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Warwick Corvette - Did I get a deal or not?

thorstiborsti

thorstiborsti

Aug 22, 2014
411
379
Lakeland, FL
#1
Hi everybody! So last Sunday I won an auction on ebay for a German made Warwick Corvette Standard for 370$ plus shipping. A steal in my mind although I didn't know the age and although the seller listed the bass 'as-is' as well as 'for parts/not working' but said in the description that it works fine. He also offered returns so I felt safe to bid. I received it Thursday, tuned it up and it played great without any issues. Yesterday then I took a closer look at it and saw that the fret board is about 1.5 millimeters narrower than the neck itself starting roughly at the 12th fret. What gets me though is that it's flush on the other side (I would've expected the fret board to hang over). Furthermore, it looks like the fretboard is coming off the neck (see pic). The seller mentioned that the truss rod was replaced 'professionally'. My question now is if this is worrisome and I should make a deal out of it, or if I should just shut up and enjoy my Warwick ;)

Btw, an email to Warwick confirmed this bass to be a 2004 model, made in Deutschland
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#3
Um...Yeah, there's nothing "professional" about the work done on that. However, it so happens that I too had an issue with my Corvette's truss rod and neck. There were 3 options given me by the one dude at my favorite shop in town he had to fix things. 1- Pull off the fret board and replace the truss rod, then reassemble. 2- Look online for a busted Warwick or a neck off another one, however serial #'s wouldn't match. 3- Call his rep, have him contact Warwick to send it back and have a new one, with matching serial numbers. HERE'S THE TWIST...to replace the truss rod and reattach the fret board - $400+, without 100% guaranteed success, Used Neck - Good luck finding one that model, that year (mine's an '09), and then, wth happened to the rest of it, that caused a Warwick neck to be available, may dump same amount and still have issues, ones I found were in the $200 + shipping. I SUGGEST #3: Tim contacted his rep, made the arrangements for it to be sent back to the German plant and a new neck built for it with matching numbers, and sent back. WARWICK WAS COOL AS THE OTHER SIDE THE PILLOW! Not only did I get it back with a perfect new neck, they tossed out the crappy graphite/plastic adjustable nut and replaced it with a brass nut, the original neck was the newer "C" profile, when it came back, it was their old, flatter, neck, and they strung it with a new set of Warwick EMP strings for me. TOTAL COST FOR EVERYTHING INCLUDING TAXES: $340. It appears in the pics, it's got the single coil "Silver Series". If so, yank those suckers out and put in a set of Barts, I thought it'd kill the "Warwick Growl", but actually still grunts and growls with no humm/hiss. Take to your local Warwick dealer, send it back and get a new neck. You'll come out a $100 more than a 'Vette Rockbass. The Barts were under $200. No, you didn't go wrong.
 
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#8
So the guy replaced his truss rod [no chance it was a pro], by ripping off the fretboard. when it came to glue it back on, it was misaligned. Rather than take it off and redo it, they decided to sand down the side that was overhanging. When realising what an idiot they were, they decided to just sell it to some poor idiot who might be willing to put some money into such a shagup and fix it.

Send it back, I say.
 
#10
thorstiborsti said:
Hi everybody! So last Sunday I won an auction on ebay for a German made Warwick Corvette Standard for 370$ plus shipping.


View attachment 494193 View attachment 494194 View attachment 494195
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Send it Back.
As above, you can get a new PS corvette for not much more than all the time and money needed to repair her. Warwick are closing their Korean facility, and flogging the PS series cheap.

Here on Thomann in Europe...
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I'm sure you can get similar deals over there...
 
#14
I appreciate all the replies guys. I enjoy playing it and didn't notice the flaws while playing it, just until I took a closer look at it. I'm only concerned if this is going to cause me a headache down the road. If it's just cosmetic, I might keep it. However after bringing the issues up to the seller, he admitted he knew about it and claimed that's why he listed the bass 'as-is' but funny enough never mentioned it in the description.

Here is his reply:

'The wood in the neck and fingerboard actually changed their dimensions thus the small overhang. It would have taken more major re-shaping of the neck to get it to look perfect. As stated the auction was "as is" and it actually played a lot better than I expected it would when I tested it before sending. The reason it was "as is" was that it didn't meet my usual standards for work and I just needed to liquidate it. I fully understand you complaint, it is an instrument that is not perfect and was sold as such. '


He sent me a second message saying that I'm not happy he will give me a refund of the purchase price after he receives the bass back.
 
#16
thorstiborsti said:
Hi everybody! So last Sunday I won an auction on ebay for a German made Warwick Corvette Standard for 370$ plus shipping. A steal in my mind although I didn't know the age and although the seller listed the bass 'as-is' as well as 'for parts/not working' but said in the description that it works fine. He also offered returns so I felt safe to bid. I received it Thursday, tuned it up and it played great without any issues. Yesterday then I took a closer look at it and saw that the fret board is about 1.5 millimeters narrower than the neck itself starting roughly at the 12th fret. What gets me though is that it's flush on the other side (I would've expected the fret board to hang over). Furthermore, it looks like the fretboard is coming off the neck (see pic). The seller mentioned that the truss rod was replaced 'professionally'. My question now is if this is worrisome and I should make a deal out of it, or if I should just shut up and enjoy my Warwick ;)

Btw, an email to Warwick confirmed this bass to be a 2004 model, made in Deutschland
View attachment 494193 View attachment 494194 View attachment 494195
Click to expand...

I just sold one of these on eBay, in clean working condition, with some cosmetic bruises and scrapes, for like $450 shipped.

No, you got ripped off. Can't fix it and come out under that price. As is warwick Corvettes usually go for $450 - $550 or so in average condition.
 
#18
I don't know the used value of a Warwick, but I do know that repair was a bad one. The good news is that it would be pretty easy to remove that fretboard again, as its lifted at the end. The most difficult part of removing a fretboard is getting it to separate to work your knife between it and the neck. That is already done for you. As bad as that glue joint is, it would probably take 15 minutes with a steam iron to remove it. Clean the old glue off of both surfaces and re attach it properly. Like I said, I don't know if $370 plus the price of the repair would be worth the used value of that bass though.
 
#20
tbz said:
I just sold one of these on eBay, in clean working condition, with some cosmetic bruises and scrapes, for like $450 shipped.

No, you got ripped off. Can't fix it and come out under that price. As is warwick Corvettes usually go for $450 - $550 or so in average condition.
Click to expand...
Oh wow. I didn't know they sold that cheap. I think I should've done better research beforehand. Thank you for the info!
 

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