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Why Doesn't Warwick Make More Passive Basses?

Herrick

Herrick

Jul 21, 2010
3,587
2,637
Munchkin Land
#1
I can't look at the site right now 'cause it doesn't seem to be working at my place of employment. The last time I looked around, the vast majority of Warwick basses were active. I'm talking about the Germang-made basses. I know they make some passive Rockbass & Pro Line models. Why doesn't Warwick offer more Germang-made passive basses? You could attract more of the Passive-Only players like Herrick.

Note: I have a passive Corvette Standard bought used.
 
#6
Jazzman is equipped with passive pickups and a push pull active passive master volume...best of both worlds. Star bass, Double Buck are passive as well..

I have had excellent success changing preamps and pickups in several of my Warwicks as most manufacturers other pickups will have sizes that are interchangeable if one is so inclined with a soldering iron.:)
 
#8
Means2nEnd said:
Jazzman is equipped with passive pickups and a push pull active passive master volume...best of both worlds. Star bass, Double Buck are passive as well..
Click to expand...

I thought the Double $$ was active. The three listed in the German-made section of the site all list active electronics.

I should've been more specific in my first post. I meant exclusively passive basses. It's good that they give the option of passive & active all on one bass but I'm not a fan of having controls on the bass that I'd never use. *shrugs*
 
#9
Herrick said:
I thought the Double $$ was active. The three listed in the German-made section of the site all list active electronics.
Click to expand...

The $$ has passive pickups and an active preamp, with a push/pull for active/passive operation. You could pull the pre out and wire it passive daily easily (or have it in the custom shop done that way).
 
#13
Sorry for not adding to the forum lately been in the Palm Springs Palm Desert CA area all week. Much good information here about the stock MEC electronics. There can be an easily misunderstanding of a push pull master volume knob. Sometimes like in my jazzman it is an actual active passive switch in other cases like the Thumb BO mentioned it is only a preamp bypass switch. Essentially performing the same function but the pickups being active still have 9 volts running through them or there would be almost zero output. So it's not a fail safe at a gig if his batteries were to die. No juice no music. Easy to open the cavity and trace the extra red wires from the pickups to the battery or batteries.
 
#17
One Bad Monkey said:
It was, but after that I usually keep a battery on my amp at every gig (especially since I switched the preamp to a Seymour-Duncan, which does not have the EQ-bypass feature).
Click to expand...

There is another member here who is a Warwick nut too and I did several custom wiring jobs for him. Two of them I actually installed active passive switching and moved the push pull slap contour option to a switch as well. They were with active pickups but like we talked about before it can still be useful. If you dig your Duncan like I do. I have them in 4 of my basses and you are interested in having that option let me know I will drawl it out for you. Not too hard and the cavity has plenty of room for the switch if you are ok with drilling a hole and soldering. I even installed a kill switch in my SS2. I find it more useful than almost any other mod I've done.
 
#19
I have owned 4 Warwicks (still have two), each one with a different Pick up/Pre configuration. I have never seen a German Warwick fully passive, it would be nice to have a Traditional "Tone" knob when turning of the preamp. Does Warwick make something like that? for a Thumb?
 
#20
RedMoses, all thumbs come stock with active pickups. Bypassing the preamp and having a passive tone knob would be redundant as in pickups always active either using a 2 band pre amp like in a bolt on or 3 band in a neck through or an overall tone knob with pickups always active. The passive tone knobs that can be wired in or ordered like with Nordstrand, John East, Pope, Bartolini work best with passive pickups are functional in active or passive but are much more useful with passive pickups.

Only having 3 pot holes in a Thumb makes it difficult but I guess with say passive Bartolini pickups and a stacked volume/volume stacked 2 band bass/treble no mids the center hole could be the passive tone pot. Anything is possible….Anyone needing assistance or wiring diagrams let me know. Thanks!
 
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