Warwick Infinay Custom Shop, 03 Rick & Stage 1

[Heartbreaker]

Lookin back on a few of many nice basses that I owned.
The Streamer Stage 1 was a Special order 1999 AAAAA flame maple body, AAAAA flamed maple neck with high gloss french violet finish. To this day I have not seen a better flamed wood than on this & I've had many. This realy was a stunning bass in its construction, finish & tone. This stayed with me for many years & delivers just about all I required in tone untill I got VERY LOUD. It sounded a lot clearer & deep than any other Stage 1 I tried & there were many.
The middle instrament was a special order again, a 2002 Warwick Infinaty limited edition custom shop 5. It had a one off birdseye maple top & AAAAA flamed maple body & neck in high gloss French violet. This must be the best 5 I've ever had for feel, playability & looks but boy was it crap on tone. The problemb was with the Infinity semi hollow body & huge cut out for the humbucker 5 pick up removed so much wood from the body that it had a real affect of damping down the resinance & it just absorbed the tones rather than sustaining them as should have been the case. Definatly a big desighn cock up on Warwicks part as despite its good looks, you must have the tone to go with it. I have also found this to be the case on other semi hollow Infinaty's made in diferent woods too & must be a reason why not many sold or were seen on the live circuit despite looking the dogs bo***cks. Shame. Finally my 1973 Rick 4001. Well I started playing ricks back in the early 70's & stayed with them intill the mid 80's. Definatly superb for prog rock. In 2003 I bought this mint 4001, not a mark, flamed neck, toaster neck pup & checker board side banding. I couldnt falt it but typically my ear, style & taste had changed so I found a good home for her but this still must be one of the best 4001's I've seen & played. Still wish I had it for the occasional blast of Crimson/Yes/Genesis. I've been playing mainly vintage rock over the past several years so my main gigging tools are a 96 Custom Shop Fender delux with the very powerful John Suhr pickups & pre amp, rosewood, block inlay & bound neck & light natual body that realy punches the tones, also use a mint 62 EB3 & a Lakland 5 delux. Hope you like the picks, Munk.