LHBASSIST wrote:
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!
Can confirm. I have two Streamer LX's, a 4-string from 2001 and a 5-string from 2003. That period is considered one of their worst, when they had just switched to ovangkol necks instead of wenge (1999 saw the end of the wenge era). Ovangkol wasn't as stable as wenge, so to compensate they made their necks considerably chunkier to add rigidity. My 5-string neck is very thick and the back is almost flat in some areas. It's been my main bass in one of my metal bands for years and other than a slight truss rod tweak with a change of seasons it has always served me well. My 4-string, on the other hand, definitely has the ski jump LHBASSIST describes - except it's at the nut end on mine! From the 2nd fret up, there is a noticable jump which makes it impossible to get the action superlow across the entire fingerboard. It also has the described "asymmetrical relief", the treble side is straighter than the bass side. The way I have it set up it plays fine for me and sounds (and looks!) incredible, but adjusting it was a right pain in the butt despite the ease and huge range of adjustability of all the very well thought out hardware.
I've considered selling them on several occasions, since I don't play them much and Warwick prices have gone up considerably. But so far I couldn't bring myself to do it, I just like them too much and the 5-string has served me well as my main axe at many a memorable gig. The sentimental value has stopped me so far.
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