FDC484950

Like many great tunes, when you really dig into it the bass part is quite a lot more sophisticated than after a casual listen. I’d taken a PDF online and it didn’t sound quite right, but never bothered to get it done properly. This transcription and the playing is absolutely spot on - and shows just how great Nathan East is. Props to the Stingray too - sounds incredible.

In fact currently, it appears you’re very unlikely to get the VAT back if you return for a refund, at least until July, when some of the regs get clarified. You may also struggle with warranty. I had an issue and manufacturer would only address it if I returned the whole bass to the retailer. And exporting and reimporting for repair to the EU is very likely to be costly and extremely time consuming at the moment. If it arrives, is cheaper and no issues, then happy days. If not...

So I saw this Teambuilt bass pop up on BassDirect’s website. I thought the Teambuilt models only had nickel silver frets, but this one came with the regular bell brass frets. It was pretty cheap by Warwick standards, so I took the plunge. I was curious to see whether the cheaper Teambuilt models showed any signs of being built to a price. The answer is... not really. Fit and finish Compared to German Warwicks I’ve owned in the past, the only real differences are chrome hardware only, 3-piece body (grain looks OK from the front but is a touch jarring on the back), and a satin rather than oiled finish on both neck and body. Weight-wise, it’s a bit heavier than the original German version of this bass I owned a few years ago, but the balance is much better, so guess the extra weight is in the body. Other than that, you’d think it was a custom model - invisible fret technology, all the same hardware and electronics and perfect from headstock to bottom strap button. Playability The neck feels quite chunky, but similar to other Warwick 6s I’ve had in the past. Top fret access isn’t great, but then that’s the Corvette design with 24 frets. The satin finish on the neck feels ultra smooth and I don’t miss the oiled finish one bit. Fretboard is basically flat and everything is easily adjustable, but I didn’t need to do anything to set it up except tune it - neck relief, intonation and action were spot on. One other point that I like is that there is no large cutaway on the top where your plucking arm rests - so not like the original Corvettes, but the same as the $$ model. Sound Typical Warwick growl - a little too bright for my taste when set flat, but that might be the Black Label strings as they are quite tinny. Cutting a little treble makes for a great basic tone. My favourite tone with active with both pickups - fully panned to the neck sounds great but the bottom end is a bit flabby, panned to the bridge makes for a great soloing or chording tone, but is a bit thin for regular bass lines. Anyone that thinks you need a Dingwall for a good B needs to try a Warwick. IMHO the best bottom B string out there, and 34” scale makes life easy. Overall I really like the bass. The whole thing feels top quality - as a comparison my Sterling 5, which was £800 more, is also very good but the fit and finish cannot hold a candle to the Warwick - perfect fretwork, super-tight neck joint, nice woods and a deep, punchy tone. If anyone wasn’t sure about Teambuilt Warwick basses, and they find one with brass frets like I did, don’t hesitate as they’re excellent.

I’d also look at the V7 mk2 - just depends whether you’d prefer a Jazz or PJ shape/config. I’ve posted elsewhere about recent acquisition of a V7 - still very impressed.

The V7 does passive and active, and the benefit is that the volume is almost identical, so you have the best of both worlds. Having briefly had an MM Stingray with a roasted maple neck, although they are en vogue (!) this season, they’re not really to my taste visually. Onboard eq is only really ever for quick tweaks on the fly or for noodling with at home anyway, but it’s nice to have another option.

Mine (Sterling) is Jan 2020 and from the weight (4.65Kg) is probably ash - can’t be sure as the serial number database doesn’t include body wood. I’ll be keeping a close eye out...

Some sellers do, but I guess that’s their prerogative. Don’t wish to start any arguments

Sorry to hear you’ve had trouble. eBay is basically a waste of time. Too many dodgy/suspect sales and lazy sellers who think they’re selling gold dust for peanuts. It’s a buyers’ market, as evidenced by the huge number of unsold basses in the BC classifieds. It’s bad enough that people on here expect you to arrange your own courier. It seems that particular insidious disease is now creeping into eBay sales. Just had some idiot tell me “it doesn’t matter who books the courier so long as it’s insured”. Dead right - it doesn’t matter to him.

Sire tuners are 93g each including bushings and 4 screws. Hipshot Ultralite HB6Cs are 59g inc screw and bushing - both on my digital kitchen scales 😀

Before Christmas I sold a MusicMan Sterling with maple neck and rosewood board. I recently bought a new one with maple neck and board. It has thrown my assumptions out the window - generally I prefer a denser hardwood board as I find it makes the low B tighter. However in this instance the maple neck and board sounds pretty much identical to the previous one I owned, but the low B is noticeably better. The electronics, hardware and strings are identical, basses set up the same, neck joints tight and both are ash-bodied and almost identical weight. Clearly something is having some kind of effect - maybe the wood, and if so probably not the species but the specimens themselves. I guess the bolt in joint has an effect too - if it’s tight then presumably vibrations get transferred more truly. I’ve not tried undoing the neck bolts a couple of turns but I’d guess it would eventually deaden the sound.

One other small tip is that the housing of the ultra lite tuner is quite small, so be careful when lining up to drill pilot holes as it’s easy to end up with the tuner hanging slightly over the lip of the hole in the headstock. Ask me how I know! Fortunately the pilot holes were so small I could re-drill correctly... Pic to follow tomorrow as obviously it didn’t happen without one 😀

Further update: Nut I’ll slightly temper my effusive praise as there was a bit more setup required. In the end I took between 1mm and 1.5mm off of the G, D and E strings and approx 2mm off the A string. The nut wasn’t terrible but it made playing in the first 3-4 positions unnecessarily difficult. it now plays really nicely - helped by the neck and fingerboard profile feeling just right. This is one area where they could perhaps improve as its critical to playability and the less experienced player may not be able/confident to file nut slots properly. Setup Setting up the bass to my taste was relatively straightforward. The bridge saddles are the more traditional Fender style rather than the large blocks previously used. The slots cut in the bridge to keep the saddles aligned are too shallow and don’t do their job, and for some bizarre reason the intonation screws are only just long enough (all 5 saddles were adjusted to correct intonation resulting in the screws being part-way through the saddles), but action and intonation adjustments are very easy. Truss rod The truss rod cut out is extended and the supplied Allen key fits without having to remove either pickguard or neck. Adjustment is easy and the stabilising rods either side of the truss rod do an excellent job of providing smooth and consistent neck adjustment. To get the neck relief to my preference (.012” at 8th fret with first and last frets on low B held down) took just over a half a turn to tighten, spread over a couple of days. The result is a buzz-free 1.5mm action at 12th fret G to 2.5mm at the B. The neck has a tight 9.5” radius so string to string there’s a noticeable height difference required at the bridge. Fretwork I don’t think I’ve ever played a bass sub-£1500 that didn’t need some kind of fret profiling, but the Sire seems just right out of the box (hence the low action). I can’t detect any high frets or the bump you often get with a bolt on around frets 14-18, and the binding and rolled fingerboard edges are smooth and consistent to the touch. It’s a real players’ bass. Finish As mentioned before, the painted finish on body and headstock are excellent, with just the inside of the truss rod cutout being a touch rough. In very close inspection there are one or two marks and slightly ragged bits of finishing (small dirty mark on the back of the neck, it’s a touch messy where the fingerboard joins the painted headstock) but overall very positive. Not up to £1000+ finishing but good enough. Electronics and sound The output is quite low for an active 18v circuit, but not gutless. Given that active and passive seem to be pretty much identical in volume, selecting the passive bass input on an amp works perfectly (and I’d rather have that than the massive volume drop to passive on a Fender Ultra/Elite, which isn’t much louder active than the Sire anyway). There is a bit of hum and sizzle with lights on (didn’t notice it in daytime with lights off), but not intrusive. EQ is flexible and powerful, but cranking does not lead to an unmusical sound. The passive tone control adds an extra dimension. The basic character is to me much better than any Fender active circuits and on a par with the Sadowsky, but with the extra flexibility of a mid EQ that’s also sweepable. Most importantly it sounds just like a jazz bass should, and again that B string is excellent - really growls and has the same tone and character as the other 4 strings. Balance I got the weight of the Sire tuners wrong - re-weighing them, they are only 93g each. Nevertheless, fitting a set of Ultralites has shaved about 250g off the headstock and it’s made all the difference - a bass that was previously very neck-heavy is now well-balanced. If buying tuners for this bass I’d plump for the licensed ones as they’re half the price and the same weight (I had a set spare). I hope this helps anyone considering a Sire.

It could be the photo playing tricks with my eyes, but in the pic down the back of the neck it looks like the neck isn’t fully screwed into the body - looks like a small gap between back of neck and neck pocket? I’d guess not as you probably would have noticed with the bass in your hands, but watching a Roger Sadowsky YT interview a while ago, he mentioned one thing he often forgets to do before checking over or setting up a bass is to check the neck screws are fully tight. They do look like nice basses, and chapeau to Ibanez for producing so many new and interesting designs in a sea of Fender clones (disclaimer: saying that having just bought a jazz bass clone ;)). The strings mounting system looks practical and means you don’t have to stick with double ball end strings like many “headless” basses. My only reservation would be that at this price point I’d expect a flawless finish.

Just reviving an old thread. Does anyone know whether Warwick have recently reverted to the bell brass frets in the teambuilt basses? I ask because I’ve just bought a new teambuilt Corvette and the shop confirms the frets are definitely not nickel silver but the normal bell brass. What confuses me is that I still see some new teambuilt Warwicks with the silver frets and some with the brass 🤔

So the Sire arrived today. First impressions weren’t great as although Andertons had boxed quite well the inner sire box wasn’t sealed and th bass was hanging out the bottom! Luckily no damage (local DPD guys are pretty careful with parcels). Onto the bass. The finish was a lovely subtle sparkle blue and the paint was near flawless - just a couple of tiny marks near the neck pocket and on the painted headstock as it joins the fingerboard. The board is ebony with some lighter steaks and blocks and binding are flawless, as is the fretwork. Nut is good - E and A string slots need to be filed down maybe 0.5-1.0mm, which I’m happy to do, but playable right out the box. A quarter turn on the truss rod to straighten up the neck and it feels great to play. No need to adjust action or intonation. Neck pickup a little low on output but was too low so a quick tweak to raise it up a bit and all is good. Pickups aren’t hum cancelling but aren’t noisy even panned to a single pickup unless you crank the treble and high mids. Overall output isn’t massively loud but the payoff is active and passive are almost identical in volume. Passive tone is great, eq flexible and it sounds like a proper Jazz. Not thin and wiry, but not woolly and poorly defined. The bridge pickup maybe doesn’t have exactly that 70s ash Fender bark but is really be splitting hairs as it’s very usable as-is. Low B is really good - I mean as good as my Us Sterling 5 and is deport and clearer than any Fender 5 I’ve played or owned. A real surprise! Downsides? Well the tuners weigh a ton - I popped one off and on the scale with screws and ferrule, 1 tuner weighs 125g! However I have a spare set of Ultralites that fit and will knock about 350g off the headstock, which is a good thing as it’s got quite serious neck dive when seated (but then all jazz 5s do because of the offset lower cutaway). I predict it’ll be 4.3Kg with the new tuners (it weighs about 4.6-4.7Kg out of the box), which is lighter than most of the rest of my collection. Bridge is fine but the stacked pots are a bit awkward - move the the top pot and the lower one moves too (although I think the bottom pot can be lowered, might just have been screwed in too high). The finish inside the truss rod cutaway looks like it wasn’t quite sanded smooth before painting but that’s the only negative I could find with the finish overall, other than the two small marks I mentioned earlier. The main thing is overall the bass looks fabulous - but I did say I have a soft spot for sparkle, matching headstock and blocks and binding... So, the verdict? Stunning. For £450 I’d have this over a US Deluxe/Elite Jazz 5 anytime. I even prefer the tone to the Sadowsky MetroExpress I owned and returned. When you look really closely at every detail It’s not as high end a finish as those basses (but it’s 99% as good) but the tone is every bit as good, if not better, B is great and it looks fantastic. Even the rolled fingerboard edges in the binding are well executed. Everything is well executed, no rough sharp corners of obvious evidence it was built to a price. I’m well aware that at this price point you may get a duff one, but if this is representative of the average Sire, I can see why they’re selling like hot cakes. I’ve owned pretty much every high end bass out there (Ken Smith, Modulus, F Bass, MM, Warwick, Sadowsky etc) and if I had to take one bass to any gig, I’d take the Sire Well done, Marcus!

Weight is an interesting thing - it’s not really tied to the retail price of a bass but more whether the manufacturer has considered it important. I’ve had a total of 3 MM Sterling 5s, and although I know the Stingray Specials were lightened, all 3 are over 4.6Kg. All but two of the many Fenders I’ve owned were 4.5Kgs+, as are plenty of other manufacturers (including Sandberg). It’s when the weight is important that you tend to get more consistently light instruments, e.g. Dingwall and Sadowsky. That careful selection of the highest quality wood (and/or chambering) results in basses much closer to 4Kg (or less. For me, an even balance across the neck and body is probably worth 0.5Kg-1Kg extra weight. A recent case in point was actually a Sadowsky that was dead on 4Kg but felt significantly heavier because the headstock just wanted to hit the deck. If the HB balances very well, then for you, maybe 4.7Kg may be borderline acceptable? I’ve got a Sire coming that, if OK, I’ll fit some spare Ultralites to that should result in a 4.4Kg bass

We all have differently-sized hands so not all advice applies to everyone. However, in general, if your little finger is dead straight like that it means your 2nd and 3rd knuckles are locked in place. This limits mobility and long term is asking for trouble. I used to play like that a lot on 5- and 6-strings, now have arthritis in my little finger and recently developed carpal tunnel syndrome (not directly in the wrist but via a neck issue). Your wrist should be as near as possible straight so from your elbow to the back of your hand is a straight line. CTS can require surgery and/or you can have permanent nerve damage. No need to stretch that far that low on the fretboard. Rest the thumb lightly in the back of the neck and pivot or shift. Your playing will be all the more fluid for it.