Warwick Vampyre SN 5

[ribbetingfrog]

First time I've written anything review stylie so feel free to comment!

I bought myself this bass in February 2015.
this was £1800 when new!

It has a mahogany body, ovangkol neck and wenge fretboard.

Bell brass frets to soften the tone a little over steel at the expense of wearing more quickly. They look gorgeous against the Wenge fretboard.

Has a single jazz style MEC pickup in the mid position and a double jazz at the bridge which can be coil tapped by pulling on the treble knob.
The 2 band EQ is active and can be bypassed by pulling the volume knob.

2 piece Warwick bridge in black.

Currently strung with Ashdown strings, I think they were promo strings. Not great, but i'm getting some use out of them before I change.

Reliability
This was made in 2004, in germany, so was ten years old when I got it.
Within a week of owning it one of the tuners fell apart.

I thought about changing to another style but decided to stay with the Warwick tuners to keep the bass original.
To avoid further problems I bought a full set of 5 from Thomann, cost about £35. They have been perfect since. I'll probably swap them again in ten years!

This aside, this bass has been faultless.
It is solid and seriously well made.

playability

I adore playing this bass.
My previous (and first) bass was a Schecter Stiletto Elite 5, the neck on that was thinner and the strings too close together, I found it hard to play but adored it as it looked amazing
The string spacing on the Warwick is perfect.
It's a dream to pick up and play.

It's quite heavy but certainly a lot lighter than the hohner P bass I used to have.

The rear of the body is curved to fit more ergonomically on the body and this really helps.
The neck on my schecter was very glossy and I much prefer the grip on this Matt neck.

The pointy sides are not perfect when playing sat down but not too bad, great stood up.
It feels solid as a rock, is wonderfully comfortable and has a great neck and action.

Sounds

The tone I play with this is very similar to my old Mexican fender p bass but with plenty more oompf, growl and character. I play the eq on the bass all maxed, bass and treble on amp at 12 o'clock and mids at 3 o'clock.
It cuts through the mix in my indie covers band perfectly every time.
I use a tc electronic bg250 2x8 combo with an ashdown 4x8 extension, they were made for each other.
I mainly play with a pick but not exclusively.

It looks metal but the pickups will give you perfection whatever style you play. Crazily versatile.

Up the treble on the amp and it gets very similar indeed to a p bass.
A good play with the eq on the bass and amp and it'll do any tone you need.

Some basses you have to work out where the good tones are,with this, it's nearly impossible to get a bad tone, permanently sound fantastic.

I recently played it side by side with my mate's traben array obsession, the Warwick was literally twice as loud and sounded ten times better.

Looks

This thing is METAL.
No doubting that.
Pointy, and gothic with violin style flourishes on the edges.
The black stain reinforces this.
Metal, but in a classic way.

Not really the look for the indie band I play in but I love it too much to change
The guitarist takes the mick muchly but

The polished wax finish gives a lovely sheen, like that on stockings!

Overall

I never want to be without this bass.
I love, playing it, love listening to it,
Love looking at it.

Not biased at all!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but the quality (tuners aside), playability and tone from this bass are second to none.

The odd quality issue with tuners is a small fly in the ointment, Warwick need to sort that, a small downside to an otherwise wonderful bass.

Damn right this is insured, if it ever got stolen I'd buy another asap.

Edited March 24, 2016 by ribbetingfrog