Warwick Infinity SN

Made in Germany, in 2002.
4 strings.
It has 26 bell-metal frets.
A 'set' neck (glued in) made of 5 piece Ovangkol with a Wenge fretboard. 34" scale. Of quite small radius. Fret board is virtually flat.
A heavily contoured body of Zebrano (aka Zebra wood/ Zebra Wenge).
The body is 'quartered' as tone chambers have been carved into it to reduce weight/ improve the tone.
Natural finish. NOT lacquered or varnished. Needs regular waxing!
All black hardware.
Active (9v) electrics
2 Pick-ups, Neck: Single Coil (J) Bridge: Twin Coil Jazz (JJ)
Controls-
Bass/Treble- Pull up to coil tap the forward coil of the JJ Bridge pick-up.
Pick-up blend- Blends the J and JJ outputs
Volume- Pull up to activate a subtle slap contour on the Seymour Duncan Preamp.

Accessories- 2x Allen keys for bridge adjustment. 1 HUGE truss rod wrench. 1 good quality gig bag. Comprehensive manual.
This bass came strung with Warwick 'Yellow label' nickel plated strings. I estimate the gauges to be .040, .060, .080, .100

A good all-rounder of an instrument.
Warm, organic tone with excellent transient response and attack.
Dry bottom end, excellent pitch definition due to clarity of midrange tone. Shows up dead/duff strings instantly.
Dead quiet, even in front of a TV/ Monitor!
A good range of tones accessible, primarily by adding/reducing harmonic content by blending in or out the JJ bridge pick-up.
Coil tapping the bridge pick-up thins out the sound of the bridge pick-up, but this can be compensated for by using the bass/treble controls or panning toward the neck pick-up.
Equally at home in the Studio or on the stage.
Nothing at all to dislike in terms of tone/ sound quality.
One 'odd' finding- I usually wear my basses relatively high and quite tight against my chest. I find that this smothers the Infinity, which sounds better if the body is free to resonate.

Factory set-up was a little high, but the manual explains why this is, and gives valuable pointers on how to adjust to suit yoyur playing style/ preference.
Fit, finish and presentation were otherwise flawless apart from a slightly dead sounding 'A' string which transpired to be....
A dead 'A' string. A string change later, the problem went.

Seems well constructed.
Black hardware is the most durable in my experience- and I have VERY corrosive sweat, apparently.
Strap buttons are HUGE and very solid- they even de-couple them with rubber washers- They WON'T fit any straplocks, though, and judging by the size of the securing screws, Schaller ones won't fit easily.
No finish to wear off, but the body needs regular waxing (weekly), or it may dry out, and in extreme cases, crack... They DO warn you of this, though!
Zebrano is a very tough, open grained wood, and it has proven very durable thus far.

How helpful are Warwick?
They replied knowlegeably to my E-mail enquiries...
WITHIN 15 MINUTES!
Excellent!
They told me;
1) You can't use a second 9v battery in series to give 18v electrics, the active pre-amp won't take it.
2) The coil tap brings the forward coil of the bridge pick-up into play on its own. NOT the rear one as you might expect.
3) The pick-ups have blade-style pole-pieces, not individual pole-pieces for each string
4) The Neck Pick-up is a genuine single coil, not a stacked Humbucker.
5) The pull-up on the volume control IS for a 'slap' contour, not for active/passive mode.

No repairs necessary so far. My other Warwick is a '97 Streamer LX. That is still flawless after 8 years, which bodes well...

I've been playing for 12 years now. I have owned many basses in that time. Few were as good an all-rounder as this instrument.
Excellent tonal qualities, coupled with good ergonomics make it easy to play well for long periods.
Striking aesthetics are another plus point.
Chosen primarily for the fact that it was priced at least 400GBP below the cheapest online price I could find, and nearly 600 GBP below UK list price.
It has subsequently proven to be worth that and more in terms of quality of workmanship, versatility and tone.

No idea on the year. It's got 26 frets. Rainbow wood, beautiful finish.
4 stringer. came with a nice instruction manual and a thick padded case.

The sound is great. I've got some DR Red Devils on it and it's pretty bright and snappy. I'll try tapercores next time. It has a very rich, full and pure sound. Very smooth, I was surprised when I played this, it might even be good for jazz! Definitely good for rock and some funk type stuff.

Perfect. This bass has obviously been used (but it doesn't really have any dings). It's just kind of old, but in pristine condition. Absolutely no flaws in the action, fretwork, construction, nothing. Awesome work.

This thing is solid. I would trust it for another 15 years.

Not needed yet.

This is just a great bass. It has to suit your tonal needs, but if it does, it will give you everything you need and a bit more.

I was very dissappointed. The neck had warpage and the bell brass frets were worn down so low my fret man said he would have to re-lay the mahognony fret board... $500 bucks later, replaced with nickle frets, the sounds seemed to have woken it up. So far so good.

the fret job sure helped out alot. It seems to have a firmer feel to it now.
Sound is pretty good, but my knob might need wd-40

action was way off, frets worn off, got it refretted and so far has performed flaweless.

No question, this is a high maintenance bass.

6 so far

I believe it was made in 2003 because of the serial number. Mine is a 5-string model. It has zebrano body (some sort of exotic wood) with a glued-in ovangkol neck and wenge fingerboard. For the pickups, it has an MEC Twin-J pickup in the bridge position and an active MEC J pickup in the neck position. The body and the finish are imaculate. It is THE most beautiful I have ever laid my hands on. The grain of the zebrano wood on the body is gorgeous. I don't think any pictures would do this bass justice. You just have to see and feel it to believe it. It has 3 knobs. The first one closest to the neck is push-pull, stacked pickup/pan volume control. The manual describes what this knob does perfectly, so I will just quote the manual. "Pulling on the volume knob will activate the slap contour EQ curve on the Seymour Duncan Basslines Preamp. This curve will boost the bass frequencies and the high frequencies, while slightly cutting the mid frequencies. The balance control allows you to blend the signal between the two pickups" The middle knob is a mid tone control and the rear knob is a stacked knob with a few functions. The rear TOP knob boosts or cuts the treble and the BOTTOM knob boosts or cuts the bass. Now pulling the top knob will coil tap the bridge pickup which will turn the Twin-J pickup into a singe-J pickups. So basicaly, it has tons of tonal options ans they all SOUND AWESOME!!!

This bass will definitely do almost any style with ease and with full-bodied tone. I've gone from Incubus bass style, to Tool, to Rage Against The Machine with no tonal limitations. This bass is dead quiet so you don't have to worry about any type of noise issues coming from the bass. If you have noise, you can rule out the bass itself. The sound is huge and the bottom end can go from boomy to punchy depending on where you want to take it. Now this is a what a bass should be!!!

I purchased the bass from a guy on eBay and I feel kind of bad for the guy because I bought it at such a low price. It was a gem of a find. He must have known what he was doing because he shipped it to me with the strings loosened just in case the bass might have taken a fall during shipping, preventing the neck from snapping. When I first opened the soft case it came in, I just couldn't believe the finish on this bass. It really is something of beauty. This bass was in MINT condition. The action on the bass at the 12th fret I would say was just a bit high, but not ridiculous high. I wasn't sure if it was because of the climate change from where it came from or what. It came from Delaware and I live in west Texas. The climate change might have had something to with it. The high action was not an issue though, it still played like a dream. The bass has absolutely no flaws. I can't recommend this bass enough. Looking at it will inspire you to pick it up and play the sucker. It's KILLER!!! I'm giving this category an 10 because even though the action was a little bit high when I got it, my local guitar guy had this bass set up in a jiffy and playing even better than it did before. The Infinity is also very comfortable to play. Might sound weird but this thing is really ergonomic. If your local store has Warwick basses in stock, check them out, you won't be disappointed.

I have one thing to say in this category. If you have ever owned less expensive basses, you WILL know the difference when you pick this Infinity up. It just feels so rock solid. I have a Fender bass also and have played several other basses, but the quality of this Warwick far surpasses any of them. You will know where your extra money went. I don't think I will have any problems with this bass. If I could rely on strings not breaking (I know bass strings don't often break, but it can happen) I would definitely gig without a backup. No need with this tank.

I haven't had to deal with Warwick's customer support so I can't rate this.

If it were stolen or lost, I would cry until I saved up enough money to buy another one. This is definitely my dream bass and could not be happier with it. I love everything about this bass. The finish, the tone, the playablity, and the options are just outstanding. Trust me, try out the cheaper basses, then try a Warwick, you will know where your money went. QUALITY!!!