Warwick FNA

My bass was made in 1999 and made in Germany, like all Warwicks. It has a single humbucker, and an SD basslines preamp. The knobs, bridge and tuners are all gold plated. It has controls for bass, mid and treble, plus a volume knob which can be pulled up for 'slap mode'! At first I hated this function because all it did was make it muddy, but on the preamp there are 2 pots that can be adjusted - one is bass boost and one is mid scoop, so now it just gives it a slight extra punch, and is a cool feature. It took a while to get used to the 34" scale, but I love it now, so much room! My bass also has a drop-D tuner, which is a superb feature. The other thing I love about this bass is that everything can be adjusted - the adjust-a-nut, bridge, truss-rod, individual string height & spacing etc etc, you can get it perfect! There is nothing more I need.

I play rock and funk mainly, with some jazz. This bass is a funk machine...growls and purrs along, I love it! This is all opinion though, personally I think the Fender sound is pretty flat, Warwicks just have that edge. With all the tone knobs though, just about any sound you want. Generally I leave the bass and mid knobs in one place, and change the treble up for slap, down for fingers. If the treble control is on full it makes a hiss, but that is expected. I don't have any dislikes of the sound.

I bought this second hand, and the action was far too low, the truss rod needed to be adjusted and the frets were very tarnished (being brass). The pickup also had a little rust on it, which was easily sanded off. Once I set the thing up, polished the frets and waxed the body, it looked and sounded like new! The woods used are amazing (Swamp Ash, Maple cap and Wenge neck), and make such a unique sound. I don't know what the setup from the factory was like so I can't comment, but build quality is awesome.

The maple top seems a little soft, but the body and neck seem pretty damn solid. I'd definitely use this bass live, I couldn't deny others the pleasure of hearing it haha! Strap buttons seem solid (unlike my previous basses). The only downside is that you have to take care of it - regular waxing and polishing etc, and it will look after you. My bass has not gone out of tune in the 6 months I have owned it, except when the tuners have been bumped.I have heard about the necks being temperamental, but I guess since mine is used, it has become used to the New Zealand climate, and it is fine.

I asked a few questions via email to Dana B. Goods and they were helpful, even though I didn't buy from them and it wasn't under warranty!

I have been playing for 5 years now, and I have my dream bass. That's about all there is to it. If it were stolen, I'd find it. I wanted a bass that can do funk, and this bass IS funk. Looked at a music man, but this sounded better (and was cheaper). If oyu see this bass cheap, buy it, you won't be disappointed.

This happens to be a 2000 model, I got it toward th ebeginning of the year (2000), and I gathered that from the -00 in the end of the serial number, all of the warwicks had either -98, -99, -00, so I figured thats how to date them. Made by german robots as all warwicks are. Other than differences in the pieces of wood used (which can be drastic), warwick's are very consistent.

It is a 24 fret, 4 string, with a wenge neck and fingerboard (most other ones have an ovankol neck and wenge fingerboard, but I like the ones with wenge necks better) Swamp ash body, with a flame maple top veneered with walnut, dyed satin finish does not need waxing like the oil finish basses.

The MEC musicman style humbucker pickup is punchier, hotter, and more defined than a musicman or duncan basslines pickup, and the basslines 3 band eq/preamp really brings out the tone. Controls are volume, bass, mid, treble (eq is 15db boost/cut), and the volume knob has a push pull that activates a slap countour circuit, which boosts lows and highs, and cuts mids a bit. The pickup is passive, with active preamp. (pole peices werent grounded though, and caused a buzz when touched, more on this later)

Hardware is great, more adjustable than any other bass, even has a height adjustable nut (which sometimes hurts my left hand while playing near the low register, but I got over that), the bridge is 2 peice, super adjustable, and seems to transmit the vibrations to the body nicely, even though it does not string through. Warwick tuners are gotoh sytled, and the neck has same nut width as jazz bass, but is a little fatter, and alot more stable, even than my graphite reinforced am std jazz bass (wenge is very stable, and warwick uses steel bars to help stuffen the neck as well), By the way, it has bell brass frets, a warwick thing....

It SHOULD have come with a bag, but Guitar Center takes that out of the price, so I didnt get the bag, im gonna get a wariwck case for it eventually, but it does fit in a standard skb 44 bass case for now. It came with allen wrenches and a truss rod tool, oiled ones come with wax too.

Gets almost any sound you want, except bad ones... the wenge neck makes it real punchy, and the basslines eq is pretty killer, with the use of the slap countour, you can instantly switch from a mid heavy "flea" or jaco type sound, to a fatter slap sound with one switch. The preamp isnt very noisy, but you can hear hiss with the treble cranked, but less hiss than cranking the treble on my SWR workingmans 10, or bass350. I use it with either my swr bass350, goliath 4x10 and son of bertha 1x15, or for practice or studio I use the workingmans 10... SWR and WARWICK mixed together is the best bass sound, youll hear it in bands like 311 and incubus (eden amps similar to swr)

bass was setup extemely well, only flaw was that FNA pickups dont have grounded pole pieces, and when I anchored on them, it would buzz.

I contacted warwick and they informed me it was a design flaw, but when they fixed it, they sent me the updated pickup, it is a 10 with the new pickup, but a 9 with the one it came with

this thing is solid, and the neck rarely needs adjusting, I changed it once to change the action, but I really didnt need to (and hope I didnt damage it, dont adjust it as far as you would a fender, I didnt know that at first till I got a warwick manual)

would gig without a backup, but will always have my jazz bass in case I broke a string, until I get another warwick.

Dana B Goods (warwick usa dist) was very helpful, I emailed them about the problem with the pickup, and they got back to me, and they sent me a new pickup free of charge when it was available, they even let me know!!! I didnt have to hound them about it, and they sent me to a local shop that did it for free, but they did need a copy of the reciept, so I guess things DO have to be in warranty , and it is only 1 year, but they were very helpful. Their warranty card did say that they sometimes go beyond the 1 year warranty at their option, in some cases.

I dotn need to say much here, its all above, I would buy one again, actually I am looking into the fna jazzman next time, for the added pickup and switching, yet still have that fna tone