Warmoth Jazz Bass

Poplar jazz bass body. Gotoh bridge. Schaller tuners. Active duncan pickups, warmoth p bass neck. emg btc control.

This thing sounds ridiculous. It is soo clear sounding and it has allot of english on the high end notes. The type of english that you would only find with the absolute best swamp ash (think marcus miller type high end). The low end is also really nice. I used everything that i learned about basses in 15 years of playing to build this. I went with poplar for the body because i have an old peavey foundation made of poplar and it sounds awesome, allot of people mistakenly think that those old peaveys sound so good because of the super ferrite pickups....nope its the poplar. This bass came out sounding very similar, except brighter with the maple finger board and active pickups. Best sounding bass i have ever played...murders my sadowsky hands down.

The playability is horrendous. There are so many high frets on this neck its unbelievable. I took it to the local music store after i called them and asked how much they charge to level the frets on a bass neck (they told me $80). I've never had to get the frets leveled on a brand new bass ever before. When i got there the tech looked at it and said he would have to charge me $150 because he had to re-press the frets, because so many of them were not pressed in to the fingerboard all the way. Sure enough he was right, you can look down the edge of the neck and see where half the frets are only half way in to the fret board. I havent gotten the frets leveled yet because i only brought $80 with me cause thats all i thought it would cost. I will take it back in a few weeks and get it done. There is also very crazy neck dive with this bass. The neck is very heavy and so are the tuners. But i will take stability and rigidity over balance any day. The neck pocket has the tinyest of gaps. And there was a small dent in the body when i got it.

The wood is soft, but i sprayed allot of poly on this thing. So it should hold up fine. It should be a fine bass for many years to come.

no opinion

This bass sounds so good because of the wood. But i will have to work on the playability of it. After a fret job and a set up it should be sick. Not bad for $400 brand new!! + $150 to fix the crappy frets.

My bass is a 4-string fretted warmoth J-bass. The body is made of black korina (i believe its a 2 piece body) routed for a music-man humbucker (i used a seymour-duncan pickup) and a gotoh string through bridge. The wood has a wonderful grain to it. Its mostly a light brown with big chocolate streaks running across the body. The neck is a standard-thin contoured 24-fret j-bass neck (no inlays) made of padouk, with a rosewood fingerboard. I finished both the neck and the body with several layers of tung oil. The rosewood board is the only thing I would have changed if I were to get this bass again, its a tad soft and pau ferro or ebony would have been a better choice. 24 frets was also unnecessary, its really hard to reach the 5 highest frets. Its got a gotoh 206 bridge, corian nut and schaller vintage tuners. Its a beautiful looking instrument, and the wood is fantastic quality. I've been using this bass regularly for 4 years now, and it looks as good as it did the day it was finished.

This bass is definitely not for the faint of heart or the faint of butt. Its not a beginner's bass thats to be sure. When i bought it, I found it to be fairly difficult to play. The neck was a bit thicker than I was used to and my right hand got fatigued really easily. As my abilities progressed and my fingers got stronger, particularly in this last year or so, it feels much more natural to play. The way that I constructed my bass lends very well to playing funk. The korina body and the rosewood fretboard give it a nice and warm sound with lots of punch, and the padouk neck brings out more of the mids and highs, which helps to round out the tone. I've never before heard a more percussive sounding bass. It has a fantastic attack, and when I'm playing 16th notes over the bridge pickup it thumps just like a double-kick drum. The sustain is also remarkable. A harder nut would have helped the sustain a bit, but the string-through bridge definitely makes up for the loss. It definitely sounds better through headphones than through an amplifier, and in my experience its worked well in the studio (better than my fender mexi-jazz). Overall it sounds fantastic, except I've always found that the G string sounds a a little twangy, but thats fairly typical for basses with fender-style headstocks.

The action is great. The neck is very strong and very well built, so setting the action way down is not a problem whatsoever. I haven't encountered any buzzing or any kind of warping. The finish is hand-rubbed oil, and has held up quite well. I'll be redoing it soon as that form of finish doesn't last all that long. My luthier did a poor job of adjusting the pickup, but that's no fault of the manufacturer. I re-adjusted it later. There were no flaws in the workmanship whatsoever, and the neck fit into the body absolutely flawlessly. It was a tight fit and i had to wiggle the neck a lot to get it in there, but the joint fit perfectly with no gaps. Everything was done really well in the factory and I have no complaints whatsoever.

This thing is as heavy as a dumptruck and twice as durable. I've only had it professionally set up twice over the time I've owned it, and thats only because I didn't know how to do it myself then. Its gone through many seasonal changes (from minus 30 to plus 30) and the neck stays as rigid as hugh hefner on a saturday night. The hardware is all solid, and the paint on it is very durable. The strap buttons aren't as good though. They fit well, and are snug, but the finish has worn off them slightly. No issues with the construction of the bass, and its more than dependable as a stand-alone. I could go on a world tour with this bass and only this bass and I'd do fine.

The customer service guys at warmoth are fantastic, but the owner is a chode. They were very helpful with everything in the setup and ordering of my bass, and I'm glad to say i'll be dealing with them again soon to get my second warmoth bass project under way. The warranty is just on the components prior to use/augmentation of the owner. If you get a body or a neck or anything that isn't to your satisfaction, you can send it back and get a new one free of charge as long as you haven't modified it in any way. Other than that, you're on your own.

Thumbs up, *****. I'm tired. see y'all later.

Black korina body, maple neck, rw fingerboard mm+j pups, EMG BTC.

This bass sounds pretty good. The wood is not very loud, but that is because i got blcak korina. The neck also seems to have a dampening effect on the sound because of the steel rods.

The action on this bass is the shit. The steel rods keep the neck DEAD STRAIGHT. The neck fits very very snuggly, it takes me a few minutes to remove it because i have to wiggle it out slowly. Everything about this bass is very very nice, this stuff is top-notch....far far better quality than the allparts stuff i used to build my other jazz bass.

This bass is a tank.

They have never flubbed up on anything that i have ordered from them. They always answer emails. great people to deal with, although i have heard that the owner considers customers some sort of peons from a guy who leveled my frets once and told me he use to work there. oh well , the staff was great to me.

this stuff is much higher quality than fender. fender manufacturing should be subject to warmoth quality control---that my get rid of all those warp-necked geddy lees, and bad fret work.

This is a Custom Ordered Warmoth 4.25lb swamp ash Dinky Jazz Bass Body a Custom ordered Warmoth Birdseye with Pau Ferro Neck with 6150 Dunlop Stainless Frets and Warmoth cut Corian Nut. Gotoh 206 string through bridge, Hipshot Ultralight "elephant ear" tuners, Hipshot 3 string hold down on headstock, Aguilar OBP-3 onboard preamp with 18v gotoh battery box, Fender noisless cobalt jazz pickups, ebony control knobs, switchcraft jack, cts. vol+blend pot. All hardware is black, pickup and control cavity routes copper shielded and grounded.<BR>I finished this beautiful and light swamp ash body with stewmac's nitro finish - about 2.5 cans worth with light wetsand 600# between some coats, let cure for two weeks, then brought to shine with rubbing compound (auto store) - looks excellent, cost about $25. Neck has light nitro finish on top of headstock only, rest of neck finished with only two coats of minwax rub on poly (in the gold can).<BR>The Warmoth body came perfectly with all requested routes done crisp and the Warmoth neck was delivered perfect.

Although the Warmoth Necks are heavy due to the steel reinforcing bars under the fretboard, these bass necks have a very, very SOLID, STIFF feel resulting in excellent brightness, sustain, feel and ability to set low to very low action (no flex). Fretwork is perfecto with the stainless frets which let you bend and slide notes effortlessly. Very happy with the Pau Ferro fretboard - looks and play great - harder than rosewood, not as hard as ebony. With the Aguilar 3 band on board preamp running with 18v and the Fender Samarium Cobalt pickups and string through bridge, this bass has a very marcus miller type, bright slap tone. My Warmoth Dinky Walnut P Bass has Bartolinis which are a bit darker and "rounder/smoother" sounding, probabbly a better allaround pickups than the fender cobalt noisless ones. Copper shielding and grounding correctly will help any type of hum or noise especially when using large amps like my swr 750.

On this Warmoth Dinky J Bass, i have the action low with extra light (40's) hartke bass strings (bright and piano bell tone like). The parts fit great and with the pre-drilled neck mount holes, the strings line up over the frets and sides of the neck absolutely perfectly. Again, the extra stiff warmoth bass neck allows for low action - great for left hand slap, open hammer thump, and fast thumb play. Try the stainless frets - i have them on both of my basses - they feel great and last look like new after a years play since they are much, much harder than traditional fretwire. I also cut a wood control cavity cover and veneered it with figured maple and coppershielded the back.

This bass was built as light as possible for stage playing + rehearsal.
I payed a extra $40 for light wood selection on the body + used hipshot aluminum parts on the neck and the ebony control knobs from stewmac are very light - every little bit counts. The Gotoh 206 string through bridge (orderable from warmoth) is medium weight and puts pressure on the body to get extra tone from the warmoth select kiln dried tone woods. Just finished and started using this bass with my band, "SweetDeal" and expect no problems as my Warmoth Dinky P bass with similar electronics and hardware has been great as well. We have a regular weekly gig + various gigs and new venues + twice a week rehearsal. I heard warmoth makes parts for Sadowsky and after looking at the Sadowsky line of basses including this Dinky Jazz Bass, I believe it!

Pretty good - they even offer finishing tips (like the rub on poly minwax for the neck) even though they offer finishing.

I have been playing bass as a semi-pro for one year and studied music with berklee study materials for three years - anthony vitti has the best books out there for funk and slap bass. Before serious about bass, my focus was on nylon string guitar, specifically flamenco and brazilian jazz + some gypsy jazz (menouche). <BR>Gear consists of SWR 750 head, Boss synth pedal, Furman rack conditioner, Behringer Rack tuner, Swr Goliath 3 210 cab + custom Eminence CB15 in a cabinet with a eminece 2way crossover and Selenium compression horn (fantastic and no hiss). Spectraflex cables too - they are top notch. The Warmoth parts are the best, period. If I were not a craftman and hobby type, i would buy a decent Fender Jazz Bass, put a warmoth neck on it and some bartolini pickups and fit a onboard preamp in there and be very happy.<BR>Think this bass don't thump? Think again

USA Made, Warmoth Jazz bass, year unknown. Solid Maple body with three-tone sunburst. Two Jazz P/U, not sure of what type BUT hotter than most passive P/U configurations I have heard/played from other jazz basses from reputable (Fender Amercian, Lakland, etc...) bass makers. Standard Jazz neck/bridge volume and tone with standard jazz bass knobs (leaning towards swapping them out for chrome speed knobs). I added Jim Dunlop straplock system and removed the pickguard for a Jaco reliced body (still deciding on whether I'll distress it or not). High gloss finish by Warmoth. Maple neck/fingerboard with black corian rectangular inlay/binding (limited production by Warmoth), Schaller BML tuners, set up in reverse. 6150 "jumbo" fretwire (only size available with neck). Vintage style truss rod adjustment, at the body, in which the neck must be unbolted from the body. This is a pain in the neck (no pun intended) because it takes a good while to make slight adjustments. I love the look and sound of the neck, so it must be this way. I am considering cutting out a small section of the body for easier adjustments. Totally vintage style.

This bass retains the vintage look, feel and tone. It also has some punchy mids and snappy highs- a tone unlike most jazz basses. I play this through my Ampeg SVTIII-Pro and BXT210M cab, as well as a Trace Elliot Boxer 15 combo. Both sound phenomenal with this bass. Overall, it has a brighter tone than most passive jazz basses. I have had several comments from fellow bassists who have played this instrument as well as a surprised salesman at the local music store where I found this bass.

The neck has given me issues now and then with setting up the bass. It's more of a patience thing given that setting up this neck is the most time consuming of the three basses I own. The P/Us are a little touchy to set up as well, since the brige P/U casing cracked slightly while setting the bass up. The bridge is getting replaced with a Leo Quann Bad Ass II in a week or two. There are really no issues with the bridge, I just want to get a Bad Ass on this thing. All of the metal on this bass is in like new condition. The neck was unfinished so I had to finish it myself. It also happened to be my first finishing project. I had originally tung oiled the neck. Later I found that Warmoth advises against this and will not accept service repairs on any neck "not hard finished." I went to a nearby Lowes, where a local guitar maker just so happened to provide some answers for the project. I learned a lot from the project, frustrating at times. However, the neck came out smooth and playable. I used a semi-gloss lacquer, which covered the neck rather well. My only complaint is that the neck bowed a bit during the finishing and I tried to lower the upbowing but with no success (back to the truss rod adjustment issue). Overall: a labor of love and still a working project.

The bass has withstood live playing ever since the day I bought it. And it has not have any wear issues either. I must have done a decent job with the finish but then again, I only completed the project three days ago. I have played live with the bass twice since then, mainly disappointed with the set-up, which seems to be a bit time consuming.

Never used it yet. Warmoth's web site has been most helpful at figuring out what to do / not to do.

For what I paid ($30 more than my Fender Mexican Jazz bass back in 1999), I am extremely satisfied with this bass. Most of the issues I have with the bass can be ironed out for the most part. And unlike my first jazz bass (which was the bass that got me to put down the guitar and start playing bass), I don't plan on parting with this one since it has too much of my own design in it already (I have had this bass for about three weeks already and have had many compliments). Indeed, it was a rare find (most people ignored it since it doesn't have a name attached to it, or at least it did- I named it Continuum, slapped a logo bearing its name on the headstock during the finishing of the neck). It's just too much bass to let slip through my hands. And since purchasing a fine USA made bass for so little, I checked out Warmoth's site a few times and I plan on putting together a Gecko 6-string with Bartolini preamp and dual quad-coil P/U. Why? I like them much better than Seymour Duncan or EMG. Check out Bill Clements of the Greater Kalamazoo Music Group, one of the "World Class" Warmoth users. Bill Clements can do more with one hand than most bassists can do with two. Maybe that is because Bill Clements only has one hand- his left.

I put this bass together in 2004, and was extremely happy with it. It has an alder boby with a zebrawood top. I finished it with a satin finish clear coat polyerythane and it turned out great. The neck is made of Goncalo Alves and has an Ebony fretboard. I chose this neck because it didn't require any finish and with a bit of playing, it now is the best neck I've played. I used the EMG active J-set pickups which came with the whole control set up included. I used Schaller vintage style tuners and a Gotoh bridge.

This thing sounds killer. I've only been playing bass for about 2 years but I've been playing 3 to 5 hours a day and I love it. The EMG's give a real Geddy Lee type sound that I like but they are surprisingly versitial. I play through an SWR 4004 400 watt head and my main cab is a SWR Henry 8x8. I try to slap a lot so this setup sounds killer. I also use compression, a parametric EQ, and occasionally I use analog delay and chorus. THIS BASS SOUNDS AWESOME WITH EVERYTHING. I'm telling you, I went and tried a $2100- bass with Bartolini's in it at my local music store a couple weeks ago, I can't remember if it was a Pedulla or what but it was Jazz style, but my Warmoth would eat it alive. There was just no comparison, and I don't know anything about bass building.

I had my guy set it up and he did it perfectly. I set the pickups at the right height myself. The EMG's come wrapped in a piece of foam and if you cut the foam in the right shape, you can use it as a way to set the pickups at the right height. Its really easy. The only flaws in the finish of my bass are ones that I did. I screwed up when I was putting on the clear coat in a couple places but only on the back. The zebrawood top lokks KILLER!!

This thing is a tank. I had the thing set up about 3 or 4 months ago and I think its time for an adjustment but with the change in weather and the amount of playing time its seen I'm not surprised. Everything on this bass is great. I might go for a more substancial bridge on my next project but the Gotoh works pretty well. I can always depend on this thing.

The guys at Warmoth are rad. I asked them all kinds of questions and they were always helpful and they always knew what they were doing. I'm telling you, don't bother with a Fender, if you spend a little time, you can save money and get a better instrument. I got a bass that kicks the crap out of an American Fender for $250 bucks less.

I upgraded from a MIM Jazz and I will never buy another fender bass. I played guitar for ten years and I have a couple of vintage gibsons and a vintage Marshall 50 watt combo and a 72 Fender Princeton Reverb, in addition to my SWR 4004 and Henry the 8x8 I also have an Ampeg 4x8 cab. If this thing were stolen, I'd definatly build a new one, unless I had the money for a Carl Thompson custom bass. When I was looking at basses I tried American Fender Jazz basses, The Fender Marcus Miller, Tobias basses, G&L L-2000's, and some high end Ibanez basses. Nothing compared to my Warmoth. Every single production bass that I tried would have cost me more than my Warmoth. I'm not missing anyhting on my jazz bass but the next one I build is going to have a tremelo bridge and the EMG DC35 pickup for that Claypool sound.

Body: $185 w/out finish. Two-piece swamp ash with heavy grain. Boards cut at a bias to accentuate the grain--nice touch. Pickup routs with sharp corners and clean bottoms. Rear routed for pots and pre-amp--also clean corners and bottom. Comes with a fitted cover, too. Neck rout clean. Bridge area pre-drilled for Gotoh 206 with through holes for stings and ferrules. Battery box also routed out. Pickup wire holes pre-drilled. Body required minimal sanding before finishing. My finish consisted of one coat of tung oil--going for that Adam Clayton look :-)

Neck: Flame Maple with Ebony board, small-ish frets and cream face dots. Absolutely perfect fretting job. Finished at Warmoth with clear satin. No drips, dribbles, etc. Flawless. Countour a little thinner than a standard Fender neck--I like that. No nut installed per request. I had my luthier do that and set everything up. Tuners are Schaller BML Lite's from Warmoth. No complaints here. $350 w/ finish.

Electronics: Purchased from bestbassgear.com. Bartolini pickup & preamp. Classic electic bass sound. Quite moldable with the pre-amp. The ebony board really does make for a crisper, more articulate sound. Going through an Eden WT-400 and Acme Low B 2x10 cab. Couldn't ask for more.

See above. All fit and finish was perfect. My only complaint is that the fit between the neck pocket and the neck was a little loose. It is rock solid once screwed down, but I would think that a Warmoth neck would fit a Warmoth body perfectly?!?!?!?

Two months out and so far so good. No significant adjustments after my luthier set-up. It will likley outlast me.

Fax or phone orders only. I dealt with three different people while ordering stuff and all appeared to have a good understanding of my needs--or at least knew who to ask. They are a little more sales driven than what I like, but then that has been true for every music store I have ever been in so why should they be any different?

I'm 42, played some in high school and took it up again a few years ago for fun. I have always wanted a truly custom guitar but could never afford the price.

For right at $1000 I have a custom instrument exactly the way I want it. Quality is far in excess of anything you can get from Fender without going to their custom shop. I am a woodworker so I did a lot of the work myself and saved some luthier fees on finish and assembly. I would--and will--order from them again.

Just a post to give the buyer some insite on the Warmoth pre-painted guitar and bass bodies in the "seconds" section. Unless they are returns, generally they are made with 4 to 5 pieces of cut offs (scraps) left over from other guitar bodies. If degredation in body/tonal resonance due to multi-lamination, or the "plywood effect" don't bother you, they are a great deal on pre-painted guitar bodies. - Sincerely,
A Warmoth employee

Just a simple comment about the first review on this page in regards to Mr. Warmoth's view of his customers. Bull. Everyone has their opinions, especially ex-employees on their way out.

I think if Mr. Warmoth carried this type of disregard for his customers, then he would be trying to pass off junky product to them. The VAST majority of the public have a great experience with the Warmoth Corporation and that speaks volumes of the man that owns it. Comments can be twisted out of context, but a 28 year track record of building quality products for a fair price PROVES a consistant caring character that cannot be disputed by someone's agenda du jour.

Purchased from: N/A
Warmoth guitar products
Features: 5
Late 90's era Warmoth J basses.
4 string,flame maple neck, flame maple laminate over alder. Passive Bassline p/u's, clear coat body and neck, by Warmoth.
8 string J bassmaple rosewood neck, swamp ash body,gloss black, passive bassline p/u's.
4 string fretless.-still building
Sound: 8
all sound good though the alder body seem's to have more warmth and fullness to it's tone, with eather 4 string or 8 string neck.
Action, Fit, & Finish: 6
Your action and playability is only as good as your tech's abilities in set up. Mine play very well, though the 8 string obviously require's more presure to fret a note.
Initially the finish was flawless, but thru the few years I have owned them, I can see the finish shrinking into the grain of both bodies.
Reliability/Durability: 7
Seems to be solid so far in all respects. Finish is fairly hard and durable also.
Customer Support: 8
I worked in this dept. The actual staff on the phones will do there best to help you. We would try to make things right if there was a mistake- yours or ours. But too many times Mr"W" would be hovering over us which would pretty much keep our hands tied. Get your order right the first time folks, because once Mr "W" has your money, he doesn't like to give it back. Be prepared to present a good case should you make a mistake.
Overall Rating: 3
ATTN: To all interested in building a bass, or guitar from a "Custom Shop".
Yes, Warmoth makes a good bass. I worked there for a few years. I own a few myself. I will not say anything about bad about the guitars themselves, but you all should know a few things about the view's of the establishment. I worked the phones taking orders from all of you for the entire time I worked there. On numerous occasions I had to be the middleman between the customer and the owner of the company when taking custom orders, getting permission to do something out of the ordinary etc. This person does not think highly of his customer?s people. Sure he's a businessman, and I understand everyone is in business to make money. That's the game we all play. Please read on if you care to learn a bit about what you are dealing with. (I will use the word "HE", to try and avoid any liability in case of unintentional slander- and this person we are discussing would pursue it just for the enjoyment.) If you could have heard some of the things "he" would say about his customer's and even his employee's. I quote directly as I heard it straight from his mouth. An excerpt from a conversation I had with him, " those guy's that buy my guitars are a bunch of peasant?s" he said laughingly. A nanosecond after he said that, I saw the look on his face turn from an arrogant sneer to an "oop's" look, because while methodically blurting out his last sentence, he forgot who he was talking to. At that time I also realized whom he was referring to... Did I feel he just insulted me? For split second maybe - along with all of my other co-workers, and guitar enthusiasts/customers. But then it occurred to me what kind of man was standing before me. A man that has such contempt for the very people that make it possible for him to make triple payments every month on his home. Your hard earned dollar gives him the ability to feed his family. Yet, in his eye's, he is far above the likes of you and I. You see people, I am one of you. I play the instrument for the joy of it, for the feeling you get when you hit that magical moment on stage in the middle of a song and you and the band lock into the "groove" and it's better than sex... One of the "Peasants", one of the "Monkeys" as he had referred to all of those that he deemed beneath him in previous conversations. Again, yes Warmoth makes a good product. But if you had a choice would you choose to give your money to a business like this. Well, everyone, you do have a cho

Fretted: NECK ebony board / flame maple neck / medium/jumbo frets. Finish is nitro lacquer (me). BODY Multi piece alder body with flame- maple laminated top. Finish is Warmoth factory poly.tobacco sunburst. Passive J DiMarzio neck and Bartolini MM bridge p/u's. Schaller and Gotoh hardware.
Fretless: NECK Rosewood board / birdseye neck. Finish is oil (soon to be lacquer). Body is one piece mahogany. /stained/ nitro lacquer.
Passive / J DiMarzio's neck and bridge. Schaller and Gotoh hardware. Both basses are rear routed with just Fender Jazz knobs showing at the front. I don't think Warmoth does lacquer finishes.

Depends on the woods and pickups you use. Because of the Warmoth neck reinforcing rods I would say there is slightly more sustain than a factory Fender bass. Strings and setup effect this also.

Duh......ACTION is only as good as you make it and the time cutting the nut etc. but the necks and truss rods are very stable and adjustable. Factory fretwork is good but you obviously need to level, runout, finish etc. a bit yourself to complete a set up. Remember this is build your own.
Fit ...neck to body, pre drilled bridge screw holes, pickup routing etc. is excellent. Visit their website for history and production automation etc.

Good

Good

If you are going to pay someone to do all the finish and setup work add all the labor and parts cost carefully ...it adds up fast. I have not followed Warmoth prices for the last year or so but if you do it all yourself it is well worth the time and effort. If you just do a hand rub oil finish job you end up with a homemade looking project. Spend the time, effort and $ for a lacquer or poly finish. When the time comes to sell it will make a big difference. Priced a new Fender US made bass lately ? OUCH !

I built this bass in 1999 with a Fender Jazz neck and Warmoth ash body. I changed the neck to a Warmoth maple/maple neck with 21 frets and no inlays (34" scale)in April of 2000. The body is a solid, 2-piece Ash with a yellow tint nitro-laquer finish. It has standard jazz bass pickup routes and a standard jazz control cavity route. The neck has a satin polyurethane finish (as an experiment). It actually worked very well and feels good. The pickups are Seymore Duncan Antiquity Jazz. The bridge is a Gotoh #206 from Warmoth, and it has the strings through the body. The electronics are a standard vol/vol/tone with a 10dB gain buffer/preamp w/bypass in it. I designed the preamp for a friend's Lane Poor equipped Jazz and put one in my own bass to test it out. It adds a depth previously not there, while maintaining the classic Jazz sound. It is defeatable and I can use it passive when desired. I made it as small as possible to allow a 9V battery in the cavity, too. Oh, I have a neck pickup cover on it, too, with a black pickguard off a '77 Jazz. Sweet!

I rate this a 9 on features because it's almost what I want. I'll likely add a battery compartment so I can quickly change batteries if need be. I will also be refinishing it soon as the original nitro was my first attempt and I've learned alot since then. I'm working on my next Warmoth right now.

This bass has the TONE! It's very deep, with a smooth top end. The mid-range speaks well, too. It's a very cutting bass, but not sizzly. The preamp helps the highend come through, but also adds some punch. I've used it with a number of styles (jazz, rock, pop, blues, etc) and it fits in every situation. It sounds very clean, but it still has the "raw" Fender sound. The Antiquity pickups rock! Classic jazz bass all the way.

Well, my finish stinks, but I'm redoing it this summer. Action is absolutely perfect, though. I set up my basses extremely low, and this one is no exception. The neck feels more solid than any bass I've ever played. It fit's me perfectly. The neck sits very tight in the pocket, too. It is straight and extremely solid. The only thing I'll change is the neck plate. I find the Fender plate a bit bulky. When I refinish it, I will use washers counter-bored into the body. I'll also cut a little bulk off the heel.

This bass is the most durable I've ever played. It's fallen a few times and comes up in tune. The Nitro finsih is thin right now, so it has worn very poorly, BUT... It has a tone of character. It looks like a well used Jazz.

Warmoth is absulutely a joy to work with. I've ordered a number of things from them over the past few years. Very helpful, and quick to respond to emails, too. I'm a Warmoth convert for life.

I've been playing about 14 years. I have a highly modified Yamaha BB1600/G&L fretless, a highly modified Fender Jazz 5 (also with custom wound Antiquities) and I'm completing a Warmoth Gecko 5 with alder/quilt body and birseye maple/BM neck, Bartolini pickups, and my own custom electronics/DI. My current rig is an SWR St220 (still stock for now) and an Eden 210XLT cab.

This bass has no comparison in my opinion. I love it.

Parts made in 2000/2001 in Warmoth factory in Washington State. 21 frets, 4 strings. Neck is made out of Paduk, a red African hardwood with a Pau Ferro fingerboard. The body is made of walnut. Both are of the standard Jazz Bass style. 2 Dimarzio Ultra Jazz humbucking jazz bass style pickups. Standard Jazz style wiring, 2 vol, 1 tone. I ordered neck with dunlop size 6100 frets, the biggest warmoth offered.
It does all a standard Jazz bass should do, I could have added a coil tap for more sounds - any lack of features is due to my own design since I assembled this bass. I got a great deal on the pickups and schaller tuners($29 and $25 at music store closeout). Got a lot of the electronics from stewart macdonald. The neck was $200, and the body was $187 if I remember correctly. Bridge, pots, wiring, jackplate, and knobs brought the total cost up to around $500.

I like to play around with slap/funk type stuff, and play basic rock, and heavy metal. I'm using this with a Trace Elliot BLX-80. Sounds good, and gets lots of sustain due to mass of neck and body. I'm really reviewing the neck and body, and they definately add to the sound of this bass - hard to say what it would sound like with active electronics, but that is something I could try in the future.

Well I set this up myself, so any flaws in set up are my own. I made a few minor mistakes constructing it, most of which aren't very obvious. The neck came from Warmoth's thrift shop with the frets I ordered in completely flawless condition. The body did have a minor scuff at the bottom when I unpacked it. Might have occured in shipping, but I was able to sand it out in about 10 minutes with no problem. when I unpacked each of these components, I new that I had parts that are far about the quality of most production instruments. Some advice to anyone wanting to do this themselves - be very careful of your wood choice if you want to be "unorthodox". The red paduk neck and light brown walnut body I have don't really match that well. The are close enough in color to not contrast, but not close enough to match - like blue socks with black pants..:-) My own fault there, the warmoth website showed me the EXACT neck I was going to get, and the color of the body (which is typical walnut). Also, pay special attention to drilling the neck holes - I missed a lining it up perfectly, and have a "gap" at the top of the neck/body joint almost big enough to slide a credit card in between. The strings don't line up exactly over the neck due to this - they are about 1/16" farther away from the edge of the E string side than on the other side at the neck joint. Don't let this happen to you..:-) No fault of warmoth here, but only my own lack of attention. The paduk neck is beautiful with a funky grain and color, and feels great. The body is fairly plain by comparison, but is pretty cool. I have seen some >$1,000 basses that don't have wood that looks as nice as this - but it's your standard walnut wood.

Well, it's the time tested fender design, which is pretty solid. I believe that the neck is possibly tougher than a maple neck, only time will tell. The body is pretty hard and solid. Wouldn't want to gig without a backup, but this bass would be as good as any, I guess.

I talked to them on the phone twice to order the neck and body. I ordered the neck from the thrift shop portion of their site, which is great - because it lets you view a photo of the front and back of the parts. The guy I talked to was able to tell me that my first choice of a similar neck with ebony fingerboard was already sold. I told him to try this one, and he went and got this neck while I was on the phone, and told me about it. Since I could look at the photo as he was telling me about it, this was pretty cool - almost like being at their factory and checking it out in person. I told him what kind of frets I wanted, and that was the end of the call. Took about 1 1/2 weeks to get it delivered. The body I had made to my request, and just told the guy on the phone what options I wanted from their catalog. In retrospect I would had them do something less traditional - since they were making it from scratch per my order anyways. They told me it would be around 3 weeks for the body to arrive, and they were right. Everyone I talked to at Warmoth was friendly, and much more knowledgable than your average music store type employee. The body and neck are warranteed for a year, according to the literature that came with them. The website is great - I look at it all the time. The best website out there if you want to do this type of thing, since you could build a guitar or bass - seeing the exact pieces of wood you would get.

I have been playing guitar for almost 18 years, and bass for about 17.
I have a fender Japanese P-bass, a telecaster, 2 stratocasters, a musicmaster guitar, a gibson marauder, a jackson strat-style....blah blah blah. I like this bass as much as anything I own. If I had it to do over again, I would match the neck and body color up better, and pay more attention to the fit of the neck. Also, I would have went for a less traditional style, like a warwick or something. I love the solid feel of this bass when I strap it on. It's heavy and powerful feeling. Very organic with the wood grain showing. I think I'm selling one or two of my guitars, and building a guitar next. If I lost this bass for what ever reason, I would be very upset. I would most likely build another one from warmoth parts - maybe not the same style, though. A final bit of advice - cutting the nut on an instrument like this is not trivial, at least not for me. Wiring up the pickups was easy, but I spent hours on the nut. I don't think I'm even going to try to do the guitar nut when I build the guitar - I'll get a guitar tech to do it for me....

This one is a jazz-bass made from Warmoth parts. It features a mahogany body with quilted maple top and a maple neck with rosewood (slab-) fingerboard and jumbo frets. Both, neck and body came unfinished, but the neck was sealed in an oil bath, ...that serves as a finish. The body was oiled by myself.
The body features backside routing, two volume-, one tone control, and active EMG jazz PU's. I installed Schaller BMFL Tuners, an ETS tuning-fork bridge (German manufacturer) and Schaller strap locks (all hardware is finished black (incl. neckplate, jackplate, controls), no gold on this one!!!)
I usually use D'Addrio Slowounds, if I can't get them, I take Ken Smith Bass Burners.

This Bass is VERY heavy (I've never had a 70's Jazz, but this one must be at least as heavy as a 75 Fenderjazz, thanks to the mahogany...). Neck always points up in the sky (or PAR's). Besides the wheight, perfect handling, due to the oiled neck and the large body (I like bigger ones best, ...ever owned a Gibson Ripper?)

Rating for features must be 10, not because of the amount of features, but because it's perfect the way it is, and that's E-X-A-C-T-L-Y the way I wanted it to be!!!

I'm playing a large variety of styles, from pop-ballads, to Springsteen/ Cream/ Velvet Underground to Beastie Boys (cover band for adults, age 30+), but my favorite styles are Stoner Rock (Kyuss, Fu-Manchu) or altenative (Weezer...), sometimes stuff like Oasis...

My setup: Bass ---> EH Big Muff ---> Tubeworks tube overdrive ---> DOD envelope filter --->Boss FZ-3 fuzz ---> Dunlop bass-wah ---> SWR Workingman's 300 (amp) ---> Workingman's 4x10 (enclosure)

In combination with my setup and the EMG's tone control, I'm able to realize a wide variety of sounds, which have one thing in common: They have to be FAT. Even fatter than the fat lady next door, fatter than ten tons of french fries!!! No Level 42/ Mark king sounds here, no sizzeling hights here!!! BUT, at the same time in no way muddy like an old Gibson SG-bass. The bass is always punchy and right there... Fat, but clean (thanks to my SWR).

The bass was set up by myself, only the nut was installed and cut by a local music store.
Action is very comfortable and the frets were installed very accurate by the guys at Warmoth.The parts were perfectly finesanded by factory and ready for finish. Some holes (tuners, neckscrews on the body, controls) were predrilled. The body looked gorgous, even without the finish (wait untill you put some oil on, uhhhhhhhhhhhh baaaaaaaaaaaaaaby!!!).

This bass is built like a german tank (and it has the weights, too)!!!
The only thing i have to think about, are the EMGs and the battery they need. I can totally rely on this bass.

Hey, I'm from Germany and I orderd the parts from this side of the Atlantic. It took some time till I had the Parts but they were exactly the way I had ordered them.
Customer Support? On this side of the Atlantic, you're kidding... If you decide to to get some Warmoth parts over here, I suppose it's at your own risk...
Since I haven't dealt with them, no rating.

This is MY ultimate bass.
All other instruments I own are more or less backups (even though I don't need them): Fender FotoFlame Preci., Fender Musicmaster, Roland GR-77 (does anyone remember this one, he he?). I only use them for certain sonic needs: Musicmaster for muddy sounds and Beastie Boys fuzz sounds, Precision for classic rock (R. Stones, Neil Young...).

Almost all basses I know, have something I don't like, visually or sonicly, and this Bass is the only one I'm totally contend with.

It looks fantastic and the sound is awesome. God bless Warmoth!!!

All Basses that can compete with it are way to expensive for me (especially here in Europe!!!); if I could, even then I'm NOT going to pay 5000,- to 7000,- Deutsche Mark (DM to $ is about 2 DM to 1$, so make it half) for a Sadowsky, Lakland or any other "Turbo Fender".

The only other Bass I'd like to get my hands on, is a Japan made 75' Jazz Bass reissue.

If you know what sound you want and in which way the sound of a guitar/bass is affected by wood, pickups and hardware, and if you are a little skilled with tools and paint/oil, then (AND ONLY THEN!!!!!!) are Warmoth parts a good solution to get a "customized" instrument.