# Who here uses Warwick basses but not MEC pickups?



## Whammy

Any one out there who'd care to share their experience with Warwick basses but non-MEC pickups.

The more info the better 
Like...
What bass do you have?
What's your playing style?
What are the new pickups?
How do they compare to the original and was any routing needed to make them fit?
Did you also change the pre-amp?

I'd love to know, and I'm sure many others will too


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## CaptainLuckeyBeard

I know Sean Martinez from Rings of Saturn just swapped his stock pups out for the EMG drop in replacements. He finger picks and has a pretty aggressive style. I'll ask him about the pups, but I think they're on tour so he might not respond to quickly lol. From what I could tell, he has a 5 string BO with what looked like a bubinga body. Sorry I couldn't be more help at the moment


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## Whammy

Cool. It'd be awesome to hear his opinion 

I have a Thumb 5 Bolt-on. Thinking of routing the pickups slots for soap bars size pickups. Using the MEC for nearly 10 years now and am sick of them


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## Wings of Obsidian

CaptainLuckeyBeard said:


> I know Sean Martinez from Rings of Saturn just swapped his stock pups out for the EMG drop in replacements. He finger picks and has a pretty aggressive style. I'll ask him about the pups, but I think they're on tour so he might not respond to quickly lol. From what I could tell, he has a 5 string BO with what looked like a bubinga body. Sorry I couldn't be more help at the moment


 
Sean has got a Warwick Double Buck Corvette from what I can tell. (Was just speaking with him.) And they just got OFF tour a few days ago. He swapped out the pups for some EMGs (not sure of the model).


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## MaxOfMetal

I had three Warwick Corvette Standard models around 2006/2007:

-4 String Fretless - Pickups replaced with DiMarzio Super J set. 
-4 String Fretted - Pickups replaced with DiMarzio Super J set. 
-5 String Fretted - Pickups replaced with Fralin custom set purchased on eBay (thus, I didn't spec them). 

All required zero mods to get to fit. All basses were passive, so no preamps. The Super J sets accentuated the low mids and gave the basses a really warm grumble that wasn't too boomy. Sounded great with distortion or fuzz. Thicker and more full sounding than the stock MEC. The Fralin set in the 5 was voiced rather treble heavy, which made the low B (which I often tuned down to A) clear and responsive, the higher register was a little brittle sounding, but it was still better than the almost muffled MECs. 

I've never been a fan of MEC electronics. It's not that they're poorly made, or even dreadful sounding, they just seem quite underwhelming, which is a shame as Warwicks have the potential to sound really good. 

I moved on EBMM StingRay and StingRay5 models after these and never looked back. They were a little pricier (back then, now German Warwicks are far pricier), but didn't need me to gut them to sound great. 

I still believe the Corvette Standard models were some of the best Warwick put out, and they were extremely affordable both new and used. This is making me miss my fretless 4-string.


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## DavidLopezJr

MaxOfMetal said:


> I moved on EBMM StingRay and StingRay5 models after these and never looked back. They were a little pricier (back then, now German Warwicks are far pricier), but didn't need me to gut them to sound great.


Have you by any chance been able to try a $$ Corvette?


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## ToMurderAMachine

I have a circa 1990 6 string warwick thumb that has bart's in it as opposed to the MEC's... I love it. I can't really describe my playing style though haha. All over the place perhaps?


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## MaxOfMetal

DavidLopezJr said:


> Have you by any chance been able to try a $$ Corvette?


 
I've tried the single humbucker variant from some years (~2002) back, I believe it was a limited edition. 

Sounded pretty good, but nothing like a StingRay if that's what you're getting at. I prefer the Warwicks with the J-Bass pickups more often than not. I think it's because I just prefer those pickups to most others.


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## flexkill

MaxOfMetal said:


> I prefer the Warwicks with the J-Bass pickups more often than not. I think it's because I just prefer those pickups to most others.


Yup. I was trying to sell my German made Warwick Corvette 5 with the J-Bass style PU's.....glad I didn't sell it....would have huge regrets about now. Great Bass.


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## Veldar

I'm thinking of changing out my stock pickups for the EMGs that Alex Webster uses.


_Posted from Sevenstring.org App for Android_


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## Wings of Obsidian

Veldar said:


> I'm thinking of changing out my stock pickups for the EMGs that Alex Webster uses.
> 
> 
> _Posted from Sevenstring.org App for Android_



.....have fun with that kid. EMGs are EMGs. -.-'


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## Veldar

Wings of Obsidian said:


> .....have fun with that kid. EMGs are EMGs. -.-'



Why is there so much EMG hate one this forum?


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## MaxOfMetal

Wings of Obsidian said:


> .....have fun with that kid. EMGs are EMGs. -.-'



Says someone who didn't even know what bass pickups were a week or two ago. 

Quit trolling, it's not funny anymore.


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## Wings of Obsidian

MaxOfMetal said:


> Says someone who didn't even know what bass pickups were a week or two ago.
> 
> Quit trolling, it's not funny anymore.



1.) dude, where do you get that from? I was asking for a fave configuration. I never said I didn't know anything about bass.

2.) I was just expressing the idea that the EMGs in the Webster sig are merely EMG 40 DCs which don't appear to be all that special. They are in a few other basses. I was not trolling. Nor was I expressing any malcontent towards EMGs.


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## Sepultorture

EMGS don't wlasy sound like EMGs in the case of of playing bas, it entirely depends on weather you are using all emg components or you are using a different Preamp, like the Ton Pump preamp of the Rebop/Euro basses or the HAZLABS preamp that is custom made fo rspector in their USA models

with bass it's not all the same as with guitar, mucxh more flexibility and changeability within the instrument itself

not bashin, just sayin


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## Warwick_Official

Hey guys,

We carry our basses here in the NYC custom shop of course with mostly MEC pickups, but also with other brands such as EMG, depending on the bass and our intentions for the sound.

In general, we like the sound of our MEC pickups because they are designed not to color the tone of our basses, which rely heavily on our wood quality and choice, hardware, and construction to draw their tone. That being said, MEC pickups have a tendancy to act transparently, which is a good thing for a bass of expectional quality--hence the Warwick "growl"


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## MaxOfMetal

Warwick_Official said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> We carry our basses here in the NYC custom shop of course with mostly MEC pickups, but also with other brands such as EMG, depending on the bass and our intentions for the sound.
> 
> In general, we like the sound of our MEC pickups because they are designed not to color the tone of our basses, which rely heavily on our wood quality and choice, hardware, and construction to draw their tone. That being said, MEC pickups have a tendancy to act transparently, which is a good thing for a bass of expectional quality--hence the Warwick "growl"


 
You guys are the builders, so its totally up to you how your instruments should sound out of the gate. 

Just saying, and I'm not alone, check Talkbass, changing out the pickups has turned my really good sounding Warwicks into amazing sounding Warwicks.


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## Veldar

Wings of Obsidian said:


> 2.) I was just expressing the idea that the EMGs in the Webster sig are merely EMG 40 DCs which don't appear to be all that special. They are in a few other basses. I was not trolling. Nor was I expressing any malcontent towards EMGs.



I know they aren't special pickups for him but I only know them as his pickups not by their technical names.


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## Dregg

MaxOfMetal said:


> I've never been a fan of MEC electronics. It's not that they're poorly made, or even dreadful sounding, they just seem quite underwhelming, which is a shame as Warwicks have the potential to sound really good.


Just out of curiosity: Have you tried the Warwicks that are made today, and what do you feel about them? I've been thinking of buying a Thumb one day and they seem to have made a lot of changes to that series (or maybe it was just the wood combinations, I can't remember).


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## iron blast

I use a German 6-string fretless corvette std. swapped all the Mec out for 18 volt modded Bartolini quad coils and a 4.7 A/P pre with coil tap added, And a German 5-string Corvette Fna Jazzman with stock Mec pups and 18 volt modded Aguilar Ob3 pre. I play both as well as a newer stock 5-string Warwick Rockbass Corvette in several genres of music primarily in heavy metal bands of all types. My biggest gripe with Mec pups is they seem rather sackless and anemic especially if you don't 18 volt mod them. The Bartolini's made my fretless bass come to life big time. Another huge improvement on Warwicks is getting a brass justanutIII if it doesn't have one installed already. Do yourself a favor and get it asap. It feels like you took duck tape off the strings it really opens the sound and sustane up.


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## Malkav

I agree with the general mehness of MECs, my bassist has them in his 5 string fretless Warwick and they just don't do anything wonderful at all for the tone...

Also I don't really like the adjustanut either, generally I've found every Warwick that I've seen that's had that nut replaced by a traditional bone nut or graphtech or whatever has sounded way better, the resonance and clarity were much improved.


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## angus

Dregg said:


> Just out of curiosity: Have you tried the Warwicks that are made today, and what do you feel about them? I've been thinking of buying a Thumb one day and they seem to have made a lot of changes to that series (or maybe it was just the wood combinations, I can't remember).



At a certain point, I think in the very early 2000s, they switched from wenge necks to ovangkol. The wenge-necked models have a very specific, deep dark hyper-compressed tone that most people associate with Warwicks, while the ovangkol necks IMO sound very middle of the road. The former models are 10x the instrument, imo, if that is the sound you are looking for.


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## Dregg

angus said:


> At a certain point, I think in the very early 2000s, they switched from wenge necks to ovangkol. The wenge-necked models have a very specific, deep dark hyper-compressed tone that most people associate with Warwicks, while the ovangkol necks IMO sound very middle of the road. The former models are 10x the instrument, imo, if that is the sound you are looking for.


Yeah, if I were to get a Thumb it would most certainly be one with a wenge neck (just bought another pre-Gibson Tobias recently with wenge in the neck and it feels amazing).

But according to this vid, all 2013 models have wenge necks, so that I means I either have to get a 2013 or or a pre-2000 model.


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