Used Warwick Bass, yea or nae ?

[cchristopherr]

German-made Warwicks from ca. 2000 with twisted necks are more common than you think. I have one. I would like to sell it but have received no bites for it listed at $450 on Craigslist; two grand seems ridiculous.

 

[HubbardsFate]

You must really like Warwicks to be even slightly considering (A) buying one from overseas (with the potential headaches/extra costs that might entail) that (B) may have a warped neck. (B) alone would make me take a pass.

 

[Pep]

I am looking to buy a used Warwick bass from an overseas store. Would cost more than a couple grand, plus tax, shipping, and import tariff (Aaugh).

There maybe a language barrier that is making things seem worse than they are, I think that's likely to be true. But the seller described the neck as "warped". I ask for some additional clarity and pictures if possible. They send pictures that don't look bad to me. Then add "Depending on how hard you pick the neck, you may feel some rattling, but it appears to be relatively straight for a WARWICK neck."

This is a neck through bass, so I'm confused what would make it rattle (even if it were B/o). And the neck looks totally straight to me, except for maybe a bit more relief than I might normally dial in. Of course the worlds worst pictures...

The price is fair, even a pretty decent deal on a bass that is relatively hard to come by, if there's nothing actually wrong with the bass. Seems to be a big reputable seller.

I hard a German made Warwick for years and the neck was quite good, so I'm confused why Warwick is taking strays from the seller here, unless their reputation is bad in ways I don't know about?

Would you run from this or?

Cheers!

Avoid it!!!

 

[Not_Shane]

German-made Warwicks from ca. 2000 with twisted necks are more common than you think. I have one. I would like to sell it but have received no bites for it listed at $450 on Craigslist; two grand seems ridiculous.

I can attest to this, I bought a Custom Shop $$ from Music-Go-Round a couple years ago for under $1500 because of a "twisted neck"
From what I know and have seen on my old one, a warwick twisted neck will have more/less relief from the B string to the G string.
Mine played fine, the adjustable nut helps out a lot, but its a huge risk to having half your strings fret out or be at 4.5mm action.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

German-made Warwicks from ca. 2000 with twisted necks are more common than you think. I have one. I would like to sell it but have received no bites for it listed at $450 on Craigslist; two grand seems ridiculous.

Having had a Warwick (MIG Covette 5 String), the one picture looks like there is a slight twist. Mine has a more pronounced twist due to and extremely thick B and E string, Switching to a lighter gauge.125, and an overdue trust rod adjustment took enough twist out of it to make it livable. for $600 bucks and a 30 day money back guarantee I took a flyer and it worked well for me.

That said, my standard response to these sort of questions is if you are here asking for advice on a deal it’s because that little voice in your head is saying maybe this isn’t a good idea. My advice is to listen to that little voice and move on. This is not the only bass in the world for sale so there is no need to take a risk.

 

[3bc]

Thanks for all the feedback, all! Very helpful. I will take a pass as advised. Read up a bit on the twisted/warped neck thing which I had no insight into. I owned a German $$ before and it was a nice bass. I've never actually seen or held a bass with a twisted neck, so fascinating that it's a common enough occurrence with a brand as expensive and "high end" as a German made Warwick.

It is a streamer stage 1, which I've found to be actually pretty hard to find. On reverb, there are only a handful of Streamer Stage 1 4's total. Two of them are over $6k, one is 30 years old, still $2500, and in Italy. All of them are ugly. On TB, it looks like a 4 string streamer stage 1 shows up every few years or so, not often at all.

This one (as most on eBay seem to be) is from Japan. I actually like buying stuff from Japan. I have bought many vintage synthesizers from Japan in the past. If you buy a 40 year old Roland SH-101 from the United States, all bets are off, that thing probably looks like hell and has been beat poopie. Buy one from Japan and it probably looks like it's 40 days old, not 40 years old and it still has the original gig bag and manual.

Not trying to stereotype or anything, but that's been my experience that things that come from Japan were very well looked after. Not as reliably so here.

 

[Chris Chong]

Warped bolt on necks are replaceable.

Warped neck thru… oh no…

 

[BGroovy]

Run. Warwicks are easy to find and can often be had for a steal. Wait for the next one.

 

[roccobass]

I dunno. I’m getting this feeling..,,

 

[songwriter21]

I am looking to buy a used Warwick bass from an overseas store. Would cost more than a couple grand, plus tax, shipping, and import tariff (Aaugh).

There maybe a language barrier that is making things seem worse than they are, I think that's likely to be true. But the seller described the neck as "warped". I ask for some additional clarity and pictures if possible. They send pictures that don't look bad to me. Then add "Depending on how hard you pick the neck, you may feel some rattling, but it appears to be relatively straight for a WARWICK neck."

This is a neck through bass, so I'm confused what would make it rattle (even if it were B/o). And the neck looks totally straight to me, except for maybe a bit more relief than I might normally dial in. Of course the worlds worst pictures...

The price is fair, even a pretty decent deal on a bass that is relatively hard to come by, if there's nothing actually wrong with the bass. Seems to be a big reputable seller.

I hard a German made Warwick for years and the neck was quite good, so I'm confused why Warwick is taking strays from the seller here, unless their reputation is bad in ways I don't know about?

Would you run from this or?

Cheers!

Over two grand with a warped neck , with all of the fees of international hassle? No way for me.

 

[scottycameron]

Thanks for all the feedback, all! Very helpful. I will take a pass as advised. Read up a bit on the twisted/warped neck thing which I had no insight into. I owned a German $$ before and it was a nice bass. I've never actually seen or held a bass with a twisted neck, so fascinating that it's a common enough occurrence with a brand as expensive and "high end" as a German made Warwick.

It is a streamer stage 1, which I've found to be actually pretty hard to find. On reverb, there are only a handful of Streamer Stage 1 4's total. Two of them are over $6k, one is 30 years old, still $2500, and in Italy. All of them are ugly. On TB, it looks like a 4 string streamer stage 1 shows up every few years or so, not often at all.

This one (as most on eBay seem to be) is from Japan. I actually like buying stuff from Japan. I have bought many vintage synthesizers from Japan in the past. If you buy a 40 year old Roland SH-101 from the United States, all bets are off, that thing probably looks like hell and has been beat poopie. Buy one from Japan and it probably looks like it's 40 days old, not 40 years old and it still has the original gig bag and manual.

Not trying to stereotype or anything, but that's been my experience that things that come from Japan were very well looked after. Not as reliably so here.

I purchased an SB-1000 sight unseen from Japan.

It was listed as "good". I received a practicaly brand new SB-1000 that looked as though it was never played. It still had the original, 45 year old strings on it.

 

[3bc]

I purchased an SB-1000 sight unseen from Japan.

It was listed as "good". I received a practicaly brand new SB-1000 that looked as though it was never played. It still had the original, 45 year old strings on it.

It's been my experience as well, that perhaps culturally, Japan would rather under promise and over deliver than vice versa. That's been my experience anyhow when buying other instruments from Japan. Still a pretty big gamble on something that would be very difficult to return and probably cost $500+ in shipping and lost tariff payments to do that.