We’re often asked by customers who come by the shop and try out a Warwick – ‘What gives Warwick basses their trademark tone?’. It’s not just one single variable, but many that combine to make the basses unique.
Body Woods
First, Warwick is known for their famous exotic wood bodies. As American basses tend to use North and South American woods, Warwick uses more African woods. These tone woods tend to be harder and more resonant that many of the commonly used bass body woods. Warwick introduced American player to afzalea, bubinga, Ekanga, ovankol, tiger stripe ebony, and wenge. Combined with the more traditional ash and maple woods to create a new palate of tones, which Warwick has trademarked as “The sound of wood”.
A key component that allows for only the best possible wood quality is an ideal drying process. Outdoor drying is the most natural technique and allows for the most gentle process by means of the natural evaporation of the humidity contained within the wood. Decades worth of experience in the field of music instrument making and their 50-year-long family tradition allows Warwick to exclusively select woods that meet high standards that creates the natural, unique tone of the Warwick sound.
Neck Woods
Few things are as important in a bass guitar as the quality of its neck. It not only influences the instrument’s tone directly, but is also a deciding factor when it comes to playability. Wenge as a neck wood is one of the key factors of the Warwick “Growl” . Warwick neck construction consists of a minimum of three tone wood laminations that are glued together lengthwise. Thanks to the unique Warwick tone wood cutting and lamination technique, Warwick necks possess unrivaled stability. Due to the resulting high stability, it prevents unwanted resonances and allows for even tone throughout the entire neck. Warwicks multi-laminate neck construction is definitely one of the most important components of the famous “Sound of Wood”!
Warwick also utilizes (2) steel reinforcement rods embedded in the neck between the 12th and 24th fret. These construction and materials eliminate so-called “dead spots”.
Electronics
Warwick uses pick up systems designed and manufactured by German based MEC. These pick ups utilize Ceramic magnets which accentuates the wood tone of the bass sound, which establishes the famous Warwick tone. MEC active EQ systems offer accurate reproduction of the true wood bass tones. These MEC systems feature the finest components and wiring QC in the industry. Providing a true to life tone even with a hot eq setting.
Warwick also uses EMG system in selected LImited Edition and Signature bass models that produce a pure clean sound w/o the growl.
Hardware
Warwick basses feature brass bridges with mating hard tail pieces forming a tight bond that pulls the strings tight against the body for richer tone from the lowest up to the highest registers
Warwicks innovative use of bell bronze frets allows an abundance of overtones emulating the classic clear tone as the ringing of a church bell.
The Brass Just-A-Nut III allow the tonal character of open and fretted notes to match perfectly.
The pick-ups are installed tightly to the body woods with threaded brass screw anchors that are screwed into the body wood which interlocks with the wood fibers. Solid metal screws then adjust the pick ups for the proper playing height.
Finishes
Warwick’s Natural Oil Finish has an extremely thin surface, which allows the wood to breathe, conserving the open sound of the instrument. Most basses use a heavy, thick finish coat to get the shine on their gloss-finished instruments. Warwick has an exclusive water based, UV cured ultra thin High Polish finish that allows the wood to resinate, unlike the confining coats of conventional finishes. While the oil finish provides the most natural wood resonance, the High Polish finish results in a slightly compressed sound favored by some bassists.
Mojo
The Warwick manufacturing facility is one of the most advanced in the entire industry. Combining traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge automated solutions. The talent of Warwick’s highly skilled luthiers and specialists in the area of instrument making produces the vision of perfect instruments with one-of-a-kind craftsmanship.
I play a 2008 Warwick $$ 5-string daily. It’s from the German hand-made shop and I’m the second owner. Over the 59 years I’ve been playing bass I’ve tried dozens of different brands of strings. A few months ago a string dealer was going out of business and sold all his inventory at 50% off. I purchased about two dozen brands and styles of bass strings I’d never tried before, due to their high cost. I put a new set on a few days ago that are Thomastik Infields. I’d never considered them as they are expensive. But at half price I got a set. Here is my opinion after 3 days and 15 hours of jaming on my PJB practice room rig. I am absolutely blown away at how they growl, The sustain is (with proper electronice) can be endless. Low B is very vibrant and not muddy at all. E and A are fantastic in that they ring and give off lows and mids that I’ve dreamed of. I have my first gig in less than a week so I will enjoy hearing these strings thru our systems two sub woofers. If you have put off purchasing this brand, buy at least one set and try it out. This one listed for over $100. I’m thinking now I should have tried a set years ago. Try ’em out.
I have been purchasing replacement gold hardware for my Warwick $$ 5-string from the Bass Place for several years. Last week I took off an older set of strings and ‘dressed’ my neck. I used Dunlop 65 fretboard cleaner to clean the Wenge fingerboard, Feed and Wax for the Ovankol neck, and Gargomyte on the brass frets. (Gargomyte is what Warwick wants all it’s authorized lutheirs to use). All that took several days and was quite smelly. So I worked in my garage, and left the bass there three days. With all the new gold hardware I’ve been purchasing from the Bass Place my Warwick looks better than it did when it was new. I highly recommend reglar cleaning no matter what cleaners you use. You will look great on stage.