Ok, now that I have your attention... 
Seriously tho, it was. I've played lots of Warriors at several NAMM shows and thought the were visually very impressive, pretty well made, and had really nice tone, but none of them really called me enough to purchase. These were their standard models... typically with a couple soapbars or one soap and one split coil (bart X55) by the bridge.
Well, recently on kind of a whim I traded for a Warrior Adam Nitti signature model. I'd only briefly played one of these at a NAMM show, and ironically, it was also the same day I first met Adam. The funny thing is, I remember liking the bass a lot, but still not going ga-ga over it, so I moved on at the time. Well, I plugged this one in and I was immediately blown away. It had so much punch and definition I was amazed. I'd never heard that much focused aggression from a Warrior before.
The plot thickens... here's the funny part...
I also noticed it was super hot. I had to reset my amp or wireless bodypack anytime I switched to/from this bass, and for some reason, the internal gain trim didn't seem to do anything.
BTW, these actually have two trim pots in them and a hand wired resistor network. The bass didn't come with docs, but I later found out it's a gain control and some sort of high end sizzle control or something.
Well, in trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed a wire that looked like it was still touching, wasn't. So I soldered it back on.
Two very interesting things happened... suddenly the gain on the bass lowered to a normal level, the gain and sizzle controls both worked, BUT ALSO, the tone suffered... IMHO, kinda' significantly. I then wondered if someone had deliberately disconnected that feature circuit for that reason. Dunno, but now I was torn. I could have normalized gain, or great tone, but not both. Minor bummage started to set in.
Then I thought, wait, without that circuit in place it sounded great, and that's the tone of the bass and preamp, so it's gotta' be that silly sizzle control (long story short, it was a very non-standard thing they do and hard to even figure out what it was doing with the bart docs I was able to get). So I downloaded the wiring docs from bart's site, got the right trim pot and resistor for a "normal" gain adjustment circuit on the preamp and installed it.
Boom. Perfection. Normalized gain and all the tone I had before.
I have to say the low end on this bass reminds me a lot of a Roscoe... very very powerful and focused, BUT, not as "over the top" (IMHO!). Dang folks, this thing cuts a mix with a serious authority. I love it! I rarely need to use EQ, but when I do it's voiced well. I'm convinced it's those massive bart X55 split coil pickups... never played those before. Nice high end, but not brittle, very strong through the mids, and a tight low end. Surprisingly good sustain, as well.
The playability is great, but different for me. It's my first "D" neck (flat on the back). It's also designed to take little or no relief in the setup the way the neck is set into the body, and it takes a nice low setup great. Big frets, too. Really easy to slap. It's also very light... right around 8 pounds or slightly less, and it hangs on a strap great. Totally effortless play.
As a free bonus, this bass is also a member of my "silent crew". My Geddy, my Skjold, my Cirrus, and now my Nitti are all among the few basses I've had that seem highly immune to a couple places we play that are absolutely BRUTAL for interference hum... and I mean BRUTAL.
This bass has been the big sleeper of '08 for me. I figured I'd dig it, but plan to flip it in the near to mid term after some fun with it. However, this bass has quickly become a member of my "most favored" in the rotation. I never expected this. There's a few basses I feel particularly just plain lucky on and this is now one of them.
Spex:
Swamp ash body
Water Cured Redwood Burl top
Maple/Purpleheart/Maple neck
Purpleheart fingerboard
34" scale, 24 frets, bone nut
9V bart preamp with 3 band EQ, 3-way mid switch
Bart X55 pickups
Hipshot A bridge and ultralight tuners
Pics...
Seriously tho, it was. I've played lots of Warriors at several NAMM shows and thought the were visually very impressive, pretty well made, and had really nice tone, but none of them really called me enough to purchase. These were their standard models... typically with a couple soapbars or one soap and one split coil (bart X55) by the bridge.
Well, recently on kind of a whim I traded for a Warrior Adam Nitti signature model. I'd only briefly played one of these at a NAMM show, and ironically, it was also the same day I first met Adam. The funny thing is, I remember liking the bass a lot, but still not going ga-ga over it, so I moved on at the time. Well, I plugged this one in and I was immediately blown away. It had so much punch and definition I was amazed. I'd never heard that much focused aggression from a Warrior before.
The plot thickens... here's the funny part...
I also noticed it was super hot. I had to reset my amp or wireless bodypack anytime I switched to/from this bass, and for some reason, the internal gain trim didn't seem to do anything.
BTW, these actually have two trim pots in them and a hand wired resistor network. The bass didn't come with docs, but I later found out it's a gain control and some sort of high end sizzle control or something.
Well, in trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed a wire that looked like it was still touching, wasn't. So I soldered it back on.
Two very interesting things happened... suddenly the gain on the bass lowered to a normal level, the gain and sizzle controls both worked, BUT ALSO, the tone suffered... IMHO, kinda' significantly. I then wondered if someone had deliberately disconnected that feature circuit for that reason. Dunno, but now I was torn. I could have normalized gain, or great tone, but not both. Minor bummage started to set in.
Then I thought, wait, without that circuit in place it sounded great, and that's the tone of the bass and preamp, so it's gotta' be that silly sizzle control (long story short, it was a very non-standard thing they do and hard to even figure out what it was doing with the bart docs I was able to get). So I downloaded the wiring docs from bart's site, got the right trim pot and resistor for a "normal" gain adjustment circuit on the preamp and installed it.
Boom. Perfection. Normalized gain and all the tone I had before.
I have to say the low end on this bass reminds me a lot of a Roscoe... very very powerful and focused, BUT, not as "over the top" (IMHO!). Dang folks, this thing cuts a mix with a serious authority. I love it! I rarely need to use EQ, but when I do it's voiced well. I'm convinced it's those massive bart X55 split coil pickups... never played those before. Nice high end, but not brittle, very strong through the mids, and a tight low end. Surprisingly good sustain, as well.
The playability is great, but different for me. It's my first "D" neck (flat on the back). It's also designed to take little or no relief in the setup the way the neck is set into the body, and it takes a nice low setup great. Big frets, too. Really easy to slap. It's also very light... right around 8 pounds or slightly less, and it hangs on a strap great. Totally effortless play.
As a free bonus, this bass is also a member of my "silent crew". My Geddy, my Skjold, my Cirrus, and now my Nitti are all among the few basses I've had that seem highly immune to a couple places we play that are absolutely BRUTAL for interference hum... and I mean BRUTAL.
This bass has been the big sleeper of '08 for me. I figured I'd dig it, but plan to flip it in the near to mid term after some fun with it. However, this bass has quickly become a member of my "most favored" in the rotation. I never expected this. There's a few basses I feel particularly just plain lucky on and this is now one of them.
Spex:
Swamp ash body
Water Cured Redwood Burl top
Maple/Purpleheart/Maple neck
Purpleheart fingerboard
34" scale, 24 frets, bone nut
9V bart preamp with 3 band EQ, 3-way mid switch
Bart X55 pickups
Hipshot A bridge and ultralight tuners
Pics...
Better bring a pit-bull to that party.
