First up, this bass is listed in the UK. I have contacted a firm who say they can do fully insured, flight cased, 2 working day delivery to the US for about $120 - so not too much!
I'm new on here but I am a regular over on BassChat (a UK site), where this is up for sale (thread:
FS: Warwick Corvette $$ Custom Shop 5, Ocean Blue Flame Top, Hand made in Germany, SRP £2,050+, Price Drop £1000 - Basschat.co.uk ). I have a detailed feedback here:
Feedback for Dan Cowen (dc2009) - Basschat.co.uk
So up for sale is a Warwick Corvette $$ (Double Buck) 5 string. This is a Warwick Custom Shop model. This means it is a one of a kind instrument, and that this bass was hand made in the WCS in Germany. I have had it from new, and this bass was born in October 2006.
The actual bass has its own permanent personal page on the Warwick Custom Shop Gallery. Here is the link:
http://warwick.de/modules/custom_sho......age=9&cl=EN
Those photos are of the actual bass in question, taken before it left the Warwick factory.
As you can see, the site says the SRP for this bass in 2010 would have been 2319 euros. This works out at over $3,300 at today's exchange rate, and bear in mind the prices have probably gone up again a bit this year.
I am only selling this bass to buy another Warwick Corvette $$ 5 string, which is different in finish and wood selection and I have fallen in love with it. It has been reserved for me, but I need to sell this bass to cover the costs of the new one. This is a great bass, and I would not be selling it for any other bass brand or model. I've had this for 5 years, and fancy a variation on the same amazing theme for the next 5 .
The custom shop part of this (to set it aside from the regular model) is a Flame Maple top. This is a fairly strange flame and I think looks unique to the point where it is a hybrid of flame and quilt, either way, I think it looks lovely, especially in that deep Ocean Blue.
About the bass then:
• The body is made of a piece of 100+ year old North American Swamp Ash, very popular for it's sound in Fender Jazzes at various times, and a rather attractive grain too.
• The fretboard is made of Wenge (usually pronounced wing-gay). Anyone who tries this loves it, you will hear people singing it's praises all around the bass community.
• The neck is the unsung hero here. A very reasonable profile for a 5 string - not too thick but not stupidly, neck-warpingly thin either, a really nice profile to it, that fits the left hand really well.
• The electronics are a delight. You have Master Volume, Pickup Blend, and a 2band EQ with Treble and Bass. The EQ is good in that you can make a great tonal difference to your sound with it, but it's not so sensitive that if you brush it down a notch, you lose all your bottom end (or top) and start looking very silly at a gig.
• The pickups are two splittable MEC humbuckers, that can be routed differently. This is what the two switches do. One for each pickup, they can route the pickup to humbuck in series, in parallel (the differences in tone are surprisingly large), or to act as a single coil (i.e. a Jazz pickup). Utilising these switches and the blend, you have everything available from a Jazz bass to a Music Man style bridge only humbucker, and a whole load more in between (my personal favourite is to have a humbucker at the bridge and a single coil J at the middle/neck position, switching the humbucker between the wiring routings depending on the room dynamics.
• Warwick's trademark two piece bridge means this thing has oodles of sustain and really feels solid to play. The decent contact area between body and neck heel at the bolt on join is also fantastic for the overall sound of this bass.
• The string spacing is very 'average' for a 5 string bass, this one nestles nicely in between my two Epiphones, and I have played it as my main bass for 5 years. It's comfortable for any style of playing; fingers, pick, tap and slap if those are your things, you name it, it feels good doing it. It's a 34" scale length with 24 frets. There are side dots to guide you, but you get so used to the spacing these become irrelevant after not very long. I have to add that playing without any placement dots looks pretty impressive, and ultimately pretty cool to anyone in any audience you have.
• The only problem I have ever had with it is a nut break, this was a well documented issue of the Just-A-Nut II (JANII), and I had it replaced immediately by the nice men at The Bass Centre, who are Warwick's authorised London repairs shop.
• The one downside of this bass, if you want to see it like that, is that this bass is in a 'light roadworn' condition. I used this as a gigging bass for 5 years (nothing else cuts the mustard tone wise) and in various studios too. If you want sound samples of my band with this on record, I'd be more than happy to provide them. The worst of the wear and tear is some fairly light buckle rash on the back, this was caused by some idiot 'friend' I foolishly loaned this bass to for a gig. There are also some dings near where the jack socket is, but this is all on the side and basically, very little to none of the dings or marks are on the front of the bass. From the front, and from a playing position, I would say this bass is in vgc. NONE of the wear and tear on the bass affects playability whatsoever.
• This bass will come with the Warwick User Manual, the Warwick Care Kit with truss rod tool and other bits, and its certificate of originality, hand signed by some big brass at Warwick HQ (I can check the name if anyone cares).
• This bass came with a heavy duty Warwick hard case - this will be an extra $200 if you want this specific one (it would be an 8 hour round trip and cost me over $100 in train fares to get it). My suggestion is that I buy a generic hardfoam case to ship it in (or some other case of your choosing).
Given the retail price of this instrument probably being about £2100 (over $3400) by now (or at least £2050 (over $3300)), I would expect to sell an immaculate version for £1400-1500 ($2285-$2450), but given the condition of this bass I am going to list this bass at a knockdown price of £1000.
For you in the US. I am going to offer this bass at
$1850 $1800 $1750 $1700 final price, can't go any lower, this includes the bass, fully insured shipping to the regular 48 states and a brand new hardfoam case (or top up the offer for a case of your choosing). This price is seriously breaking my testes here, come on guys, someone grab yourself a bargain bass!
If you live somewhere nice and don't trust air freight, I will gladly scrap the shipping price if you can pay to fly me out there instead
.
It is rare that one of these comes up for sale, and I am going to miss this one when she's gone. I've had countless great memories playing this bass, and it has taken me a while to get to the point where I'm ok to sell, even if it is for the same bass again! Get yourself a fantastic bass here at about 50% of what it would go for new.
Thanks for reading if you've read this far, and don't hesitate to contact me with any questions,
Dan
