unpluggedjack

As suggested by someone earlier in this thread - I bought a used beat-up Rockbass Fortress for £130 on evilbay and used the pickups and electronics to "rescue" my 1994 Warwick Fortress which was suffering after 1000's of gigs!

Here's what I have learnt from ownership of many Warwicks and Rockbasses and from direct contact with Warwick:

ALL MEC pickups are made in Germany (passive are marked as Dynamic Correction) and are fitted to both Warwick and Rockbass.
MEC electronics as fitted to Warwick basses are made in Germany. Rockbass electronics made in China APART FROM Rockbass Fortress which bizarrely uses the full-spec MEC (2 band) electronics with the push/pull volume pot to bypass the eq!!! This probably explains why the Rockbass Fortress is more expensive than other Rockbasses.

BTW - this push/pull pot was extremely useful if the bass was fitted with the passive (Dynamic Correction) pickups because if your battery died you could continue. I suspect it's pretty pointless if you have the active pickups because they will need the juice from the battery to work. Could be a nice way to store a second (or solo) sound maybe? I've never used it in this way as I always use the eq. I think they have chosen some good frequencies (100hz for bass, 2.5khz for treble) and I find a slight bit of boost on each pot is very nice and I use very little eq at the amp.

I recently compared the MEC 2 band eq with EMG 2 band and there wasn't a huge difference. EMG slightly softer/more organic sounding maybe?. MEC seems slightly more "artificial" for want of a better word . The EMG EQ WAAAY cheaper and easier to fit so make a good replacement if your MEC eq needs replacing.

My next step is to try EMG pickups and compare with the MEC

never measured it with my Warwicks but should be consistent with your WAL. I just change them every few months regardless and give the used batteries to our guitarist as spares for his pedals!

The only time I had an issue with battery life in my 'Wick was when I converted it to 18v. Sound was marginally improved but battery life was terrible. Could be measureed in weeks! I pretty soon went back to 9v.

still for sale?... Yes?.... No?.... I can collect this weekend (11th/12th Feb)