Warrior Club Part 2

[scubaduba]

@JOME77 Still loving the Warrior?

 

[JOME77]

@JOME77 Still loving the Warrior?

Absolutely! It’s my go to these days. Still love my Roscoe and the new Warwick Thumb 5 is awesome, but the Warrior is just amazing!

 

[scubaduba]

Tell us more about the Big Bottom preamp.

 

[Nine-and-three-Quarters]

Well on that note, I may as well show off my newest "50th year signature Isabella 6 bass!" That sounded awesome but it's only my signature bass because my "signature," is literally lasered into the headstock. The 50th year is in celebration of my 50th birthday.

This is absolutely the best playing, best sounding, best looking bass that I've ever owned! Love it more than my Fodera and that's saying something because it's no slouch!

 

[Nine-and-three-Quarters]

Oh and that big bottom pre is the best I've ever played in 30 year also. Very musical! Cuts through like butta!

 

[Nine-and-three-Quarters]

JD made 2 matching guitars for my me and my twin brother for our birthdays. The other guy is a friend who goes to our church who had one made at the same time also. It was pretty cool for us to pick them all up at the same time.

 

[scubaduba]

Oh and that big bottom pre is the best I've ever played in 30 year also. Very musical! Cuts through like butta!

There doesn’t seem to be much n the way of commentary about the preamp and I’d like to know more about it. There are trimmers on the inside, right? Is the preamp made by Bartolini?

 

[Nine-and-three-Quarters]

There doesn’t seem to be much n the way of commentary about the preamp and I’d like to know more about it. There are trimmers on the inside, right? Is the preamp made by Bartolini?

Yes, I was trying to give @JOME77 the chance to respond since you originally asked him. I will say this, you can adjust the preamp 3 ways with 3 separate trim pots. 1. Preamp gain 2. Big bottom (super low bass) 3. Sizzle (treble). It is made by Bartolini. Its a highly adjustment, very musically sounding preamp.

 

[JOME77]

Tell us more about the Big Bottom preamp.

Hey Chris.
Deon’s provided some great basic info on the Big Bottom Preamp. The main difference between it and a standard 3-band Bartolini preamp is that it has two additional EQ sections. One is a Sparkle circuit (controlled by an additional trim pot in the control cavity) and the other is a Rumble circuit (controlled by another additional trim pot in the control cavity). Both add incredible fidelity to the tone. Absolutely the best tone that I’ve ever heard in my IEM’s. Our sound engineer at church has repeatedly told me how awesome the Warrior sounds in the mix. He's amazed at how even the notes sound in the house mix, both lower and upper register notes. I have my Sparkle trim pot set just under 1/2 and the Rumble trim pot set around 1/4 (the center trim pot is to adjust the overall output). The sparkle circuit really reminds me of the glassy highs that you get with the Demeter preamp. Incredible hi-fi tone. Very tube like. The Rumble (initiated via the P/P midrange pot) sounds like a sub harmonic tone tracking below your notes. Very similar to an octave box. IMO it sounds better in a small venue because it can get a bit boomy in a large venue (which is why I run the trim pot at 1/4). There's also an active/passive feature that is initiated via the P/P volume pot.
I’m in the process of trying to purchase one for my Roscoe (it currently has a Pope 4-band which is IMO much better sounding than the standard Bartolini). Originally, I thought that the Big Bottom brand was owned by Warrior but this week I was told that it’s actually an independent company that provides preamps and strings to Warrior (built to their specifications). I'm still waiting to hear from them via Instagram or their web site, but they state that the preamps are $225-250 depending on configuration (knobs/switches).
I'll include a build pic of my new Warrior that shows a pic of the installed preamp.
I'll also add that I owned one of the 2012-2013 Warrior basses that had the so-called Sparkle preamp, I didn't like that one at all (and replaced it with a standard Bartolini. This new Big Bottom preamp is nothing like that one (or the variations that followed).

 

[scubaduba]

Sure looks like a Bartolini harness there. The preamp sounds very interesting. I did not like the former Bart preamp with the former sparkle circuit at all. That combined with the MM/J combo made for a very brittle sound to my ear. But this new preamp sounds pretty compelling. Would love to hear audio with the rumble circuit engaged.

 

[JOME77]

Sure looks like a Bartolini harness there. The preamp sounds very interesting. I did not like the former Bart preamp with the former sparkle circuit at all. That combined with the MM/J combo made for a very brittle sound to my ear. But this new preamp sounds pretty compelling. Would love to hear audio with the rumble circuit engaged.

I'll record something Chris. In the meantime, here's a live stream of the Warrior. The new one certainly is not brittle sounding (although I agree with your statement on the former one).

 

[Justin Keoni]

I'll record something Chris. In the meantime, here's a live stream of the Warrior. The new one certainly is not brittle sounding (although I agree with your statement on the former one).

Sounds great. What kind of strings are you using?

 

[JOME77]

Sounds great. What kind of strings are you using?

Hey Justin. Those are Big Bottom nickel strings (40-125). They look like they’re probably made for them by D’addario but they sound much better than the XL D’addario nickels that I’ve used for years. The difference may just be the Warrior with the Big Bottom pre and the Big Boy pickups.

 

[JOME77]

Sure looks like a Bartolini harness there. The preamp sounds very interesting. I did not like the former Bart preamp with the former sparkle circuit at all. That combined with the MM/J combo made for a very brittle sound to my ear. But this new preamp sounds pretty compelling. Would love to hear audio with the rumble circuit engaged.

Chris.
Here's an attempt to demo the difference of the sound with and without the Rumble feature engaged. EQ is flat with a slight blend toward the bridge PU.

Warrior without Rumble engaged:

Warrior With Rumble engaged:

 

[JOME77]

Sure looks like a Bartolini harness there. The preamp sounds very interesting. I did not like the former Bart preamp with the former sparkle circuit at all. That combined with the MM/J combo made for a very brittle sound to my ear. But this new preamp sounds pretty compelling. Would love to hear audio with the rumble circuit engaged.

Chris. Here's one more clip with just the bass. It's just a short riff but with it isolated maybe it'll demo the feature a little better. The first riff is Without the Rumble engaged and the second riff is With the Rumble engaged. No EQ changes, with blend slightly favoring the bridge PU.

 

[scubaduba]

If you have the rumble 1/4 turn up do you dramatically turn down the bass EQ?

 

[JOME77]

If you have the rumble 1/4 turn up do you dramatically turn down the bass EQ?

I don’t use the Rumble feature at our church. It’s such a large sanctuary (and we have massive sub-woofers) that it would be too boomy. At church, I run everything flat. Maybe a slight bump of the upper mids if I’m not hearing myself in the mix. Honestly, I probably use the blend control more than the EQ knobs.
I’ve only used the Rumble feature at small gigs in very small venues. You could turn your bass EQ down a bit when the feature is on (if it’s too much bass) but I usually don’t.

 

[JOME77]

Something that I found odd when adjusting the trim pot for the output (on the Big Bottom preamp) was that it functions backwards as compared to other Bartolini preamps that I've had. The more that you turn it CW, the lower the output, The more you turn it CCW, the higher the output. No big deal but it did initially confuse me a bit.
Thought that I'd mention it to help eliminate any confusion for folks adjusting the trim pots (on the Big Bottom preamp) for the first time.

 

[scubaduba]

Is there documentation anywhere for the Big Bottom preamp? The 3-way mid toggle affects the bass EQ points in addition to mids.

 

[JOME77]

Is there documentation anywhere for the Big Bottom preamp? The 3-way mid toggle affects the bass EQ points in addition to mids.

Not that I know of. The 3-way toggle just changes mid center frequency (250, 500 or 800).