"That’s interesting. I would love to hear why you don’t care for them, and the construction of the necks."
Here's why. I've been repairing, and building on occasion, since 1969. I have worked on so many basses it's impossible to actually know the number. Everything from Kent- Zim-Gar, Hagstroms, Guild, to Gibsons, Fenders, Ibanez, Aria, Wal, Alembic, Smiths, Sadowsky, Suhr, G&L, Music Man, Hamers, Fodera, there's very few I haven't worked on. All of us who play bass understand that every brand of bass has 'characteristics.' Fender basses were known for dead spots in typical areas, like the 13th. fret..'S' curving of the necks, and the good old 'ski-jump' at the end of the fingerboard, which Fender's brilliant engineering department fixed with a three bolt neck that mechanically tilts upward at the ski-jump, making it much worse. From the AMF Harley, AMC Pacer/ Gremlin/ GM coked up designer Disco cars/ Gibson-Norlin era of industrial folly. Point being, with the Warwick basses I've seen over the last 30 plus years, most of them seem to have similar issues. The necks are seldom straight, they have a bump at the body end, like a bad Fender- and some have 'S' curves, that I could not adjust out. Many have what I call 'asymmetrical relief' where regardless of how I work the truss rod, one side has too much relief, while the other has little or none.. Sometimes it's actually the treble side with too much relief! Then, when acieving a decent level of compromise adjustment- there's still that damn bump at the last few frets! I just do not care for them. Add the fact that the really expensive active ones have expensive multi-function proprietary pots that are literally unobtainable, as the manufacturer changed the pin design, in one of my client's FNA Jazzman preamp's.. replacement pot. I still have it. It cost like 40 bucks, ten years ago, and fits nothing. It is still hanging in it's display bag over my workbench, to this day. The one major thing? All the high end Warwick basses I've played feel like they weigh more than two 1976 Ash Jazz Basses glued together. Yes, I understand the lineage with Framus, but they just don't do anything for me. Although, in the right hands, they do sound great.
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