Warwick Fortress One 5-String

Mine is a 1996 Greman made 5 string with active electronics. This bass is a MUST for every pro bass player.

This bass is a real DOG. It growls and barks! But it does it all. From jazz to reggae to punk to metal. I own 7 bass' including a Fender Jazz 5, Ibanez BTB 5 and Fender P 4 which are among my favoriate but the Fortress is "all that!"

Finish is like an expensive piece of furniture and the neck is uniquelly chunky. The strings are a bit closer together than most basses and takes a little getting use to. Factory setup was a horror so I did the setup myself. I like a very close setup and there is no buzz at all. The volume control was no good so I found the company that supports Warwick on the West Coast and they sent me a replacment pod at no cost. It was very easy to change now it's perfect again. Don't know why they stopped making this bass.

This bass was made to last. Just like my German made car, this thing will out last most of us without a problem.
I take it on gigs by itself with no doubts. It comes with it's own strap locks which are well made. Hardware is great especially the adjustable brass nut. Truss rod holds adjustments forever (I adjust about once a year).

Support is great

Best investment you'll ever make!

german made in 1994.
24 bell brass frets, solid flamed maple body with very thin lacquer layer (honey tint). Factory straplocks 3 points.
3 pieces wenge neck (very thick) with wenge fingerboard, wenge laminated headstock. bell brass nut with adjustable height. 2 pieces fortress bridge with 3 direction adjustments.
twin jazz PU set (MEC "dynamic correction") with switchable active electronics (push/pull volume knob), bass and treble knobs (active only).

the sound is amazing, probably due to the thick wenge neck, powerful and even (like naturally compressed), very versatile because of the twin jazz Pickup set (by the way, it could be a good idea to change them for higher quality PU's). You can play any style of music with it, from thrash to jazz, funk, anything...
Nice growl and smooth bridge pickup sound, a little lack of bass depth though, easily compensated with any kind of amp (I use it with a very cheap peavey TKO 80). Neck pickup ideal for old style funk sound : very round.
The slap tone is incredible, even in passive mode, thanks to the bell brass frets, hard fingerboard and solid maple body...
It has the sound of a two or three times more expensive bass...

everything is perfect (quality of the hardware, very low action) but the neck is really too thick for me, although I'm sure it plays an important role in the quality of the sound. The finishing lacquer of the body is strange, too thin. It lacks protection.
The strings are too close together to easily pop the D string...too bad.

except for the body finishing, it's very sturdy and reliable. Stays in tune, even outside if it's cold or wet. I had absolutely no need to adjust the trussrod. I usually don't have a backup.

--

this is probably the best value bass I never played with, bought it two years ago. Too bad it's not made anymore by warwick (there is a rockbass fortress however, which doesn't look so good, never tried it though).
What can I say : it's beautiful, rock solid, it has a terrific sound, and it's cheap. If you find one just buy it!

This is a review about a german made Warwick Fortress one, five string. It's a maple solid maple body (oil finished) with wenge neck. It has two MEC jazz pickups and passive electronics.
It has a tone-tone-volume-volume knob configuration and came with a really sturdy warwick gig bag.

Bottomline with warwick basses is: If you like the warwick sound, you'll love any german made warwick (the asian warwicks suck). Warwick uses only quality tonewood and hardware. If you don't like the warwick sound, no matter what you do with your bass, don't buy a warwick.

If you'll buy a jazz setup wariwck, you'll have a jazz bass with the warwick sound. You can't go wrong with a warwick. The only thing about warwicks is their pickups and electronics.

Warwick has it's own pickup brand called MEC. In my opinion these pickups aren't as good as they should be for a high qualtiy instrument like a warwick bass. The sound of the pickups is warm nor bright. It misses punch and definition.

If you have a warwick, the best thing to do is to update the electronics and pickups. If you'll upgrade a 5 string warwick jazz, note that warwick uses two bridge size pickups. If you have active electronics and want to keep your bass active, update the electronics to bartolini, demeter, john east or aguilar.

The B string isn't the best I've heard. This also depends what kind of amp and speaker you're using, but overall the B string is sometimes sloppy and a little less loud. But these are common problems with bolt-on medium scale necks. Nothing to worry about and nothing a regular person would notice.

The bass came set up from the importer like hell. I brought it back to the shop. It turned out my truss rod wasn't working, but they fixed it. I have done most other setups myself, the neck needed almost no adjustment in 6 six years.

The bass is ultra reliable. It has never failed me. I've taken it gigging, travelling and recording.

Fast replies to emails concerning electronics. Good customer support from the importer in Holland.

I've been playing eight years now. Recently I sold my warwick in order to have a custom bass built. Too bad I'm a little short on money sometimes, but it had to go. I wouldn't have sold it, if I had the money.

Overall the bass was good quality for its money, the warwick MEC pickups and electronics weren't worth this quality bass. If you buy a warwick, spend the extra buck of updating the electronics to make this bass come alive.

Too bad warwick is becoming kind of expensive nowadays. They have increased the prices a whole lot, since they also put out the Asian warwick line.

I got one of the last Fortress-One's to roll out of the factory. I don't know why they are discontinuing it. I guess sluggish sales, I don't know why more people didn't buy this bass. I think it's amazing. Wenge/Ovankal neck, 24 bell brass frets, just-a-nut, sealed warwick chrome tuners, 2 piece maple body with just a hint of flame, nirvana black satin finish, chrome hardware, built in strap locks, 2 MEC "J" type pickups, Volume, Bass, Treble and Blender knobs, and that killer Warwick Bridge. The top horn of the bass is extended, for added balance. I think it works, this bass is very comfortabel to play standing. And It kind of bears a resemblance to a Rickenbacker, which to me is pretty cool. The body cavity covers and truss rod cover are accessable without a screw driver. That is a cool feature, especially when you have active electronincs and have to perodically change the batterty. The other review mentioned that the volume was push-pull for active/passive operation. I didn't know that...i'll have to check it when I get home. The only thing I wish this bass had was a mid-range knob. As it is you need to fiddle with the mid on your amp. Not really a big deal really.

I've used this bass for styles ranging from jazzy, blusy rock, to noisey avant-gard indie rock, to hardcore and punk, to pop...lots of stuff. It's got a lot of sounds in it. The pickups are very quiet, and the battery lasts quite a long time. I've done the woffie Beatle bass thing to the bright, cutting Rickenbacker thing and it sounds good. Acoustically, that bass is very loud. With distortion this bass rules. Overall the sound is very warm and very thick. I don't know if you could get a thin sound out of this bass, especially the low B. Whenever I hit that low B I catch my guitar player cracking a smile. It rumbles, for sure. I haven't tried to get a "thin" sound out if this bass, but I don't know if you could. That might be good or bad depending on what you want, but I haven't missed it. I haven't recorded with it yet, but live...holy cow! I'm not even playing through a parterculary monster rig - just a peavy kb-300.

It came out of the bag with great action, a good battery, and honestly almost in tune! I haven't adjusted anything and i've been playing the bass every day for about 3 months now. I don't even remember what a 4-string feels like. All the routings were clean, all the hardware was tight, the intonation was perfect against my strobe tuner, I couldn't find a flaw on it. The finish is a cool nirvana black satin stain. Very nice. Looks very cool on stage. Or at least in pictures of me on stage. This bass was obviously assembled with care.

So far it's held up to my crazy schedule of practice and gig without even blinking. In 3 months I've had to replace the battery once and the strings once. Stainless steal rules! I never woried about the strap coming off before, but the built in strap locks are a nice touch. No droping this bass for sure. The neck and intonation have stayed perfect. No loose knobs, scratchy pots, weird electronics, nothing like that. A really solid instrument. The stain finish and raw neck actually seem to get better the more I play it, especially the back of the neck.

I've never dealt with customer service, so I can't say. I don't forsee any problems with this bass that I won't directly cause myself. :)

This bass isn't perfect, but it's damn close. The exteneded top horn balances this bass very well. The neck is much thicker than an earnie ball or a fender...but it's a good kind of chunk. Some people don't like that. I love it. It's not really heavy, but it is a touch on the heavy side. The sound is just amazing. Like I said, the only thing that I think it could use would be a mid-range knob, but really thats a minor point. Overall I'm very happy with this bass. I hardly even touched any of my other ones since I got this bass. It's what I was looking for for a very long time.

This bass is a German made bass. Warwick are known for their great basses and this is no exception. It's a 2-peice maple body (with traces of flamed maple) and 3 peice ovangkol neck (34") with wenge fingerboard, the neck feels sleek and great. probably the best feeling neck I've ever played. Pickups are MEC dynamic correction passive with MEC II preamp. controls are volume, blend, bass and treble (15 dBl +/-), there is also a push/pull on the volume for active/passive. It's a beutiful natural oil finish and the maple looks great. warwick's adjustable nut hight is really great and ads a lot to the feel, bridge can be adjusted to hight, intonation and spacing. Accesories included were a gigbag, tools, a can of bee wax to preserve the finish and strap locks.

With this bass I can play virtually anything, from heavy metal to cold jazz and to the craziest fusion sounds I can find. the only problem is when playing certain stuff you have to tweek the mid range control on your amp to make it sound really the way you want. I run it through a BBE 383 bass preamp and an ADA poweramp and it sounds great on every setting there. The only problem with the sound is the lack of mid control, this bass is very midy but except for that it can sound anyway you want it.

The bass was set-up nucely for most bassist out of the shop but I needed some changes in action and spacing (the bridge is one hell of a peice of work with that amazing spacing control) but that's just because I play quite weirdly. There was one flaw in it: the treble control was making strange noises when you played with it but it's a known warwick circuit problem and I fuxed it myself in no time. the nut is great too, you can adjust it's hight and it helps a lot to reduce buuzes if your a violent player.

With this bass there's no need for back-up. it's been through tough live and studio playing and it seems like a bass for a lifetime. Because the Ovangkol neck is almost not subject to climat changes it almost don't need any adjustment. Battery lasts forever too.

Never used them. 1 year warrenty

I've been playing for a 7 years and played many basses in my life but this one is probably one of the bast basses I've played. great sound great feel, I just wish I didn't ask for gold hardwear... a mid range control coul'd be nice too but I can buy this one and install it with no problem.