Warwick Question

[bassgtarman]

This is my uncle’s extremely heavily gigged 2003 Warwick Corvette FNA Jazzman 5. He’s had some pretty serious medical issues, and had my mother bring the bass to Colorado with her (he’s in East Texas, which I suspect contributed to the corrosion on the metal parts). I have stewardship over it for the time being. I don’t know much about Warwick basses, and so I’m not sure about the control layout. Volume, treble, mid, bass, and a little pickup selector? I’ve read that the double looking volume knob on some pulled up and was either an active/passive function or engaged a sort of a slap contour. This one doesn’t pull up (nor do the two parts turn separately, if they are supposed to). The other knobs turn pretty roughly and it’s hard to find the center detents. It sounds pretty good, but I’d like to get everything working properly. I don’t mind the corrosion as long as the knobs turn correctly. Can anyone with knowledge of Warwick basses tell me what that front knob is supposed to do (and also the mini toggle)? And does anyone know what would be involved in making sure everything works well? I live in a fairly small town not really close to any major cities.

 

[spufman]

Very nice bass, clean her up! This doc spells it out.

Fna Jazzman; Thumb Bass; Thumb Bolt-on - Warwick Corvette Standard User Manual [Page 11]

 

[bassgtarman]

Very nice bass, clean her up! This doc spells it out.

Fna Jazzman; Thumb Bass; Thumb Bolt-on - Warwick Corvette Standard User Manual [Page 11]

Thank you so much!

 

[68Goldfish]

I can't tell if that thing is just super old and rusty or one of the new finagled rust finishes Warwick does.....

 

[socialleper]

YIKES!
Was that bass sitting in a sauna or something?

The first thing I would do if I were you is check the wiring. With a bass that looks like that, there is no guarantee that the electronics are original spec.

The switch usually goes between single serial, single parallel, Humbucker. At least that is how my Corvette $$ worked. You probably have a high-lo stacked pot; some of which are active\passive push-pull. Then a pan, and a volume. Could be two volumes, but that is pretty rare on a Warwick.

 

[kulit17]

I can't tell if that thing is just super old and rusty or one of the new finagled rust finishes Warwick does.....

YIKES!
Was that bass sitting in a sauna or something?

The first thing I would do if I were you is check the wiring. With a bass that looks like that, there is no guarantee that the electronics are original spec.

The switch usually goes between single serial, single parallel, Humbucker. At least that is how my Corvette $$ worked. You probably have a high-lo stacked pot; some of which are active\passive push-pull. Then a pan, and a volume. Could be two volumes, but that is pretty rare on a Warwick.

Relax...... its suppose to look like that.... Robert Trujillo has one of these basses as well....

 

[socialleper]

Relax...... its suppose to look like that.... Robert Trujillo has one of these basses as well....

Uh...no. You are being funny, right?

 

[kulit17]

Uh...no. You are being funny, right?

Are you being funny?!? I'm not being funny. Your earlier post sounded like you were blowing a gasket.....Just letting you know this is something Warwick custom shop does. It's a "thing" they have been doing.... I'm not really a fan of it but they've been doing it for quite some time now - so there is market for it apparently .....

Link Removed

 

[68Goldfish]

And yours is naturally like that.....if it were mine I'd give it a full on cleanup. Being a Warwick I'm sure it's a killer bass. Just needs a little TLC

 

[kulit17]

actually sorry @socialleper I thought you were referring to the picture @68Goldfish post....but the OP is a different bass entirely which I think you were referencing...my bad....sorry for the derail OP

 

[burgerdj]

Wow. I’ve never seen oxidation and corrosion like that on Warwick hardware. Looks like the poor thing was ridden hard and put away wet! Highly recommend a pro tech give it an inspection and set up. Hopefully the neck/frets haven’t suffered too much from exposure. Other than that, great bass and worth taking care of!

 

[Skillet]

That's east Texas (North Louisiana) humidity at work. The poor thing might've been in a storage building with no AC during the brutal and wet summers. Longview, Tyler?
Get some of this for the pots.

 

[Reedt2000]

I've been gigging a corvette fna jazzman 5-string since I bought it new in 2005. I suspect the issue with your stacked blend/volume/active-passive knob is corrosion causing the concentric knobs to stick to each other and possibly preventing the center from pulling up to go passive. Spray minimally with wd40 and loosen the set screws. Once those knobs are off you can see if the pot can be salvaged. You can get all new pots for it from Warwick if you need to. The hardware is beat up but that may well be just cosmetic.

I love mine, it's versatile, light and comfortable to gig for long shows, it has a very Warwick-esque tone with plenty of growly low-mids. It's totally worth resurrecting

 

[AboutSweetSue]

Steam Punk, that’s what it looks like.

 

[MrUsefulAlien]

Looks like the knobs were rearranged, stacked pot should be bass treble, and pus/pull on the volume should be active/passive. The other two pots should be balance and mid if the electronics are ordinal. As has been mentioned before the selector is for coil tapping. I had both an FNA and streamer jazzman, super awesome basses.

 

[HeavyJazz]

Looks like it was relic'd the old fashioned way. Use!

 

[MotorCityMinion]

"I don’t mind the corrosion as long as the knobs turn correctly."

It does look intentional. And very cool in it's own right.

 

[Reedt2000]

Looks like the knobs were rearranged, stacked pot should be bass treble, and pus/pull on the volume should be active/passive. The other two pots should be balance and mid if the electronics are ordinal. As has been mentioned before the selector is for coil tapping. I had both an FNA and streamer jazzman, super awesome basses.

The knobs in the photos are just like my 05 fna jazzman. Stacked is blend/volume with push-pull for active/passive. The other three are bass middle & treble.

 

[Nephilymbass]

This is my uncle’s extremely heavily gigged 2003 Warwick Corvette FNA Jazzman 5. He’s had some pretty serious medical issues, and had my mother bring the bass to Colorado with her (he’s in East Texas, which I suspect contributed to the corrosion on the metal parts). I have stewardship over it for the time being. I don’t know much about Warwick basses, and so I’m not sure about the control layout. Volume, treble, mid, bass, and a little pickup selector? I’ve read that the double looking volume knob on some pulled up and was either an active/passive function or engaged a sort of a slap contour. This one doesn’t pull up (nor do the two parts turn separately, if they are supposed to). The other knobs turn pretty roughly and it’s hard to find the center detents. It sounds pretty good, but I’d like to get everything working properly. I don’t mind the corrosion as long as the knobs turn correctly. Can anyone with knowledge of Warwick basses tell me what that front knob is supposed to do (and also the mini toggle)? And does anyone know what would be involved in making sure everything works well? I live in a fairly small town not really close to any major cities.

I had that bass that predated this one. Main difference was the older FNA didn’t have the single coil that Jazzman has.

I remember it being a good bass. Super light weight. Definitely worth giving it some love and gigging it yourself.

 

[songwriter21]

I can't tell if that thing is just super old and rusty or one of the new finagled rust finishes Warwick does.....

Ha, I had this exact bass! It looked better than it sounded, imo. The wenge/ovangkol necks sound sooooo much better than maple w/ the double buck config.