Warrior Custom Signature 6-String

6 string
spalted maple top
mahogany body wings
mahogany/purple heart neck through
gold hardware with abalone tops on the knobs
fat bartolinis with 3 band eq
great string spacing for slaping
assymetrical neck
rosewood fingerboard
and the most amazing leather hard shell case i have ever seen.

i have owned and played many many basses.
this was actually the worst bass i have ever played or owned as far as sound is concerned.
and its not just me.
i bought this bass in the store because it was the most beautiful thing i had ever seen. the strings were dead and i thought it just needed a new set.
i tried 3 different kinds of strings. and they all sounded bad.
and when i say its not just me. after i returned this bass to the store. 4 people have bought it and taken it back since. all telling the store the same thing.
sounds awful.
i have played 2 other warriors since this bass. and they sounded exactly the same

i ran this bass through a trace elliot 500 head and trace 410 cab
i also ran it through a mesa titan v12 head and mesa 412 cab
i play a lot of r and b and funk. i am a jazz bassist at heart though.

the basses action was very good. and there was not a flaw anywhere on the bass finish wise.
however the bartolini pickups, no matter where they were set to, made a clacky sound when slapping from the strings hitting it. but when you moved the pickups down, the sound got even muddier than before. and also. the fingerboard was incredibly thin

well...i wouldnt use it at a gig. but it seemed pretty durable. i only owned the bass for about a month so i really couldnt say. but it did need quite a lot of truss adjusting

i wouldnt really know. didnt even talk to them. but i have heard from a few fellow players (10 of them) that he tries to use god as a selling tool...quite confusing...and retarded

i have owned a peavey cirrus 6 string, warwick thumb wide neck 6 string, carvin lb76 6 string fretless, (all of those 3 were custom made) i have also owned a warwick fna jazzman, warwick thumb 4 string, peavey T-40, ibanez 1306 and a few others which i cant beleive i dont remember right now. the warrior is actually the worst bass i have played. but it was way more than the price of the basses i have listed here. i honestly dont know what to say. i have never been so dissapointed. but somehow...i still have to give it a 3...its beauty makes it impossible for me to give it what it truly deserves...

Not sure the year it was made off the top of my head. Likely 2003 or so. Not sure of the body wood either cus the finish is candy apple white. gorgeous. has ebony fingerboard with staggered flying bird inlays like you see on the PRS guitars. very pretty. It bought it used primarily because it had the look I was looking for. Has active soapbars made by Bartolini and 3 band eq. Action is very low, almost too low for slapping. Hardware is top notch as is the craftsmanship. I love thier jacks too, they lock the cable in place so it can't pull out even if you did step on the cable. It is struck with the typical 6 string configuration. Came with Warrior gig bag. I have a couple of warrior basses and their top of the line case, although very heavy, is very nice. But this gig bag seemed cheap to me...I was disappointed with it.

To my ear, there is no better sounding bass. It has the growl, but you can also get nearly a fretless sound out of it with the right configuration of eq, just on the bass alone. B string is solid and tight, not mushy at all unless you run the bass eq up and even then it is more thunderous than mushy. It is a good slapping bass as it relates to sound but I don't have it set up for slapping, I use my 5 string for that. You can get some nice highs and lows but I like that fact that I can vary the mids cus it gives me a lot of sound variations. the only thing I wish it had is an active/passive switch for the pickup. the G-factor thing....I can definitely feel the body vibrating but not sure if it truly makes a difference to the actual sound. It seems to help with sustain though. I find he sound to be brighter than my other warriors which are primarily mahogony. this could be in part due to the ebony finger board but is probably more about the body wood.

As I mentioned, I have 3 warriors and the craftmanship is top notch. Finish is well done, the color and design is stunning. I find this guitar to be the quietest I have played, great for studio work, low volume solos, etc. I bought the bass used so it was already set up pretty nicely. From a purely aesthetic point of view, the is beautiful. It is well balanced, no neck dive, it is ergonomically smart, and to my likely it appears to have all the best hardware.....even my guitar tech commented on it.

Never had a moments trouble and don't expect to. it is a solid guitar and although I didn;t like the Warrior gig bag, the cases are specifically designed for the precise shape of the guitar. So it ain't sliding around in the case....the guitar is still.

I think they try hard in this area but I think this is there weakest area. JD handles most of the technical issues if something needs to be elevated. He put his son, Dran, in charge of this area but he struggles to really get the job done. Communication through means other than telephone is where they seem to fall down. I did have one of my guitars changed to a fretless and they did fine work. But I remember thinking that it was too expensive in comparison to if I'd have had a local shop do it...by 40% or so, plus they charged me $40 to send it back to me. I'd send stuff back to them if I needed servicing but this is an area that needs some improvement.

simply a great guitar in every respect. I have three of them so obviously I like them a lot. they look good they sound good, and they play very nicely. What more do you need?

2003 Warrior Signature 6 String...made in USA...
24 frets ....
Strung with a low F# string(.165 Gauge) instead of the standard high C

Walnut body with quilted bubinga top, maple neck with purpleheart tonebar..macassar ebony fretboard with custom inlay ...
Custom Bartolini Soapbars to handle the low F#
18 volt preamp...
String through body on F# and B strings..."g factor"

Electronics are great except for a hiss when the treble knob is turned up...
The "G Factor" where the lowest two strings are run through the body...is supposed to extend the scale of the instrument making the lower strings have a higher tension and better overall tone...
Its BS ! The string still rests on the saddle which is the same scale length as the rest of the strings..You can hear no difference between running the string through the g factor or running it through the bridge...basically they drill two holes through the bottom of the bass and sell it as a feature

Amazing sounding bass...
The tone alone is worth the money...
I play metal/jazz/funk/whatever...and this thing does everything...
MAAAAASIVE low end....
Wonderful for all applications of bass ...
Slappers dream tone....

Action was sweet...pickups are sweet (incredibly high output) ....only problem is a little hiss in the treble knob...
Tuning pegs are loose- J.D. was out of all black bridges so he did a black bridge with gold saddles and to match he put gold tuning pegs on black gears...made the tuners feel cheap...

Awesome reliability ...incredible bass used it for a year and never had any problems....

*sigh*......
When you pay $6,000k for a bass, you should have EVERYTHING you've ever dreamed of and nothing less. I was very, very dissapointed upon receiving my bass from Warrior. I had requested the quilted bubinga top like they show on the signature basses on the website, this kind of fiery-orange quilted bubinga...and mine was a no doubt beautiful, but darker, brown with a hint of red color...
Secondly, I had ordered a purpleheart fretboard...
when I opened up the case, there was a macassar ebony fretboard..
Third, I had requested the inlay be all light colored woods, J.D. used rosewood on one part and it really took away from what I was going for...
and finally, I was supposed to have a single bartolini fatboy pickup, when it showed up it had two soapbars...

I really feel like I was hustled by the company...I feel like they use God as an excuse to cover up their mistakes which is absolutely terrible...
J.D. was super nice and all, but there was a serious lack of communication during the building process, even after I mentioned something halfway through...
When the bass showed up with all these things wrong I was beyond angry... I mean after waiting a year for your dream bass to be built, and having it showing up and being someone elses dream bass you can imagine the feeling you'd be having...so we called J.D. right from the store...and I can't believe it but somehow he convinced me this was all for the better.. he said "when I was making your bass, God told me to make it just the way I did so I didn't question him"...
I don't know about anyone else, but I wonder why God didn't tell him to call me and ASK me if the changes were ok!!! I mean the bass just shows up *SUPRISE* with half of my custom order wrong! anyways, I realized what a hassle it would have been to send the bass back and almost redo the whole thing, so the shop I bought it through took a few hundred dollars off and I just learned to live with it...
Don't get me wrong this bass is a boutique quality bass, and I love it more than any of my other material possessions, but I still have those thoughts of what it would be like if it came the way I had ordered it...
If you're going to buy a bass from this company...MAKE SURE you have J.D. send you pictures after every step..and make sure he knows you want to be contacted every time "God" tells him to change something on your custom order...

Overall this is a 9 out of 10 as far as the bass itself goes...
It is by far the most aesthetically pleasing bass my eyes have ever seen, and as far as feel, playability, and sound ...its a 10...the only reason I gave it a 9 is because its not what I ordered!!