Warwick Jack Bruce Artist Bass - SG/EB-style

[Chris P.]

I posted about it in a thread about SG-style basses, but I thought it deserved an own thread.

No I don't get payed by Warwick, but I was browsing on their new website two weeks ago, when I saw the Korean Jack Bruce Artist Bass again. Never payed any attention to it, but I fell in love a bit, so I 'ordered' one to review. And I like it:)

The bass has a mahogany through neck, mahogany bodywings, an ebony board, 24 frets, two big passive singlecoils and two band eq which can be bypassed.

If you compare it to an SG Standard Bass, it's bigger, the body is slightly thicker, of course it's 34", but it isn't that heavy. With the slightly offset body, cherry colour and black headstock it's very 'Gibson', but because of bridge and headstock it's also enough to distinguish from a Gibson.

I'm not very good in describing sound in English, but this bass sound great. I only tried it in passive mode and only at home on a small Orange Crush Bass combo. My hand is bruised quite badly, so I hope to be better soon and try it on a big amp with band.

With the neck pickup open it's very warm, very fat, but more open warm and not muddy. The mahogany gives it the nasal Gibson sound. Because of the stiff and long neck it has brightnes en power enough to kick through any mix. With both pickups open the neck pickup seems to overrule the bridge pickup a bit. The bridge pickup has enought warmt but is more like a very good P or something. A mahogany P. Overall it's great. Warm, fat, but it kicks ass. Hope to give a better description soon.

I already loved the Korean Star Bass with the same pickups, but because of the mahogany I love this one even better. Not a cheap bass, but Gibson lovers will like it:)

[uwe]

Markordorneukirchen is the center of Evil and it has young Smeagol/Gollum Chris fully in its unholy grasp!!!



My precioussssssss Warwicksisssss ...



I'm sure it's a good bass, Warwick builds - contrary to public sentiment here - good basses. I wouldn't want to play something Gibson-shapish from Warwick though. But a Vampyre (very fitting for Lord of the Rings scenarios too!) might still one day find its way into Ze Kölleckshün.

[Highlander]

The least we should expect is a demo with Jack playing the aforementioned beastie...?

[uwe]

He didn't like his signature model - made in Germany, these here are from Korea - at first, they had to fidget with it until it sounded right to his ears. But I haven't seen him play it (but he is happy with his Warwick Thumb which he plays all the time). It got good reviews though, but priced at something like 8,000 bucks it was never intended for broader market entry. That is what they are trying to do with this here now. I wish they would give up on the active electronics though, but it seems to be ingrained with them (as well as with most other boutique bass companies - Warwick once were one too - unless they are aping classics). Who wants to play an SG bass with a 9 volt battery?

[Highlander]

Active electronics to me is the volume pot and my fingers turning it to ten...

[copacetic]

My 2012 SG Faded Brown bass is the best sounding and feeling EB (Solid)Bass I ever played. Took it off a rack in a local GC last year not thinking or expecting too much. Played it for a few minutes. Could not put it down for half an hour. Went home, next day ran back to that store and had to have it.

[Dave W]

For better or worse, a long scale bass will never give you Jack's short scale sound.

I'm not really impressed by the sound of this one, maybe it would be different in person.

[Chris P.]

Warwick enters 'Fender zone' a bit now with an all passive Streamer CV... ...with pickguard.

I have this JB at home. It doesn't need the active electronics, so I'll bypass it. If it were mine I would ditch the active electronics.

[drbassman]

How's the neck thickness?

[Chris P.]

The width is 38mm (maybe 39) so about 1.5" if I'm right. The neck itself is not as flat as some Warwicks but quite round. Not very fat as some Gibsons.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I'm sure it's a good bass, Warwick builds - contrary to public sentiment here - good basses. I wouldn't want to play something Gibson-shapish from Warwick though. But a Vampyre might still one day find its way into Ze Kölleckshün.

I really like the shape of those, but not the pickups. Those MEC active Jazz bars have a very distinctive tone, and I don't like it. You need to get a custom Vampyre with the Jack Bruce pickups made out of mahogany with a three-point bridge. Warwick's reputation for wankery has more to do with its prominent endorser list, which until fairly recently, was made up primarily bad nu-metal (which I am glad is now dead) pop players.

[Chris P.]

They seem to do a lot in soul and funk now with Bootsy, Lige Curry, TM Stevens, Divinity Roxx, and much more.

[uwe]

They are an industrious company, I rate them for that if nothing else. Their CEO/owner, Herr Wilfer junior, will forever be driven to obliterate the family blemish of his dad having to file for insolvency with Framus in the early eighties. And they do care for their fans. For a while they offered all their basses long, medium or short scale, no additional price involved, you just had to take a pick. Same with lefties ...

The difference between Gibson and Warwick is: If I owned, say, 50 Warwick basses (it wouldn't even need to be 100+ as I do with Gibsons) you could bet your Arsch that Herr Wilfer would invite me regularly to their facilities, send me an email personally every few weeks to see how I'm doing, give me a prototype now and then to check and welcome my insatiable quest for a doubleneck bass as a challenge for their Küstöm Shöp rather than as an unwarranted intrusion into their day-to-day business as Gibson does (if they weren't ignoring me that is). And you'd see pictures of me and him framed in Markneukirchen and in bass magazines. He cares about his company and the people who keep him from going broke like his father did in a very old-fashioned way.

[Chris P.]

I guess they will do a doubleneck of this one;)

[uwe]

You bet they would. In true German engineering tradition, they would even look vorwärts to it!