Warwick FNA Jazzman 5

2003 model of the FNA Jazzman 5 string. German manufacture.

Swamp ash body with flamed maple top. Wenge fingerboard. Frets are "bell brass".

One MEC humbucking pickup in the bridge position, one slanted MEC single-pole pickup in the neck position. Both pickups are "large-pole".

Pickup selector, coil tap, active/passive bypass, bass, mid, treble, volume controls.

Pretty much anything that could be adjusted to effect the action can be adjusted.

I'm using this bass with a 350 watt amp and 4x10 cabinet, both Hartke.

Between the single and humbucking pickups, the active/passive switch, the coil tap, and the pickup selector almost any sound can be coaxed out of this beast. With the humbucker it growls, with the single pole it's smooth as butter. Huge sustain.

Bought used, so I don't know what the previous owner had done with it. The disadvantage of the many available action adjustments is that it can be seriously screwed up, and it was. The action was way too low and the neck relief was wrong. BUT, it was the work of only a few minutes (less than 1/2 hour) to get it restrung and straightened around.

After that, it was very good. The fingerboard feels "alive" and very responsive somehow. There are some fast passages I have trouble with on my Ibanezes that seem much easier on the Warwick.

As expected in a German bass in this price range, fit and finish are pretty much flawless.

The bell brass frets seem to do what they're supposed to do (resonate?) in that the bass is forgiving of less than perfect finger placement without buzzing or muting.

The hardware feels solid. The coil tap sometimes makes a snap through the amp when switched.

Built like a tank, and therein lies the only real issue I have with the instrument (see below).

I don't think you could hurt this thing if you tried, and I'm very sure it will withstand playing live longer than most musicians I know.

The action (and tuning) have remained stable since I made the major adjustments that I did some weeks ago. It's been used daily since then.

I've had no reason to contact Warwick directly. The manual was not included with the bass I bought, and their web site provided useful information (including a PDF version of the manual). This is in stark contrast to some other manufacturer's sites, which are little more than sales tools.

I've had the Warwick for just over a month now.

I've been playing for only two years, mostly metal, but I'll try anything that strikes my fancy. The only basses I've had before were entry to mid-level Asian ones. I was looking for a 5 string when the sales guy hands me this Warwick. I've never even held a $1,000+ bass before, and this one made even my half-arsed playing sound OK, and Gear Acquisition Syndrome and 18 months same as cash took care of the rest.

If this bass were lost or stolen I'd sure miss it, but I don't know if I'd replace it or not due to two and only two reasons:

1. The exchange rate makes this bass (if new) very expensive (nearly $2,000 around here). Non-European basses don't suffer from this. So is it a great bass? Yes. Is it twice as good as your average $700 bass? Sure is. Is it three times better than your average $700 bass? That I don't know for sure.

2. Weight and balance. If you try this bass out, take with you (or nick one from the sales staff) a strap and try it standing up as you would if playing live. The weight is tremendous, the elongated Corvette neck pulls the bass tight into you (too tight IMHO) and it neck dives like mad. You'll most likely have to support the neck while playing unless your normal playing position is with the head dragging the floor.

If you can find a used one and the weight/balance isn't an issue for you (maybe you only do studio recording sitting down, or you're built like Arnold Schwarzenegger) then I can unreservedly recommend this instrument.

Approximately 2-3 yrs, new to me. Everything in great condition, except a tiny amount of playing wear. The guy I bought it from gigged with it in a funk band, and this beauty has held up great. I've been playing a MIJ P-Bass for the past year, so as far as features go, this thing is a Rolls Royce! For the first few days, all I really did was explore the tonal possibilities, and I played the same songs over and over with different settings.

The neck on this bass is very smooth, fast, and much easier to play than my PBass. The frets are easier to slide on, whereas my P requires more finger pressure.

The sound? Hell yeah! Everything from a heavy, dark, growling, 500lb Rottweiler sound to a bright, ultra punchy, bouncing ball type sound. The B string sounds tight and not floppy, but the G string can sound a bit thin. I like being able to bypass the electronics and play in passive mode, and the sound does not lose any of its color, punch, or growl.

I went to GC many many times just to drool and wish to one day own a great bass. I played Yamahas, Ibanez, MusicMan, Fenders, and after 5 minutes with this Warwick, I never want another bass....ever.

Since I got mine used, the action was set up for the previous owner. Even so, playability is much nicer than on my P.

The finish has a slight amount of playing wear, but for being gigged for the past 2 years, the finish has held up nicely. It is obvious that these basses will look great for many years with a little regular TLC.

Fit is flawless. Rock solid, and I cannot find a single issue with it. This bass commands quite a high price, but the fit reflects the quality and justifies the pricetag.

Like I said already, this thing has held up great, especially for being played live often for several years. It has been well-cared for, and although it is well used, it is in like new condition.

N/A

I've been playing for only a year and a half, but I'm completely addicted to the bass. I know I will be playing as long as I have at least one finger on each hand, so I went ahead and got a bass I love playing for the rest of my days. I've got a MIJ PBass and a Squier acoustic/electric bass, and a Yorkville 10" combo amp. My Warwick definitely deserves a better amp, so that will be my next purchase.

If someone stole this bass, I would replace it with another FNA Jazzman 5. Like I said, this is the only bass I want! I compared this bass to different Warwicks, the Musicman Bongo and Stingray, and a few upper end Fender Jazz basses. This one fits me best.

Stock 93' FNA Jazzman 5, imported from Germany to Australia. This 24 fret bass is 34" scale (16.5mm string spacing for the 5 string variant) and has one MEC J pickup (neck) & MEC Musicman-style pickup (bridge).

The body is ash with a walnut/flamed maple top that looks fantastic (especially after about 3 months of weekly beeswax polish sessions). The neck is ovangkol with a wenge fretboard, which also looks very striking.

All hardware is gold in colour, and manufactured by Warwick and not a third party. Both the machine heads and 2-piece bridge and very study. From memory the bass uses Seymour Dunkin active electronics (someone confirm?), with treble/mid/bass and volume knobs. A 3-way switching selects the coil tapping configurations for the MM pickup. The volume knob can also be 'pulled-out' to boost mids for tapping work (I never use this feature and instead tailor my own sound with the EQ & amplifier settings).

All Warwicks ship with a toolkit (read: allen key set & trussrod tool), gig bag (which I immediately traded towards a flight cast) and tin of beeswax. The beeswax is recommended to be applied weekly - this protects and seals the bass (plus makes it look even more fantastic).

I primarily play funk, rock and reggae in a covers band. The Jazzman handles all these styles with ease. Sometimes my flatmate and I play Dream Theatre or metal (Pantera, Mr Bungle) and I find I can achieve a pretty good 'Stringray' sound.

I run the Warwick through a SWR SM-400S to two Eden 210XSTs (total impedance 4 Ohms). This setup is portable and plenty loud enough. I also employ several effects (EBS compression & envelope filter, Dunlop bass wah) through the effects loop.

Even at tremendous volumes, this setup is whisper quiet (no clicks when I touch the strings). I typically boost the bass and leave everything else 'centered' (including the pickup selection) for a full, punchy tone perfect for funk.

By selecting one pickup only (J or MM), and fiddling with the EQ this bass goes from one tonal extreme to another. It took me about a week to find 'my' sound, although it still sounded fantastic 'out of the box'.

My old man owns a '72 Fender J and we tested this against it (with the J pickup used only) - it's fairly close (not perfect, but close). Unfortunately, I don't have access to a Stringray so I can't test the other extreme.

One thing for sure - this bass is not one of those tonal one-trick-ponies.

The bass setup was average (ie, not high but not low either). I took it to my luthier within the first two weeks of owning it and had it setup nice and low.

One point to mention - the factory 'Black Label' strings were horibbly abrasive on my fingers and did sound slightly 'clacky'. You can't beat a set of DR Low Riders (especially after being played in for several weeks).

Everything else was perfect - the quality control is what you pay for when you cough out this much dough for a Warwick.

I've now been playing this bass for over six months without a backup. While I won't (obviously) not want to drop this guitar, it is *very* solidly constructed. This is due to the heavier woods and expert craftmanship from Warwick - it's not a cheap light-weight cannoe paddle.

I've always had my basses serviced once a year by my luthier. I generally go through 2 ~ 3 sets of strings per year (I play 1 ~ 2 hours per day, everyday).

Shipped with a 3 year warranty (although I've heard stories of people getting free replacements for pickup failures just out of waranty period).

Minus 1 point for the yucky strings - be aware of this when purchasing one.

I emailed Warwick with a query regarding fitting Dunlop straplocks and received a reply the next day (note time difference between Australia and Germany is significant).

Impressive to say the least.

(Aside: turned out my luthier was able to ground down the heads of my Warwick screws so they could fit within the Dunlop straplock 'button'. This is a better option than redrilling/plugging holes with matchstricks etc...)

I've owned ESP and Jackson basses, but this is definately a keeper for me.

The sheer tonal versitility, quality finish (and looks) keep me coming back. I now want to purchase a knock-around frettless for Jaco material, but this bass provides everything I need from a fretted instrument.

If it were stolen, I'd buy another (while cringing at the hit on my wallet).

I chose this over the Warwick Thumb due to its tonal options. Try it out & see for yourself. :D

Same as the forementioned, but 2003.

You have pretty much every knob to get tone you need. You have a blend knob to blend between the J and the humbucker, and your standard mid, bass and treb setup. You can also change how its wired with the piezo. The only problem I had was the preset for the slap contour was awful, i had to take mine to guitar center so they could tweak the electronics. It might be different for every bass, so just try it when you get it, and let them tweak it as you buy it.

This bass can get all my styles with ease. I play in a hard rock band, a funk band, and a praise band. Im running it through an ampeg b2 combo with an ampeg 4x10hlf cab. You can get dark, warm, bright, any sounds you need with this by adjusting the bass, dont even need to touch your amp settings. Great tones.

Great action when I bought it, didnt need to touch the pickups. Only thing was I needed to tweak the truss rod a bit, nothing big.

The bass is a tank, but I dont wanna scratch it:) Its a warwick, i want it to stay looking amazing. Truss rod only needed adjusting once. I wouldn't gig without a backup, I think thats a bad idea. Stuff can go wrong (strings, input, etc), I always gig with my 83 musicman and a 2002 modulus jazz as backups:)

Ive heard they reply to emails fast, but N/A for me.

Great bass, Ive been playing 3 years now. I own a Modulus jazz bass and a musicman ernie ball stingray 83'. If it was stolen or lost, Id buy it again when i got the money:) I compared this bass to 20 or so other 5 strings, fenders, spectors, warwick thumbs, modulus, G&L, and this one won easily!

The FNA Jazzman is built in 2001 in Germany. It is a 24 frets, solid top build bass. The wood is Swamp-ash and Maple body and ovankol and wenge neck
The controls are great, active seymour duncan electronics, MEC/J pickups, switch for changing the pickups and seperate bass/middle/treble.
The finish is black, but no satin finish, so you can see the wood. The bridge and trussrod are easy to adjust, even the withening of strings is possible, great feature

I'm playing in a dance classic band, so I need a variaty of sounds (soul, funk, rock, pop and disco) and this bass is by far the best in this variaty. I've tried several basses. Due to the extra neck-pickup the possibilities are tremendous. At first I wanted a ordenary FNA, but the jazzman suits me better.
Because of the many possibilities of adjusting the instrument I have the perfect setting

The setting was good, but I made some changes. First of all the string spacings is now at it's limit and I adjusted the pickups a tiny bit. The germans did a great job in the factory. I coundn't find any flaw

Thanks to the German way of working, I think this will be a bass which can last forever. One tip however, always use a case instead of a gigbag, it will be better for every bass, Warwick or not. I've got 2 basses, but I don't need to travel with the 2. I'm fully confident that the Warwick will not let me down

N/A

You can say that with a 22 year expirience that i'm not a rookie, but i'm nit the best player in the world. As I mentioned I'm playing in a dance-classic band, but my roots are Southern Rock and soul. My other gear is a Marshall 5522, 250W ampo head (have to buy a new one though, any suggestions???), a H&K 4x10" cabinet and a Marshall 15" Bassreflex cabinet. I really need a new amp. In the store where i bought the FNA I played over my own amp, but also over a hartke and Glockenklang (very expensive). The FNA sounded the best over the Glockenklang (Maybe because of the "German setup" ;-))
As soon as i played the FNA Jazzman I knew that this was the best bass I ever bought (better then 2 Ibanezzes, 1 Gibson G3, 1 Hofner and 3 more which don't need mentioning)
For all bassplayers who are looking for a really excellent allround bass and do no want to pay thousands of dollars for a good bass, the Warwick FNA Jazzman is a great solution.

Wood: Ash body (flamed maple top) in natural oil finish, ovankol neck, wenge fingerboard (fretted).
Pickups: MEC passive large pole humbucker (bridge), jazz pickup (neck).
Electronics: Seymour Duncan Basslines 3 way active preamp with slap contour preset and 3-way mini-switch for the humbucker.
Additional: Rockbag (cool!), tool kit and wax.
Made in Germany.

I 've been looking for a bass that fits into different styles, for my taste of music ranges from Soul to Hard Rock.

Among the various kinds of sound I especially prefer 3 settings:
1. dark, heavy, "killer-sound": balance control all to the humbucker, mini-switch down (parallel), basses all in, mids all out, treble all in.
2. sort of a "sixties-solo-sound": balance control somewhere in the middle, mini-switch in the middle position (single coil), bass middle, mid in, treble in.
3. warm, groovy, "allround-sound": balance control somewhere in the middle, mini-switch up (series), bass in, mid middle, treble in.

Of course the sound still depends on the amp, but I would highly recommend to test these three settings to anyone, who is thinking about buying a FNA.

All in all: It just sounds great!

So far I couldn't find any flaws at all. Maybe having a satin finish would have been a good idea, for the natural oil-finish requires waxing of the body every once in a while. But, unless I get Alzheimer's desease or something, I certainly won't forget the waxing - I love to cherish that bass!

This bass looks like a real piece of "german engineering". There's no question about its reliability. I don't even think about a backup.

I had an e-mail contact once on the question of Warwick strings. Quick reply, helpfull information in a friendly e-mail.

What can I say - full marks on everything! I really can't wait to be on stage with this bass!
(I hope the new amp I'm going to buy these days will be the same. Currently I'm still playing on my old Marshall.)

One of the 'guiding questions' above asks whether I would buy it again, if it got stolen: DEFINITELY!!!