Monkey Steve Posted September 24, 2016 Share Posted September 24, 2016 Strictly speaking the new bass day was a week ago but it's the first chance I've had to post anything. Warwick have saved me the problem of taking nice photos to show it off by posting it as a standard order at their Custom Shop: [url="http://shop.warwick.de/?&lang=en&modul=shop_new&site=shop_overview&&ctree=D0746768001321517432A47035|D0780229001321517432A47059|D0908509001456247613A144|D0942386001456248287A168&modul=shop&site=article_details&article_id=D0360487001472733994A94659&article_category=D0942386001456248287A168"]http://shop.warwick....01456248287A168[/url] I'll be really miffed if anybody else orders one Essentially it's a Masterbuilt Stage 1 with a few tweaks - maple neck, $$ pickups but retaining the Stage 1's 3 band eq, matched headstock and a custom chaos inlay at the 12th fret. I have now learned that the difference between a Masterbuilt and a Custom Shop order is simply whether you ask them to change anything on the standard Masterbuilt template. The Good:[list] [*]pure porn to look at. Stripey maple, my own design of inlay. You know you say to yourself that if you had the cash and could order a bass to your exact specs...well, I had the cash and it's exactly what I wanted. You may hate it, I don't care. I know I'm right [*]the neck. I ordered this one because I'd had a corvette $$ with a thru neck and it was the best bass to play I've ever owned...but never loved the shape of the bass. So slim, so fast... [*]the noise. With the humbuckers set to series and the extra bite from the maple, it's a really aggressive sounding beast. I hit the strings pretty hard so I've had to drop the p/ups a little from the slightly more polite set up it came with, and it's brilliantly balanced across all five strings, and the alnico MECs respond really well to changes in attack and different techniques. [/list] The Bad:[list] [*]There's a second cavity in the back that just holds the batteries. This wasn't discussed with me before the bass arrived. [*]In fact I'm a little disappointed overall with the custom process - it largely consisted of me telling them what I wanted by e-mail, asking their opinion on choices and getting no response, and then having the repeatedly check and amend the order form because it didn't actually match what I'd asked for the first few times. I got no updates while it was being built, it took two weeks longer than the six to eight week build time estimate and I got nothing to warn of the delays - I had to chase, twice, to ask where it was. The first picture I got was the link to the Custom Shop page, the day after it was dispacthed. [*]On the subject ot the batteries, I'm not a fan of the new USB charger and rechargable battery option. I had no idea that this was now the standard custom shop option so it was a surprise when it arrived and I could certainly live without the extra gubbins in the main control cavity and room for the battery in there instead. [*]No sign that the side dots glow in the dark as promised [*]Not specific to this bass but why does Warwick insist on fitting a tailpiece that is not cut wide enough to hold most low B strings? [/list] The stuff I'm undecided on:[list] [*]The satin finish is going to take a little getting used to. The neck feels a little odd, sort of slightly plasctic-y rather than the warmer, more organic finish that the oiled wood on my old Warwicks had. Not a big thing and not a hindrance to the playing, just a bit peculiar. Reminds me of the finish on a Voodoo Les Paul I used to have. [*]The headstock seems on the small side, and is certainly slimmer than my old Warwicks. Not sure why this nags at me. It seems to be a scale thing, with the broadneck models having a larger headstock and the slimmer/standard necks like mine being scaled down a bit. [*]I had assumed that the 3 band eq configuration would be the same as on my old Streamer JazzMan model, but it's completely different, with bass and treble on the stacked pot rather than volume and sweep. My fault for assuming that they only had one config rather than checking what the lay out is for a standard Stage 1. Not a biggie. [/list] The minuses are very minor and nit-picking. I have a gorgeous bass that is amazing to play and sounds fantastic. I've been grinning to myself for the last week, every time I get home and see it in the rack... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted September 24, 2016 Share Posted September 24, 2016 (edited) Looks stunning! I have one from the opposite end of the scale, a bolt on Rockbass version - one of my favourite basses to play despite the weak pickups (which I intend to replace). Mine is also supposedly satin nirvana black, but just looks like someone dyed a bit of boring looking wood dark brown. That pricetag though... Edited September 24, 2016 by dannybuoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted September 24, 2016 Author Share Posted September 24, 2016 I know - not a casual purchase, and a lot of the extras were me thinking "well, if I'm paying that much to start with I may as well she'll out a few extra quid for what I really want..." The star of the show is really the through neck. If they did a Streamer $$ with a through neck back in the day when you could pick up German made models for under £2k I could have saved myself a lot of cash... Still, it is true love Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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