indeed, and the variance between pickups makes this wonderfully versatile. The pickups are silent, no hum of any kind, and the general quality appears top notch. The only slight criticism I have of the sound is the extremes of the preamp; you will not get silly over-the-top eq'ing like you will get with preamps made by John East and similar, which will bother some.[/font][/color]

[b][i]Action Fit and Finish: 10/10[/i][/b]
[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]The fingerboard is basically flat (47") and as such the action is very low, lower than my Dingwall. The bass is built superbly. A huge advantage over the fit and finish of these new Warwick instruments is the fact they are [/color][/font][i]not[/i][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828] hand built. Warwick have invested an awful lot of money in top end machinery and environmentally friendly production techniques that get everything just right. The Nirvana Black oil finish looks so classy and really shows off the grain of the woods well. The fretwork is quite incredible, the best I have ever encountered. No flaws whatsoever in the finish. As mentioned, the intonation system in place will allow any setup you want. The truss rod is extremely responsive and access is gained very easily behind a plastic cover. No points lost here at all.[/color][/font]

[i][b]Reliability/Durability: N/A[/b][/i]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The Instrument is too new to me for me to comment on this with any accuracy, so it would not be fair.[/font][/color]

[i][b]Value for Money: 7/10[/b][/i]
These instruments are not cheap. The RRP of this particular model I believe is in the region of £4,400, which is a significant investment. Street value tends to be a good £1k or so less, but given these are not sold by guitar shops in the UK this may be a little harder. The basses are not hand made but it is important to consider that this is not Fender, Musicman or any other company that turns out thousands of instruments a year. Warwick build around 250 instruments a year at their German headquarters. Warwick now take real care in their production, have invested heavily into state-of-the-art machinery and also now take great care in the environment, sourcing sustainable wood sources only etc. The quality is top notch, but I appreciate many wont be able to see past the fact these are not hand made by Hans himself.

[i][b]Customer Support: 6/10[/b][/i]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I will speak for Warwick in general. Their support is often questionable. I have had many enquiries in the past go unanswered, or with length delays in communication. They are notorious for not knowing much about their older instruments and I am fairly sure you will much more likely get the correct answer from a Warwick owner on here than you will from Warwick. My experience in purchasing this bass directly from the UK Warwick representative was good. They are appointing representatives to appear in discussion forums like this and, as with every aspect of their business model, appear to be attempting real improvements.[/font][/color]

[i][b]Overall rating: 9/10[/b][/i]

The instrument will not cater for all bass lovers, and she is a heavy but well balanced beast. However, these newer Warwick instruments completely put to bed the blanket claim that all the older handmade Warwicks are the best instruments they have made. I have owned more Warwicks than I can really count, majority of which have been vintage, and this is the best of the bunch. Sadly, their high RRP and likely various other issues have meant there is little market for these basses in the UK anymore, in fact I do not believe there is a UK dealer. They are, however, making very positive steps in repairing their brand image as a top quality bass maker and if they keep pumping out instruments like this they certainly will be back to the top. It is a simply fantastic, top quality instrument and more than competes with the increasing number of hand built boutique instruments that are becoming increasingly popular.

A couple of pictures and a review by Andy Irvine using the actual bass finish this review

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[media]http://youtu.be/U12vvP1rkys[/media]

Edited July 8, 2014 by Kev

[LukeFRC]

I saw this on the recently added threads list - and for a split second thought it was a for sales thread...

[Kev]

Haha not a chance

[Denzel]

Nice review there Kev. It really looks like a top notch Warwick product again which is nice to see...and no plastic nut to be seen

Mind if I ask, ball park figure, what you paid for The Beast? No problem if you would rather keep that to yourself! Marks out of 10 for value for money?

Question, Why does Warwick have a UK rep but no dealers? Surely getting even 5 or 10 great new or ex-demo bases out there to give us a feel for them would improve their image and reputation for quality that went a bit wayward.

My only other thoughts on your comments about Warwick getting back on track is their lack of quality marketing. Andy Irvine is a great face for Warwick and does a sterling job at profiling many basses in the range but what is happening with their endorsed pro players? I mean they made a star bass for Bootsy, where is the promo vid of him playing the nuts off that bass with a band??? Stuart Zender, heavily stoned, plucking like two notes on his signature bass and acting goofy. Its just not enough quality footage of inspirational playing to make ME the potential customer WANT the products. That combined with sky-high retail prices for essentially CNC production-line instruments is really shooting themselves in the foot IMO. Custom Shop, fine be elitist with your pricing, but not your production lines.

For me anyway, Warwick basses have always been very close to my heart,but will remain to be second-hand market purchases. I look forward to more of these 2013/14 return to wenge era basses becoming available S/H sometime in the near future. Might give one a try!

Oh and congrats Kev. Thats a stonking bass you have there ;-)

Edited June 20, 2014 by Denzel

[Kev]

[quote name='Denzel' timestamp='1403222491' post='2480991']
Nice review there Kev. It really looks like a top notch Warwick product again which is nice to see...and no plastic nut to be seen

Mind if I ask, ball park figure, what you paid for The Beast? No problem if you would rather keep that to yourself! Marks out of 10 for value for money?

Question, Why does Warwick have a UK rep but no dealers? Surely getting even 5 or 10 great new or ex-demo bases out there to give us a feel for them would improve their image and reputation for quality that went a bit wayward.

My only other thoughts on your comments about Warwick getting back on track is their lack of quality marketing. Andy Irvine is a great face for Warwick and does a sterling job at profiling many basses in the range but what is happening with their endorsed pro players? I mean they made a star bass for Bootsy, where is the promo vid of him playing the nuts off that bass with a band??? Stuart Zender, heavily stoned, plucking like two notes on his signature bass and acting goofy. Its just not enough quality footage of inspirational playing to make ME the potential customer WANT the products. That combined with sky-high retail prices for essentially CNC production-line instruments is really shooting themselves in the foot IMO. Custom Shop, fine be elitist with your pricing, but not your production lines.

For me anyway, Warwick basses have always been very close to my heart,but will remain to be second-hand market purchases. I look forward to more of these 2013/14 return to wenge era basses becoming available S/H sometime in the near future. Might give one a try!

Oh and congrats Kev. Thats a stonking bass you have there ;-)
[/quote]

I missed off value for money! I have added that on, I wont post the price paid publically but I may satisfy your curiosty by pm

I don't know the backstory behind there being potentially no Warwick dealers in the UK anymore. The price list on the website for UK isn't there and hasn't been since 2012 . I imagine there are reps all over the world, perhaps for the exact reason that there are no UK dealers so there is a point of contact and a way of getting the basses into the country, custom orders etc.

Marketing, I agree. The signature artists are not pushed enough and there are nowhere near enough promotional materials with them showcasing their instruments. This is something I would very much like to see! Going back to construction, it [i]is[/i] a CNC production line, however as I mentioned the quantity of basses produced is expectionally low now and it is now very much about the quality of the instrument produced. They believe that machines can do it better, and I can't disagree with them. Their environmental efforts are also to be respected too. They are expensive, very expensive, but their RRPs do tend to be a cut by quite a decent amount by the time they get to the guitar stores.

They still have some work to do to repair the brand damage over the last decade or so but I believe they are on the right track .

[Kev]

I have updated my review and added a few new pictures

[Fionn]

Good review ... and interesting observations/ opinions regarding new Warwicks. I'd love to try one. If the quality is that good, I'd reckon that the (2012) 30th anniversary Streamer Stage1 might potentially be the bass of my dreams.

That's an absolute stunner of a bass you've got yourself there. The gold and black just ooozes class. Very swish

Edited July 8, 2014 by Fionn

[hodgkinson.s]

i recently purchased a warwick gps streamer stage 1 4nb ofc.from thomann.. this instrument suffered a number of flaws in the wood {us cherry wood]. .. mainly cracking.. i had the instrument examined by a top  uk luthier.he confirmed this ,and other  flaws..he stated that he was surprised that the poor quality of this instrument bore the name of warwick.as a result the instrument was returned to thomann. and was given a full refund of the purchase price..i was very impressed with thomanns customer service 10/10..i  complained to warwick for their  comments on the matter,and was informed to be very patient.i am still being very patient i am very  disappointed with warwick .after all this was a brand new instrument. teambuilt pro series bass. over £2k.  no explanation from warwick. why not?. this coincides with  an article in the uk,s number one bass guitar magazine. title. the sound of wood.,we pick up our jaws after a tour of warwicks futuristic bass facility.. ........s.h.