Thanks for your kind words
All over Talkbass you can read posts about new basses (and not only cheap ones ! ) that have often serious flaws that are not caused from shipping. I ask myself would we do this if we buy a new car or clothes or furniture that got this flaws?
Normally we send it back to the producer to fix it, this is also a kind of feedback for them. Maybe thats naive, but would they invest more in QC if more people do so ?
No need to worry. The Warwick people do honor their warranty.
On my MetroLine Modern 5er the plastic cover for the electronic cavity broke. I send it in and they replaced it, no questions asked. If something will be amiss with your bass, they'll take care of it.
To give my perspective on the MetroLine basses: The basses are DAMNED fine instruments. Fit and finish is impeccable on my two instruments (2022 limited edition Modern 5er and Will Lee 5er). The tuning machines aren't giving me any problems. They are not the best tuning machines you can get, but they do serve their purpose. On a side note: I actually will be upgrading the tuners on my Modern 5er to Hipshots in the near future. Not because of the performance of the tuners! The body of my Modern 5er is sooooo light, that I'm experiencing slight neck dive even with a realy wide strap. I'm hoping to remedy this with lighter tuners. No problems with the Will Lee 5er, as the bass is a bit heavier, hangs perfectly off my body.
The Adjust-A-Nut is a big plus in my book: I could adjust it to get a lower setup than factory spec on both instruments and I do not experience any issue swith the A-string as mentioned above.
Regarding the whole fret discussion: I don't have any complaints. Frets are there, leveled, no uneveness in height or somesuch. I do not know if they are rounded perfectly or what, but they feel good to me.
About the preamp: I have no experience with any "pre-Warwick" Sadowsky preamps, but I can not echo the sentiment that they're bad in any way. Operation and response of bass and treble pots is smooth on both basses and I in no way experience a "full throttle in the first 10%" scenario. On my Modern I barely boost bass and treble, on my Will lee I got bass and treble at about 30% boosted.
I've got three gripes with the german MetroLine basses: The plastic cover for the electronic cavity, the security locks and the included gig bag.
The plastic cover is a POS that can burn in a dumpster fire - period. I'm glad I only have to open it once every now and then to replace the battery. Thanks to whoever decided not to put this thing on the Will Lee but a regular cover with screws.
Also: The security locks are mediocre. They do look like older Schaller security locks but they are not. The real Schallers operated way smoother and fit tighter. While the Warwick ripoff does work, it just does not
feel as good. It's not a big concern, as I only remove my bass strap for transportation, but I wanted to comment on this.
(Maybe that's the same gripe people have with the tuning machines but I simply don't know better in this regard?).
The gig bag for the MetroLine basses is a joke. The "Professional" version is damned great, but the "Express" is flimsy.
I can't realy understand the business decisions they make. The whole wood working part is great and all, but the impression of quality suffers, because they choose to use cheaper hardware. Realy, they ask big money for the basses but cheap out on details. Adding real Hipshot tuners and Schaller locks wouldn't cost them so much more at the volumes they're pumping out instruments. The impression suffers even more because Hipshot tuners were standard on the Japanese MetroLine basses before! Finally, the gig bag needs to be upgraded to the "Professional" version across the whole MetroLine lineup.
Anyway, the point to my rambling? Your bass will be fine.
and b) some of us bass players are very analytical and particular (and sometimes also emotional 
