Warrior 7 String neck compared with Conklin

hey jim

i too have small hands, and the BD 7 is the only groove tools bass that i feel really comfortable playing, the nut spacing is pretty much the same as on my custom 7's - more comparable to a jazz bass spacing, as opposed the the p-bass'ish spacing that bill usually uses and is on the regular GT7's. the BD bass also has a thinner profile than any of my custom basses. in fact, the BD7 probably has a slimmer, thinner neck than most 6 strings.

the warrior 7's that i've played have also had very slim and playable necks, some with wider spacing, some with thinner, which i prefer. one thing i'm pretty sure about with the guys at warrior is that they will make an instrument to your specs, if you liked. there again, a custom warrior is going to cost a lot more than a GT BG-7.

the warrior basses are very VERY nice instruments, and JD lewis is a really great guy. the only flaws that i've seen are that a few of the 7's that i've come into contact with (3 different ones at various shops and one at a namm show) had some slight problems with their necks - back bowing usually. this could be from over-adjusted truss rods or from just general abuse - 2 of the 3 that i've played at shops were at GC's, complete with TOTALLY dead strings , and i don't think that, for any of them, they were "show stopper" issues - probably just required some adjustments to the truss, but they were there nonetheless.

on the other hand, much to my own surprise, i've never heard any problems with the GT BD7. the reason i say "to my own surprise" is that those necks are thinner even than the necks on my basses, and especially under the 12-17th frets, they are extremely thin, fretboard to back of neck - bill conklin was even a bit leery of making them that thin there, but that's what bill dickens wanted. still, though, there have never been any complaints that i have heard about them, and neither has bill conklin, so i guess that they're fine.

all in all, the warriors that you are going to run across are probably going to be comparable in price to custom conklins, give or take, and depending on options.

the BD7 should run you less than 1/2 that if you keep your eyes peeled for a deal on the net.

 

yep, that's a sharp one.