| Reviewer
| C.Alexander Claber
|
| Experience
| 7
|
| Email
| alex@spiderplant.net
|
| Review date
| January 20 2003
|
| Manufacturer
| Warwick
|
| Model
| 1987 Streamer
|
| Price
| £650
|
| Item owned for
| 2-5 years
|
| |
|
| Bass type
| 4 string fretted
|
| Neck join
| Neck Through
|
| Neck construction
| 5-piece, wenge with cherry stringers
|
| Fingerboard
| Wenge, 24 frets, 34" scale
|
| Body
| american cherry wings (i.e. 2 piece)
|
| Finish
| natural waxed
|
| Pickups
| reverse P (neck) & J (bridge), EMG
|
| Hardware
| Schaller bridge, tuners and straplocks, gold finish
|
| Electronics
| active; volume, pan, bass & treble boost/cut
|
| |
|
Well after 3 1/2 years with this bass as my only bass (I defretted my spare
but the sound just doesn't compare so it hardly gets played) I feel that
I'm qualified to write an accurate review of it. Basically I love this
bass but I guess you need more detail than that. It took me quite a while
to get the bass set up for the best sound and feel because it's very
unusual sounding compared to pretty much every other bass that I've
played (and I've played a lot). Put simply this is an extremely trebly
bass. However once the strings have broken in, it goes from being harsh
and overly bright to lively and resonant and still with plenty of top-end
(when I say broken in, I mean when everyone would have proclaimed them
dead). This makes life much cheaper (the current strings are now over 2
years old and it still sounds great, even for modern sounding slap though
not if you crave endless treble extension) and it's allowed my sound to
stay constant for so long rather than going through the usual bright-dark
cycle.
I have the pickups set up so the P-pickup favours the hgh strings and the
J-pickup favours the low strings, which gives me the most even sound
across the whole neck that I've yet encountered, plenty of growl and top
on the lowest notes, and enough thickness and weight on the highest notes.
This does of course preclude varying the pickup pan but I get more than
enough variation in sound from changing my attack (position, intensity,
style i.e. finers, slap, thumb, muted etc.) and adjusting the onboard tone
controls.
I have made a number of modifications to the bass, one of which was the
replacement of the old aluminium alloy truss-rod (which I broke due to
over-zealous tightening) with stainless steel one which slightly spoilt
the balance (but it's still balances better than any old Fender) but
definitely improved the growl particularly down low. I also replaced the
non-adjustable brass nut with a graphite just-a-nut 2 which has really
helped with setting up the bass for maximum tone and playability. And the
final mod has been the addition of a thumb-rest/ramp to rest on and play
onto.
The sound that I get from the bass is probably best described as fretted
Jaco with more low-mids and anger - it's thick and growly but with just
that bit more top AND bottom (active pickups and that gorgeous reverse-P
pickup), very focused due to the hard stiff woods and it records
beautifully. Not the most dynamic or pretty sounding bass, but you can
always hear and feel every single note I play.
And finally that neck is so lovely - quite narrow (but wide enough for
crazy slapping) and very shallow from back to front, quite unlike modern
Warwicks.
In summary, it's my bass, my sound (and I feel that it nails the sound in
my head) and I hope no-one else finds one because I love sounding unique.
Seriously though, if you come across any 1980's Warwick put aside your
prejudices and play it, I guarantee you will not be disappointed. (If only
I had a matching fretless one). I'm sure I haven't covered half of what
you want to know, so email me if you have any questions.
| Construction
| 90% | 
|
| (nothing's ever perfect)
|
| Appearance
| 90% |
|
| (it's cool)
|
| Playability
| 90% |
|
| (deeper cutaway would be nice)
|
| Sound
| 100% |
|
| (It's my sound)
|
| Customer Service
| 85% |
|
| (I snapped the truss-rod and they fixed it nicely.)
|
| Value
| 100% |
|
| (Bargain!!!!)
|
| Overall
| 100% |
|
| (For me. YMMV but this is my baby.)
|
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The BGRA is generously underwritten by David King.
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