How to get a warwick growl without a warwick bass?

[waytoodeep03]

I have a tune bass installed with bartolini pre with these extraordinary large stock pickups. They suck on every level. A friend of mine played his warwick thumb through my eden rig and it sounded heavenly to my ears. It cut through the mix like a knife through butter.

How can I achieve that sound on a bass such as mine?

 

[puddin tame]

want a warwick sound? buy a warwick.

Don't want to buy a warwick? No warwick sound for you

 

[4848277]

It's said that the biggest contributing factor to the Warwick tone is the neck. I suppose you could take a look around for non-Warwick basses that have an ovangkol neck and wenge fingerboard, but I think you'll find that when you do a search, it's mostly Warwicks that have this.

Some say the "bell brass" frets contribute to the tone, but I'm not sure how much that really affects it.

For the body wood, a swamp ash body should be less expensive and definitely lighter than bubinga. Bubinga has a darker tone. Warwick supposedly cures all of their wood for quite awhile (not sure how long), so this certainly goes towards the quality. The more moisture in the wood, the more it'll "move" with weather changes. (It sux having to adjust a truss rod frequently)

Finally, there's a sustain "block" under the bridge. The block is attached into the body, and then the bridge is mounted on top of it. I think this may also add to the tone character of these basses.

Maybe you can find a used Warwick at a decent price...? Sometimes you can find a used Warwick Corvette Standard for around $800ish. Find a "fix-R-upper" and go from there. It's still gonna have that growl even if it has the odd nick or scratch.

Cheers!

 

[waytoodeep03]

so would a corvette sound like a thumb?

 

[RCCollins]

would a corvette sound like a thumb? well, that depends what thumb, and which corvette, you're talking about - but any non-rockbass corvette will get you closer to a thumb sound than, say, a fender EVER will.

 

[darkstorm]

Id start with a pup replacement. While it wont get you the warwick tone it will if you chose well, give you a much better sounding bass. You must of course decide what tone char you want the pups to have. Crunchy or smooth as first step. Id suggest crunchy cause you need that for growl. Do you prefer J pup, soapbar pup or P pups sound wise? Your prob got a variation of soapbar so youd want to decide if you want them more able to do P pup or J pup type simulation. They'll be able to do one or the ohter but not both btw to a fair extent. Modern or vintage toned? Prob modern since you like warwicks.

Whats the measurements of the pups? Need to know for waht replacement pup mfg make some in that size. If really odd width and length, you might contact SGD since they make nice pups available even in many odd sizes that sound the same as the more regular shape versions.

 

[4848277]

so would a corvette sound like a thumb?

I haven't actually tried one (yet) but I've read that they are more "middy" than Corvettes. Here's a link on the topic...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/warwick-corvette-vs-warwick-thumb-344859/

You may be able to make a Corvette sound like a Thumb by experimenting with different pickups or preamps. I've never tried this though. I switched pickups on my Corvette because I didn't like the noisy, stock MEC pickups. The change was also cosmetic because the old pickups were pretty beat up.

One thing I have heard about the Warwick Thumb is it suffers from neck dive because the upper body horn is shorter. Generally, basses that have an upper body horn that doesn't extend to the twelfth fret will have neck dive.

Cheers!

 

[guillermohands]

i own a corvette standard german , and my teacher has a thumb bolt on , both are 5 string . I prefer my corvette , it is more versatile , the slapping tone has no comparison the corvette has more slap power i guess because of the pickups location and about the finger style if you set your EQ to the bridge pickup you can get closer to the thumb tone . i really prefer my corvette even if it's cheaper than the thumb . thats my opinion

 

[Von Felgenhauer]

My Ibanez SR 1300 has bubinga and ovangkol wood. Harder to find but it may be a couple hundred cheaper lighter and thinner neck

 

[conebeckham]

"Growl" is one of those subjective words, you know?
What does it mean?

In my view, we're talking midrange...
I have a Tune bass myself, it's my main instrument. I also modded it with a Bart 18 volt 3 band pre, and also replaced the stock Tune pups with Bart Soapbars. I can get a nice growly mid sound with a bit of eq, favoring the bridge pup, and playing with a certain attack. But I've actually been considering having a coil-split option for the bridge pup, so I can tap it for a single coil, which I think gives a better "growl"--what do others think? Is this a worthwhile mod?

 

[warwick07]

In my opinion any bass can have growl with the right eq and player. But if you want that warwick sound then get a warwick. But they're all different. My 96 dolphin sounds ten times better than my thumb ever did. But to this day none of them are/were a versatile as my corvette 5.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Some say the "bell brass" frets contribute to the tone, but I'm not sure how much that really affects it.

This is a good contributor of the warwick sound, mosreso than the neck woods. The strings directly touch them, therefore it does contribute. This is not to say that it's the only aspect though.

 

[KsPiNeSh]

so would a corvette sound like a thumb?

No, esp. not a 5-string. If you can't/won't get a Thumb, I would consider getting something with a humbucker in the bridge position and thick, growly pre (Aguilar or EMG come to mind) and favor that bridge pickup. My Spector NS-5H2 can cop a sound that is ~ 85-90% that of my old Thumb NT5.

 

[FunkMetalBass]

This is a good contributor of the warwick sound, mosreso than the neck woods. The strings directly touch them, therefore it does contribute. This is not to say that it's the only aspect though.

IME, fret materials do very little and only affect the harshness of treble. I'm not a person that believes that woods play a huge role in tone, but I think that the neck woods, strings, pickups, and preamp all play a much larger role in tone coloration than the frets.

 

[Rickett Customs]

IME, fret materials do very little and only affect the harshness of treble. I'm not a person that believes that woods play a huge role in tone, but I think that the neck woods, strings, pickups, and preamp all play a much larger role in tone coloration than the frets.

All i'm saying is different metals do have a different effect on the sound of the string resonating, for example being that these are bell brass frets, they will have a slightly different effect than say nickle/silver or stainless steel. Note, I did not state that this plays the largest role, but does have to do with the warwick "sound".

 

[pbasswil]

I just want to point out: There's a w-i-d-e variety of sounds across the Warwick product line. Some have no growl whatsoever, imho! And I've found great variance even within different examples of the exact same model. So even Warwick themselves don't have the "Warwick growl" thing down pat!

That said, the growliest ones I've encountered usually had sandwiches of those chocolate-y African woods in the neck.

 

[grendle]

All i'm saying is different metals do have a different effect on the sound of the string resonating, for example being that these are bell brass frets, they will have a slightly different effect than say nickle/silver or stainless steel. Note, I did not state that this plays the largest role, but does have to do with the warwick "sound".

Yep, gives them that little sizzle/zing and a bit of that clunk that most (thumbs especially) have. Stainless do it too but not quite so much as that brass alloy they use.

IMO the pre that comes stock in the TUNE's is pretty good. The sweepable mid trim pot is where it's at , but you tossed it. I really like my TWX-41, great player / looker and pretty good in tone depot. Gotta play with the pots on the board a bit though.

 

[KCLRbass]

In my opinion any bass can have growl with the right eq and player.

I totally agree with this. If you play around with your attack (i.e. how hard you pluck, what part of your r/h fingers you use, etc.), vary your right hand position, and use a versatile eq or preamp, you might be surprised at the variety of aggressive tones you can get out of most axes. I use the Tech21 bass driver on stage and I've been able to squeeze a ton of cool tones out of it without switching basses.

That said, if I wanted the classic Warwick sound in the studio, the real deal is the only option.

 

[robertusf]

I put the active electronics from a warwick, MEC J/J, into an Alvarez 6 String fixer upper and it made a world of difference. I also owned 2 different corvettes and preferred the swamp ash to the bubinga....and they both did growl!

You can probably find the electronics here on TB or better yet, like the other posts mentioned, BUY A WARWICK =)

 

[bongostealth]

If you really want to sound like a Warwick, you will pretty much have to get a Warwick. I own a 6 string Thumb and used to own a 6 string Corvette. Warwicks sound the way they do because of the woods they use. That's why the company motto is "The Sound of Wood".

The Thumb sounds the way it does (1) because of the woods and (2) because of the pickup placement. Because the pickups on the Thumb are closer to the bridge, they have a more nasaly bridgey sound, thus the "growl". Any other "growl" you hear on any other Warwick is because of the woods. The pickups and preamp have a lot to do with it but it's mostly their woods.

Case in point, my Corvette was all bubinga in the body. I replaced the pickups with Nordstrand Big Singles, which are single coil pickups. In a bass with maple or ash wood, the single coil sound would really stand out. However, because of the bubinga and ovangkol on the Corvette, the single coil sound didn't really shine through. The sound of those woods overpowered the singles coils.