Warwick Gnome Arrived Today

[JohnDaBass]

25 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

Doubt it would be the same size as the regular Gnome, the 280w i Pro is larger than than the 200w model and that doesn't quite manage to be a true nano head for me.

 

Would be nice if they could pull that off though.

+1

@Phil Starr will be along shortly to explain that the Laws of Physics prevent anyone building a 600w amp into the footprint of the Gnome. 

What appears to be in train here is the creation and building of a sub brand for Warwick. ( et al  Volkswagen / Skoda/ Seat). Maintain a premium for the house brand and outsource the manufacture of sub brands through OEM / ODM to low cost centres of manufacturing. Maintains turnover and competes with other brands through low margin products. Makes it much more difficult for competitors to grow their market share. Having had first hand experience of executing such a strategy product quality and reliability tend to be the first areas to suffer.

It will be interesting to see if Warwick can control their chosen partners effectively.

[eude]

If they could make a 600w Gnome just by doubling the height of the current model I think they'll really have nailed it. A 4 band EQ and Speakon connectors would be wonderful too...

[Lw.]

Do these Gnome amps have an always-on fan? 

 

I've currently got an Eden WTX-264 as my quiet practice/back-up amp and whilst the tone is great and it can actually pull through in an emergency at gigs, the fan is driving me mad during quiet home noodling sessions. 

I've always had a soft spot for Warwick amps having done countless gigs with an old "Sonic III" and spending years lusting after the big "W" cabs from back in the day, so thought a Gnome could be a good replacement for the Eden but it'll be a waste of time if it can't do quiet practicing without a fan whirring away. 

[Rothko]

My Gnome i Pro has a fan, but it's whisper quiet at bedroom volume. Really barely audible.

[Lw.]

Thanks for confirming

[Obrienp]

On 27/01/2022 at 12:44, Lw. said:

Do these Gnome amps have an always-on fan? 

I don’t have the pro, just the bog standard 200 watt unit. The fan come on almost immediately and while not the noisiest, I am aware of it even in band rehearsals but I am right next to it most of the time.

[Lw.]

6 hours ago, Obrienp said:

I don’t have the pro, just the bog standard 200 watt unit. The fan come on almost immediately and while not the noisiest, I am aware of it even in band rehearsals but I am right next to it most of the time.

Thanks - sounds like it's probably not for me. Maybe I'll just get one of those hotone mini amps for quiet home practice in my office & keep the Eden for gig backup. 

 

[lemmywinks]

20 hours ago, Lw. said:

Thanks - sounds like it's probably not for me. Maybe I'll just get one of those hotone mini amps for quiet home practice in my office & keep the Eden for gig backup. 

 

 

There's a PJB Bass Buddy in the Marketplace for £100, total bargain and will drive a cab at low volume:

 

[Obrienp]

A little update on this because a lot of my gear has changed but not the Gnome. My main amp is now an Orange Terror Bass 500 Mk2. I sold one of my BF One10s but kind of regretted it recently; needing the extra grunt of a second speaker but not always having enough space at gigs for my two OBC112s, I bought a used Two10S off a fellow BassChatter. Arthritis also forced me to go short scale with my basses.

 

During all this change of gear, the Gnome has been a constant. Subjective I know but I think it is a great sounding little amp. Definitely more “modern” than the Terror but good in its own right. It is surprisingly loud through the One10 @8ohms, even louder through the Two10S @4ohms. These two combinations are loud enough for rehearsals with both bands I play in (Dad Rock and Blues). In fact, with gain at 12 o’clock and EQ flat, I rarely have the volume above 9 o’clock with the former.

 

All this in a head that costs around £130 for the basic model I have. It gets used much more than my main gigging amp, doing home practice and rehearsals. I use it nearly everyday and so far, not a hint of trouble. The fan comes on pretty quickly but it’s not loud and despite the hours of operation, hasn’t started to rattle. All the pots are still good, the knobs still in place, nothing has come loose. I always though it was built like a tank and it does seem to be living up to expectations. It fits neatly into a gig bag pocket, or in my case goes into the bag with all my leads, etc that I take to gigs, so it’s there just in case.

 

Drawbacks: the only one so far is the jack out instead of speakon connector. This means I have to carry a jack to speakon cable with me to gigs. Not a big issue IMO. Some people would want an Aux in socket and the headphone out is full sized, rather than miniature but personally I see that as a plus. Apparently the USB socket is bidirectional on the “i” version and the Pro has another 100 watts as well, which I guess gives it more headroom. I’ve never run mine at the ragged edge, so I don’t know how it performs at full chat. Maybe the extra headroom is worth the cash.

 

I don’t know how this compares to an Elf, or a BAM 200 but it seems like good value to me. Definitely worth considering if you are in the market for a miniature head. 
 

 

[Phil Starr]

18 hours ago, Obrienp said:

A little update on this because a lot of my gear has changed but not the Gnome.

Oh well, I've bitten.

 

The Gnome is my preferred amp nowadays. It sits in my hard case and I'm increasingly appreciative of its solidity. I've changed the way we do sound too with bass pretty much always going through the PA. I've also gone over to using cabs with a tweeter alternating between a single 110T and a single 112T which is slightly louder.  I also carry a Peavey MiniMax 500W amp which is what I mean to use.

 

I almost always end up using the Gnome though, it sounds better. It's just a flat neutral sound without all the tonal options of the Peavey but I'm using my Zoom B1ON to do tone shaping so I don't need the Peavey's bells and whistles, or the super noisy fan either. The Gnome has the least noisy fan of any amp I've tried. The Gnome so far has always been loud enough. Last week we auditioned 5 drummers, all different levels of aggression with the sticks. I took the  Gnome (no PA just floor monitors) with the 112 turned up high and immediately turned it down where it stayed all evening. No problems at all.

On 31/12/2021 at 20:57, JohnDaBass said:

 

@Phil Starr will be along shortly to explain that the Laws of Physics prevent anyone building a 600w amp into the footprint of the Gnome

Not 'shortly' but .... The Gnome gets warm in use, even at home practice levels though it doesn't get much warmer at gig levels in summer heatwaves.  The metal body acts as a heatsink, helped by the fan and there is a limit to how small you can go. The inside of the amp is fairly crowded too. If you doubled the power you'd need to think about doubling the amps surface area to maintain the internal temperature

[Obrienp]

4 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

 

I almost always end up using the Gnome though, it sounds better. It's just a flat neutral sound without all the tonal options of the Peavey but I'm using my Zoom B1ON to do tone shaping so I don't need the Peavey's bells and whistles, or the super noisy fan either.

 

I should have used mine at the gig I played on Saturday. I had a very vintage signal chain: P/J with flats, Orange Terror Bass head, BF Two10. Without the benefit of a proper sound check and despite the Auralex isolator, I was just a background rumble. The Gnome would have been plenty loud enough, even without PA support and a lot more neutral. It makes a good pedal platform as well, like you say. I can get enough colouration from my Valeton Dapper for my needs. It’s just, even on the Two10, it looks comically small, whereas the Terror looks more in proportion 🤔.

[Phil Starr]

26 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I should have used mine at the gig I played on Saturday. I had a very vintage signal chain: P/J with flats, Orange Terror Bass head, BF Two10. Without the benefit of a proper sound check and despite the Auralex isolator, I was just a background rumble. The Gnome would have been plenty loud enough, even without PA support and a lot more neutral. It makes a good pedal platform as well, like you say. I can get enough colouration from my Valeton Dapper for my needs. It’s just, even on the Two10, it looks comically small, whereas the Terror looks more in proportion 🤔.

Yeah I've wondered if there isn't a little bit of HPF filtering of the lowest frequencies as I've not had the low rumble at any of the venues I've played recently. I'm hoping to do a bit of response measuring of amps at the SW bass bash in a few weeks' time so I'll check it out then if possible. 

 

Ha ha it does look a bit silly perched on the 112, just about acceptable on the 110T I suppose it could go on a pedalboard

 

[msb]

The gnome is on my radar as something to check out , I’m pretty well amped up , but more likely to see an amp than a bass show up on the doorstop. No local dealers.

edit 

it appears there are no Warwick dealers in Canada

Edited September 13, 2022 by msb

[Obrienp]

I was just watching a couple of comparison videos on YouTube: Anderson’s and an Aussie guy whose name I forget. The Anderson’s video compared the Ashdown Ant, TE Elf and Warwick Gnome; the Aussie one was just the Elf vs Gnome.

 

I have to say in both videos, listened to through decent speakers, I preferred the sound of the Elf with EQ at parity. I guess it has the Trace sound but the Warwick came across as completely transparent. The difference narrowed with some EQ twiddling. I didn’t care much for the Ant, which surprised me as I have always rated the Ashdown sound (if not the weight of their gear, Ant excepted). Of course, quite a lot depends on the speaker matching. 
 

Conclusion for me: if the Elf was the same price as the Gnome, didn’t have the noisy fan, and I wasn’t paring it with a vintage voiced cabinet, Trace might have got my money. Paired with my BF One10, or Two10, I think it would be a bit too coloured. An issue I ran into at a gig last weekend, when I combined my Orange Terror with the Two10 and a P/J with flats. Somehow I don’t get the same overly coloured effect with the Terror and two OBC112s (careful crafting by Orange perhaps). 
 

I am thinking that the Gnome might be a better pairing with the Two10 but has it got enough headroom for a medium sized gig? Would the Gnome iPro be a better gigging amp with the extra grunt and therefore headroom? Still cheaper than the Elf (at Thomann anyway). I am assuming that the standard and iPro versions sound the same, all things being equal. Anybody got the iPro and like to comment? Even better, has anyone done an A/B of the standard Gnome and the iPro version?

Edited September 18, 2022 by Obrienp

[JohnDaBass]

If you are going to the SW Bassbash I'm planning to bring my Fender IMP micro combo clone so you may wish to hear the BAM 200 to compare before you buy?

 

[Obrienp]

3 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

If you are going to the SW Bassbash I'm planning to bring my Fender IMP micro combo clone so you may wish to hear the BAM 200 to compare before you buy?

 

Many thanks for the offer but the SW is a long and difficult trek from my neck of the woods, so I won’t be attending. WRT the BAM200; I am happy with the sound from my Gnome (200 watt) into my Barefaced cabs, I am just wondering whether it is worth upgrading to the 300 watt iPro version for more gigging headroom. I think the BAM 200 would be a lateral move for me. 
 

BTW your little combo looks ace. If I had the guts, I would be tempted to do something similar with my BF One10 and the Gnome but I think such a modification would massacre the resale value of the cab. I guess I could remove the Eminence speaker from the One10 and make my own enclosure like you did but part of the BF tone is in the internal construction of the cab and I don’t think I have the woodworking skills to replicate it. I have used the Gnome/One10 combo for the back line at a local acoustic blues jam and it sounds wonderful with various different acoustic bass pickup systems, even a stick upright. 

[Obrienp]

A little update on this: I spotted an unused iPro Gnome going for reasonable money on fleaBay and took the plunge. It arrived today. I haven’t had much time to experiment with it but my initial impression of it, connected to a BF One10, is that it may be voiced slightly differently from the 200 watt version. It reminded me of the TE Elf voicing in YouTube videos (through decent speakers). A very pleasing punchy but slightly less transparent tone. However, that was with Gain and EQ all set at 12 o’clock and Master around 8/9 o’clock: hardly ticking over. I haven’t wound it up yet, or tried it through the Two10. The fan seems even less intrusive than the 200 watt version’s.

 

To be expected I guess but the iPro is a bigger unit than the 200 watt version. They looked the same size to me in the group shots I had seen online but the iPro is a few centimetres wider and deeper, and just a bit taller. It is also a bit heavier. Otherwise it looks the same, save for the addition of the USB port on the back. The extra couple of centimetres make it look less comically small on top of a speaker cabinet.

[Obrienp]

I used the iPro at a band rehearsal yesterday. We were in the hall that we will be gigging at on Saturday (a fund raiser for the hall) not a huge venue but bigger than your average pub. Two guitars and electronic drums through individual amps and DI’d into the PA (500 watts RMS active speakers each side). Bass through the iPro and Barefaced Two10S (@4 ohm) only, sitting on an Auralex isolator to offset the suspended stage. I had the Gain and all EQ at 12 o’clock with the master volume at about 8 o’clock and it was borderline too loud! Bearing in mind the control is off at 7 o’clock, it meant that it was running at minimum volume and still loud! It has got to be like thunder wound up!

 

Tone on stage was very bass heavy but with the benefit of my wireless system I was able to walk around the hall to check the balance: a few feet from the stage, right to the back of the hall, it was much better, with the mids and highs coming through loud and clear. I guess that is the BF projection for you.

 

I was thinking that the iPro wouldn’t be working hard enough at this volume level, after all it is barely on with the Master at 8 o’clock but it didn’t seem to be adversely effecting the tone, or at least, I liked the tone it was making at this level. With 100 or so people in the hall on Saturday night, we are probably going to have to turn everything up a bit, as bodies seem to absorb the sound. I am interested to hear what the iPro is like with Master a bit higher. I have also yet to try it with the Blues band I play in, which is a much louder outfit but I get the impression that the iPro is as loud as my Terror Bass (500 watt).

[Lozz196]

Looking at the iPro I may well get one, size/weight plus seeing as in most cases I use my Sansamp as my eq makes me think this is a good idea, and will make gigging even easier.

[Phil Starr]

24 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I had the Gain and all EQ at 12 o’clock with the master volume at about 8 o’clock and it was borderline too loud! Bearing in mind the control is off at 7 o’clock, it meant that it was running at minimum volume and still loud! It has got to be like thunder wound up!

 

One thing we haven't mentioned is that the Gnome is very sensitive/has high gain. My very ordinary passive J drives it perfectly well with gain and volume at 10 o'clock . You can't really judge how many watts you are driving into the speakers from the gain positions. All you really need is enough gain to drive the amp flat out once you are doing that there is no advantage in extra gain or turning the volume knob any further. There is no real disadvantage in having too much gain but in a shop people often start with the knobs in the same low position, extra gain will make that amp appear to be louder so high gain amps might have a sales advantage

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Looking at the iPro I may well get one, size/weight plus seeing as in most cases I use my Sansamp as my eq makes me think this is a good idea, and will make gigging even easier.

I use the poor man’s Sansamp (Valeton Dapper) in front of mine but I very rarely use the EQ section on it. I find the EQ on the Gnome pretty useful TBH. It would be nice if the mids were split low/high but I get the impression that the EQ controls are interactive in some way, so they don’t seem such a blunt instrument. 
 

The Gnome certainly makes gigging easier. The standard one easily fits in a gig bag pocket. The iPro is a bit bigger but still relatively compact and light. 
 

A reflection after a few days of ownership, is that the increased dimensions of the iPro would allow for a Speakon socket, rather than the jack it comes with. Something I think Warwick should take into account if they do an update. 

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

One thing we haven't mentioned is that the Gnome is very sensitive/has high gain. My very ordinary passive J drives it perfectly well with gain and volume at 10 o'clock . You can't really judge how many watts you are driving into the speakers from the gain positions. All you really need is enough gain to drive the amp flat out once you are doing that there is no advantage in extra gain or turning the volume knob any further. There is no real disadvantage in having too much gain but in a shop people often start with the knobs in the same low position, extra gain will make that amp appear to be louder so high gain amps might have a sales advantage

Excuse my ignorance of how these things work but are you saying the Master is not controlling the output of the power amp? I had just assumed that the Gain sets the input signal level into the preamp and the Master the output volume of the power amp but I guess the implication of what you said is that the Master attenuates the output of the preamp into the power amp. Therefore, the power amp just gives its full output at all times? The only thing that affects the perceived volume is the input gain and the Master choking the output level from the preamp? Have I understood correctly?

Edited September 30, 2022 by Obrienp

[Chienmortbb]

1 hour ago, Obrienp said:

Excuse my ignorance of how these things work but are you saying the Master is not controlling the output of the power amp? I had just assumed that the Gain sets the input signal level into the preamp and the Master the output volume of the power amp but I guess the implication of what you said is that the Master attenuates the output of the preamp into the power amp. Therefore, the power amp just gives its full output at all times? The only thing that affects the perceived volume is the input gain and the Master choking the output level from the preamp? Have I understood correctly?

Firstly, the Gain control is often mislabelled. It can really be a Gain control, where the control actually varies the gain of one stage of the preamp, or it could be an attenuator. Either way, it varies the signal going into subsequent preamp stages. Master is usually Master Volume and is an attenuator placed just before the input of the power amp. So yes the power amplifier gain is fixed and the volume depends on the level of the Master.

[Obrienp]

30 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Firstly, the Gain control is often mislabelled. It can really be a Gain control, where the control actually varies the gain of one stage of the preamp, or it could be an attenuator. Either way, it varies the signal going into subsequent preamp stages. Master is usually Master Volume and is an attenuator placed just before the input of the power amp. So yes the power amplifier gain is fixed and the volume depends on the level of the Master.

Thanks for that confirmation. Well, you live and learn. So the volume control(s) on separate power amps (e.g. for  P.A.) is in reality an input gain control.

[Chienmortbb]

The thing about Class D amps is that they are very efficient and consume almost the same, whether barely on or running at full power. However, the higher the amp is rated, the more heat is generated, and a 600 watt amp would not be feasible in the volume of the Gnome.