Warwick Corvette Standard Fretless

Bass was made in November 1998, in Germany. It has 4 strings and is fretless (24 'frets'), with dots at the 1st-9th 'fret' positions and 15th-24th positions. The body is comprised of 2 pieces of solid bubinga. The neck is wenge with an ebony fingerboard, and it has the "Just-a-nut 2" on it. The electronics are passive and consist of volume, pickup blend, and tone. The pickups are standard MEC pickups, and are JJ type. The bass has an oil finish on it. The hardware is chrome colored, with Gotoh-style tuners. The bass was purchased with a case and a wrench for the truss rod, and although the bass and rod fit perfectly, it is not known whether these items are stock. The bass is VERY heavy - approximately 10 pounds. Features are sufficient for a passive J-type bass.

The bass has a deep and thick sound, particularly when the bridge pickup is soloed and the tone is rolled off. I am using this with an Acoustic Image Clarus II & Schroeder 1210L. There is a small amount of hum in certain situations, however, it is not a problem while playing. With new strings, the sound can be overly bright. The bass has an excellent tight sound while not being 'pinched'. It sounds best for fingerstyle but also works when slapped. This bass makes 'J-Bass' sounds, albeit fretless. I have not yet recorded with it, but it works sufficiently in several rehearsals. The style I play is currently classic rock & blues, with some originals & this bass covers those sounds adequately.

Factory setup - unknown as bass is over 10 years old. I perform all of my own setups on my own, and will perform on this bass as well, including pickup heights, bridge saddles, etc. The fit on this bass is decent. It has a bolt-on neck, and there are no major problems. It is possible to feel a very slight difference (1/64" or less) between the laminations on the neck near the body, but the cause of this is unknown. There are no major flaws noticed.

This bass is exceptionally reliable. It is as if someone bolted some strings and hardware onto a tree. The hardware is well established & will last. The finish is an oil finish, so it requires occasional maintenance and is generally thin, but is not a problem. The strap buttons are inlaid straplocks, and work as expected. I have not yet adjusted the neck truss rod. I would certainly use this bass on a gig without a backup as there is nothing that could substantially go wrong. The control panel is a piece of black plastic with tabs - although this is a decent design for easy access, the small tabs could easily break if not careful. In terms of aesthetics, the black control panel cover detracts from the beauty of the wood (same for truss rod cover), but is not completely unreasonable for a bass in this price range. This bass is HEAVY. If weight is a sign of reliability, this bass will be able to take a beating and keep on going. One issue worth nothing is the use of roundwound strings & the marking of the fingerboard. I am considering a stronger coating on the fretboard to preserve it for years to come while still using roundwounds. This damage is consistent with the use of metal strings on a wooden fingerboard & would happen to any bass.

N/A. I purchased this bass used, and have not yet contacted the Warwick customer support. Their website is helpful, however for downloading the documentation for this bass.

I have been playing bass for over 15 years, and music for over 24 years. I also own a 1978 Fender Precision Bass (currently outfitted with EMGs and brass nut), a 2005 G&L L2500, a 2006 Pedulla Thunderbass ET5, a 1940s German 3/4 plywood bass and for amps: a vintage Ampeg B-15N Portaflex, Ampeg BA-115, Eden WTX-260, Acoustic Image Clarus II, and Schroeder 1210L. I purchased this bass because of the cost and to determine whether I enjoy playing a fretless - my intonation is not perfect yet! I typically like playing a 5 string bass, but this is sufficient. This bass is HEAVY, much more so than my other basses, and the weight is noticed after wearing it for several hours. For aesthetic purposes, I would prefer black or gold hardware, but this is added easily enough. If it were stolen or lost, I probably would not get the same bass again, but would probably purchase a Pedulla Pentabuzz or Thunderbuzz. I enjoy being able to play it as a different instrument & get different sounds from a fretted bass.

Made December 2005, purchased new in April 2006. Made in Germany of course.
4 String, Passive, Fretless.. Bubinga body, Ovankol Neck, Ebony fingerboard, etc.. If you don't know this bass already, why are you wasting your time reading this?

Plenty of features, exactly what I wanted. No stupid useless frills. I can't believe one can access this kind of quality for the prices these are going for.

I have to start off by saying this: Anyone who bitches that this bass isn't active should have purchased the ACTIVE model instead of whining about this one.. They DO make this bass with active electronics, you idiots. You purchased a passive bass, what in the hell were you expecting?

As mentioned, this is exactly what I wanted. I didn't want active pickups because it doesn't make sense on an instrument of this caliber. There's no paint/varnish to speak of, meaning that this bass is all about the WOOD! I didn't want to hear active tone circuits, I wanted to hear the WOOD! That's why they make the passive model -it's organic and pure. Nothing to get in the way of how this thing is supposed to sound.

This bass is absolutely alive. It swells, growls, and sustains forever. The neck has no dead spots, and I've been able to fake a great P-Bass, and out-Jazz a Jazz Bass. It can be punchy and tight, bright, aggressive, anything.. It's the most responsive stringed instrument I've ever played, and if you have an ounce of passion in your soul.. It will pour out of this bass.

I've been a guitarist for 20 years, a bassist for 15 and own a number of Fender Custom Shop guitars and basses.. Some of which cost 5 times what this Warwick did, and Fender should be ashamed.. The Warwick is absolutely flawless.. It feels expensive. Every seam is uniform, the wood is spectacular, hardware is top notch, and the strap locks it came with should be the industry standard.

Action and intonation were perfect from the store.. I haven't had to turn a single screw on this bass yet.

It's sturdy, solid, feels unbreakable. The woods Warwick uses for their basses are so stable, they could almost get away without a truss rod. The hardware is amazing. Very smartly engineered and solid as anything. There's no finish on it (which is how it should be anyway), but that's why they give you beeswax. And yes, strap buttons are solid. It stays in tune, always sounds fantastic and I have gigged it without a backup without thinking twice.

When I bought this bass, they gave me the wrong case. It wasn't the wrong size, but every new Warwick comes with a unique warranty card with the serial number, production date and everything printed right on it.. Hand signed by the people who inspected and set it up. Long story short, I had the wrong case, which meant I got someone else's card.. So I emailed Warwick and got a response in less than 24 hours answering all my questions in full. Awesome people, fast service, very friendly.

I don't know what else to say. You just feel connected to this instrument. It has a soul, it breathes. It feels natural in your hands. Nothing else sounds like a Warwick, and the only thing I regret is not getting one sooner. I started on Fender and my brand loyalty kept me away from the competition.

Fender may have invented the electric bass guitar, but Warwick is nearing perfection. I shopped long and hard before going with this bass (Pedulla, Roscoe, Fodera, Elrick, Lakland, Sadowsky, Tobias, etc..) and honestly, this one feels perfect to me. The others felt too cushy, numb, glossy and artificial.. Like spending the day at a Lexus dealership, then jumping in a Ferrari... The others just didn't have that "realness" to them. They gave you the impression that you were playing a bass, but it was little more than that.. The Warwick puts you in the driver's seat.

Also, for the ridiculously low price I got this one for, I could pick up 3 more and still beat the price of the runner-up Elrick fretless. This is not my last Warwick.

Just a warning though: If you test drive this one, you'll be lusting after it until you give in and buy it. I resisted its charms for 5+ years. It was futile

It is a passsive 4-string model with an Ebony fingerboard, Bubinga body and Ovangkol neck. The pickups are the factory installed MECs. Master volume, pan, and tone controls.

In the local Guitar Center, there was enough background noise to hide the phase shifting from the pickups being set toooo high. This could be a GC trick trying to make it louder, thus better for their regular clientelle. I could get the growl and bite, but didn't actually get deep from it.
I didn't set the pickup heights because I didn't own it long enough.

The thing was origionally set up with roundwound strings, which were scratching the fingerboard badly. I changed the strings to flatwounds, and in the process noticed the D string tuner was loose, which is a twofold problem... Not only was the hardware loose, but the hole was way too big for the tuner, allowing it to flop around freely.

I'll never know

I can't say anything about Warwick's support, but I'm quite grateful for GC's return policy.

This thing sounded like crap next to my $200 Yamaha BB404. I guess you don't always get what you pay for. But as a lesson learned, I like the Master Volume/P/T controls instead of the Yamahas V/V/T, so a little surgury is in order now.

2004 Standard 4 string fretless Bubinga / Wenge with MECs. Corvette. Paid $600.

Okay for blues and jazz but a little muddy. Not as clear and as good as my other Thumb bass. Sorta disappointed in its overall tone.

Excellent built. Pretty too. Very neck heavy and tended to tilt and rotate when played. Too heavy compared to my other Thumb bass. Too heavy for such a small bass.

Built like a tank. Very heavy over 10 pounds. Sturdy.

Excellent

Been playing bass over 20 years. Own lots of Warwick and Fender gear. Thumb bass the best. Very disappointed in the Corvette line, as they are inferior to Warwick's main line.

Great Bass! Good tone and great feel. Only wish it had active pickups.

The sound is very good. I run it through an ampeg setup. It has a little growl to it. Not noisy at all nice and quiet. It tends to be on the mellow side, but if you eq it right it can sound pretty punchy.

Action is excellent and the pickups are well balanced.

Definitely a reliable bass! A little heavy but not bad.

I have been playing for over 15 years and have played all kinds off basses. And in my opinion this is one of the finest fretless basses around.

Fretless Corvette purchased about 3 years ago. Solid, distinctive looking bubinga body. Bolt on wenge neck. Very heavy for a 4 string. Passive with 2 pickups. Volume, tone and pickup pan controls. Set up can be tweaked in almost every way including adjustable nut. Came with a gig bag. It has all the features I need and expect. I sometimes wish it had active electronics but I don't really need an active bass for the style of music I play. Looking back, I think maybe I should have bought one with frets as well! However, the position markers on the side of the fingerboard help to some extent. See Warwick website / previous reviews for further details of specifiction.

I play jazz and bought this bass as a replacement for a squire P-Bass as I believe fretless bass sounds fit in better with this style of music. In general, I am very pleased. Using both pickups evenly with the tone control set midway, it has a really woody tone. The low notes growl, the high notes sing and the bass is very warm sounding. Unfortunately, with a heavier emphasis on the front pickup the sound tends to get rather muddy. Whereas with the back pickup things get increasingly piercing and nasal. However, I have not experimented that much with these last 2 settings as the sound with the tone control and pickup pan set midway is great.

The bass seems to be extremely well put together and it is difficult to find fault with the construction or the finish. However, the action was set up too low and needed some tweaking later on.

This appears to be a very sturdy instrument. The finish and harware still look brand new. The fingerboard is showing some slight wear but this is to be expected on a fretless and it should still have many years of playing left. The bass is very stable, hardly affected by temerature/humidity changes and stays in tune well. I have only made 1 minor adjustment to the bridge since setting it up after I bought it. However, after about a year, I started breaking G and D strings over the bridge. On investigation the edges of the bridge saddles do seem to be a bit sharp. I do play quite aggressively but never broke a string on my Squire P-Bass in 5 or 6 years but have broken at least 5 strings on the Warwick in about 2 years. Anyway, it's a relatively minor problem that should be easy to fix by filing the bridge saddles or getting some replacements. The bass is otherwise very dependable.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

A nice instrument. Not particularly adaptable but for the music I mostly play it has just the right tone. The finish and construction are of good quality. The only real issue is the minor problem I mentioned with the bridge saddles but it is otherwise extremely reliable.

My Fretless 'Vette is a 2003 built bass purchased new in 2004. It is a passsive 4-string model with an Ebony fingerboard, Bubinga body and Ovangkol neck. The pickups are the factory installed MECs. At this point in time the bass is completely stock including Warwick-brand strings. The feature set rates a 9 in my opinion because the bass is very complete and versatile in its stock form.

I play mostly Jazz and Blues and get the sound I desire easily. The bass has been very quiet with no extraneous noise. The sound is very full and warm however it can be surprisingly bright with the tone all the way up. The Warwick Black label strings are quite bright but can be reigned in with the tone control. There is no sound I desire that I can't achieve with this bass.

When I bought the bass it had been in the store for over a year and may have been setup by store personnel. The pickup height is perfect and balances between both pickups. The finish is flawless and all hardware seems to be of good quality and in excellent condition.

I live in an extreme climate and adjusting truss rods is a weekly event on some of my axes. I allowed slightly more relief into the neck when I bought it (1 month ago) and it has been completely stable since that adjustment.

The body and neck of this bass seem as solid as I can imagine. The Gotoh tuners and Warwick bridge likewise seem to be made to last. This is probably the only guitar or bass I have bought recently that had solid strap buttons from the factory.

Because the body is oil-finished I expect to eventually have some finish deterioration but I see this as adding character to this type of finish. I do wax the bass frequently and it really polishes up nicely. If you don't like waxing and polishing this may not be the bass for you. I use it as a way to relax.

I've never had to deal with Warwick on any warranty issues but I have swapped a few emails with their customer service department (questions on my part) and they responded quickly and were very friendly.

I'm going to have to go with a 10 on this one. I have always wanted a high-dollar exotic wood bass and this Warwick has a lot going for it at a Fender price. I really could not be happier with it and see little reason to trade up in the future. My favorite feature has to be the sound but the appearence of the wood is a close second. It's kind of like falling in love with a nice woman and then finding out she looks like Kathy Ireland.

The day I bought this bass I had gone into GC to look at a new Fender Jazz Bass. I wanted something with visible woodgrain to replace my old Jazz. The Fender didn't do it for me and on the way out I stopped to play the Warwick just for fun (I had visited this instrument many times before but never actually considered buying it). On a whim I made them a low-ball offer and they came back $15 higher. I walked out with a new bass and couldn't be happier. The case was another $40 on top and I even got my starter-can of wax. :)

I have been playing guitar & bass for nearly 40 years and have owned 4 basses in the past, two Fenders, one Yamaha P-Bass copy and a short-scale, no-name bass way back in the 60s. I have liked all of my basses but the Warwick is true love.

I just bought this bass two weeks ago. This too is my first fretless. This was made in 2001. It has a bubinga body (not very flashy wood on this one :( and a wenge neck. The fretboard is ebony. This is a 4 string that has the MEC passive pick ups. I too bought this from Guitar Center and they almost did not give me the gig bag. They wanted more $ for it but ultimately gave in and included it. Hmmmm.

This bass has passive pickups and no onboard/active eq. Tone is limited for sure. For me it suits my style because I like the sound of wood. IMO I think passive electronics bring out the sound of wood vs. the active. For fretless I like that tone, for fretted its a different story. So it really depends on your tastes and budget. I am using this bass with my Ampeg SVT classic head. Sounds great! It has that famous warwick growl in a fretless tone. Its pretty punchy for a fretless. The pickups are a tad noisy when treble is turned up. For some people out there, this bass may not be for you because of the limited tone shaping on this bass, so try one out before you get it.

I hope this bass didn't come from the factory like this but when I bought it the action was very high. The neck was really out of wack. It needed a major truss rod adjustment and then the bridge lowered as low as possible. It needed a whole make over basically. I put on my fave strings Rotosound Swing Bass 66 on this.

This bass is HEAVY. The body is strong. From everything I've read this is a reliable bass. I do not think the rod will need to be adjusted again (well for a while at least). Hardware is top notch. The only thing I want to see is how long the fretboard will last before it needs a "grind/polish". I HATE flatwound strings and I love the Rotosound swing bass roundwound 66's. Ebony is a good wood so I don't see it wearing as fast as others. We'll see, the test of time. I think it will offer many years before it needs a fretboard polish. Tone is first.

Don't know

This bass is good for the money, if you are a semi pro at the fretless this would be it for you! Its kind of in that mid range, not high end, definitly not low end. It offers some good sounds but not many. You really have to test drive this. Some people will hate the passive pu's some people might like the sound of them. I compared this to a Fender Jazz fretless, I dug this one a lot more. It looks cooler, sounds better, and is a lot more reliable I feel.

This Warwick Corvette Standard was made 2001. 4 String fretless. Bubinga (sp?) body and wenge fretboard with no markers (the real fretless heh. Passive pu's, etc...

It is supposed to come with a gig bag, tools, and wax AT NO EXTRA COST. I have a problem with Guitar Center. Now by no means am I bashing the company but I have had two bad experiences with them and I think consumers should know about them. Please to anyone that buys from them, DO RESEARCH ON THE 'NET and find out exactly what the item comes with. Know your prices. Its just like buying a car. Guitar Center has some messed up sales tactics. I argued with the store manager for about one hour before I got the price down to $800. They actually tried to sell this bass to me for $920. The "kid" sales person actually had the gall to tell me the gig bag/tools/wax is an extra $40. They told me the bass goes for $880 regular price and I was getting a deal.....I DO NOT THINK SO.

OK, enough of my venting, lets just get to my review now. check out the warwick page for specifics.

I use this bass through an SWR Mo'Bass head. I'm going to cut to the chase, it sounds incredible. For the price, this is an awesome sounding fretless. I looked at A LOT of different fretless basses from low end to high. I don't know if you can dail in lots of tones but for my playing it suits me good. I have a warm fat punchy fretless tone that is awesome. You better try one first before buying. The only downfall is the passive electronics. The eq isn't the greatest but my head makes up for it.

The factory set up isn't the greatest. I felt the action was too high and the strings were just dead. I had to quickly replace the strings with DR's Lower the action a tad. The neck might need a lil adjustment because of the DR's but I'll have a pro do that for me.

I feel all Warwicks are built like tanks. This thing is a beast. I actually own a Thumb5 BO, that thing will never fall.

Very responsive and honest. Top notch.

If you are looking for a quality fretless bass look no further. Test one of these out today! For the price it is perfect. I am new at fretless and this is an awesome bass to learn on. Granted you can get cheaper fretless basses but the tone will not be there, trust me. I've tried out Fenders, Rouge (Total junk!), Yamaha, Dean, Spector, and an old Ibanez fretless. Some of them were cheaper, some of them were hittin a grand. After hearing the cheaper ones I knew from then on I DID NOT want a cheap fretless. To me its not worth it. You mine as well save money and go for the gold than just settle with a cheaply made fretless bass (if it were fretted it would be a different story). Downfall = eq. (not much to work with but still sounds good) BOTTOM LINE = an incredible sounding fretless - incredible looking, and the price really does it justice...

This bass was to be a backup for my fretless P-bass. I beleive it is an alder body but don't know for sure. It looks great and plays fine. Neck is thinner than P-bass, but scale is very close. Position marker at 1st fret helps. The model is passive, and for fretless it brings out the right natural tone.

It's sound is very good in the mid-high range. No major work needed here. The E-string is kicking, with a warm growl type sound. It took a while to adjust the E-string height to get the overall volume in line with the other strings, but that was probably a bit neurotic by me.

Overall workmanship was very fine. I was not please with factory set-up, but all adjustments were easy and straight forward. Warwick even supplied the hex wrenches needed. Finish is easy to care for and after 1 year of heavy gigging, still looks great. (I've only polished it once! I do wipe down after every use.) The noise lever is very low, even around neon light.

What else can I say but it has replaced my Fender P-bass. I will always take a back-up, but I don't think I shall ever need it.

Didn't need any.

Before purchasing this bass, I had a "gold" edition Warwick Corvette 5-string fretted with active pickups. It was a good bass, but a little too "hot" with the actives on. This bass fit the pocket much better. I would not hesitate to buy another, except I do not think this one will ever crap out on me.