Warwick (company)

Last updated
Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG
Company type Private
Industry Musical instruments
Founded Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany (1982;42 years ago (1982))
FounderHans-Peter Wilfer
Headquarters Markneukirchen, Germany
Area served
Global
Products
OwnerHans-Peter Wilfer
Divisions Framus
Website warwick.de

Warwick is a German bass guitar manufacturing company. Warwick basses were originally a premium brand offering a small range of models built from high quality and exotic tonewoods. The company also produces valve and FET amplifiers, speaker cabinets, bass guitar strings, and is the owner of the Framus trademark. Their headquarters and custom shops are located in Markneukirchen, Shanghai, and Nashville.

Contents

History

Warwick was founded in 1982 in Erlangen, in the German state of Bavaria, by Hans-Peter Wilfer. In 1995 the company moved to Markneukirchen in the Saxon Vogtland to capitalize on the centuries-old tradition of instrument building in the region and to reopen the Framus trademark. In addition, the company has developed an extensive distribution network throughout Germany and Austria to represent and distribute products from musical instruments and equipment companies from Europe and the United States.

Company specifics

Environmental protection

Warwick produces its instruments and amplifiers using carbon-neutral principles. Any other manufacturing process is carbon-neutral as well. [1] [2] [3] The company is purchasing its wood from sustainable sources (certified by the Forest Stewardship Council) [4] and produces all the electricity it needs through its own natural-gas-powered plant, solar roof-mounted facilities, a boiler fueled by wood waste from its guitars and wind power. [2] [5]

Warwick is operating according to the guidelines of European Unions Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, which is a voluntary environmental management instrument designed to continuously improve companies' environmental performance. [6]

Training courses

In the past, the company hosted the "Warwick Bass Camp", where participants from all over the world were given the opportunity to join training courses and learn from notable bass players such as Victor Wooten, John Patitucci, Lee Sklar, Stuart Hamm, Alphonso Johnson, Dave Ellefson, Hellmut Hattler, Ryan Martinie or Gary Willis. [3] [7] [8] [9]

Basses

Custom Shop / MasterBuilt models

Warwick produces a variety of different models with different woods and electronics. The original series, which are manufactured in Germany, include the Corvette, Streamer, Thumb SC, and Dolphin. The only model in the original catalog made outside of Germany is the Alien acoustic bass, built in Korea.

Limited Editions

Warwick Infinity model Warwick Infinity.jpg
Warwick Infinity model

In 2001, Warwick began making Limited Edition instruments; every year, distinctive features are added to one production model, and built in limited quantities, starting with the Thumb BO Bass. [10] Upgrades include exotic woods, different pickups and electronic configurations, and custom finishes.

As well, there are around forty Special Edition bass models in production. These basses are usually upgraded versions of standard models that have features otherwise unavailable.

Examples include the Thumb BO (ovangkol neck and body back and bubinga pommele top, with 2mm of swamp ash laminated between, and ebony fretboard; 150 built for 2001) and the FNA Jazzman in walnut and swirly bubinga (200 built for 2002).

Signature Series

Jack Bruce playing a Warwick Thumb bass model, Frankfurt, Germany, October 2006 JackBruce & fretless bass.jpg
Jack Bruce playing a Warwick Thumb bass model, Frankfurt, Germany, October 2006

In 2019, Warwick produced 13 models of signature bass. Present and past models have included those for Jack Bruce (Cream), [11] [12] [13] Bootsy Collins, T.M. Stevens, Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Jonas Hellborg, [14] Adam Clayton (U2), John Entwistle (The Who) [7] [15] and Jäcki Reznicek (Silly).

P-Nut of 311 has three signature basses, all Streamer models.

The Stuart Zender (Jamiroquai) signature bass is designed by Zender, and features a body shape new to Warwick basses.

Warwick also built custom fretless seven-string Thumb NT basses for Jeroen Paul Thesseling. [16] [17]

Pro Series ("TeamBuilt")

Warwick Teambuilt Pro Series Corvette Bubinga 4-String Warwick Teambuilt Pro Series Corvette Bubinga 4-String new.jpg
Warwick Teambuilt Pro Series Corvette Bubinga 4-String
Warwick Star Bass model Warwick Star Bass (by Don Wright).jpg
Warwick Star Bass model

The Pro Series instruments are crafted in the same German factory as the Custom Shop models. Fewer unusual woods are employed, and options for finish and hardware are more limited, keeping pricing lower. Models include the Corvette, Streamer, Thumb, and Star bass.

Rockbass ("Standard")

Consumer-level Rockbass models are made in China, using less exotic woods and simpler finishes. These basses are the Streamer, Corvette, Fortress, Vampyre, Star Bass, Triumph, and Alien acoustic; the Rockbass Alien is the only Rockbass model that looks different from the original.

Rockbass Artist Line

The Rockbass Artist Line produces affordable signature models, also made in China. These include the Robert Trujillo four- and five-string; the Bootsy Collins SpaceBass; the Steve Bailey four-, five-, and six-string; the P-Nut four- and five-string; and the Jack Bruce and Adam Clayton models.

Strings

Warwick produces strings for electric, Acoustic and their own Triumph model.
Electric Bass

Acoustic Bass
For Acoustic basses they only produce 2 kind of strings.

Triumph Bass For their own Reissue of the Triumph bass they have their own strings to match it.

Amps & cabinets

Warwick produces a variety of bass-combos, ampheads and cabinets, including a signature Jonas Hellborg ampsystem.

In 2014, the Amps and Cabinets were this: [18]

Combos:

  • BC 10 Combo 8
  • BC 20 Combo 8
  • BC 40 Combo 10
  • BC 80 Combo 12
  • BC 150 Combo 15
  • BC 300 Combo 15

Ampheads:

  • WA 300 (with and without sleeve)
  • WA 600 (with and without sleeve)
  • LWA 1000 (with silver and black surface)
  • Hellborg Mono Power 500W
  • Hellborg Stereo Power 2x250W
  • Hellborg Preamp

Cabinets:

  • 2x10" Cabinet
  • 8x10" Cabinet
  • WCA 115 (with wheels or without/in 4Ω or 8Ω)
  • WCA 410 (with wheels or without/in 4Ω or 8Ω)
  • WCA 610 (with wheels in 4Ω or 6Ω)
  • JH Club Cab 1×15"
  • JH Lo Cab 1×15"
  • JH HC 2×12"
  • JH BC 2×15"

Discontinued amps:

  • Warwick ProFet 3.x
  • Warwick ProFet 5.x
  • Warwick Quad IV
  • Warwick Quad VI
  • Warwick Tupepath 5.x
  • Warwick Tupepath 10.x
  • Warwick X-Treme 5.x
  • Warwick X-Treme 10.x
  • Warwick Blue Cab series
  • Warwick Sweet series
  • Warwick CCL series

Warwick players

Signature Artists: [19]

Adam Clayton with Warwick Star Bass, 2010 Adam Clayton.jpg
Adam Clayton with Warwick Star Bass, 2010

Artists: [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass guitar</span> Electric plucked string instrument

The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The bass guitar most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also relatively popular, and bass guitars with even more strings or courses have been built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely come to replace the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, the inclusion of frets in most models, and, most importantly, its design for electric amplification. This is also because the double bass is acoustically compromised for its range in that it is scaled down from the optimal size that would be appropriate for those low notes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guitar</span> Fretted string instrument

The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickenbacker</span> Guitar manufacturer based in California

Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars, with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and basses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. F. Martin & Company</span> American guitar manufacturer established in 1833

C.F. Martin & Company is an American guitar manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. It is highly respected for its acoustic guitars and is a leading manufacturer of flat top guitars and ukuleles. The company has also made mandolins and tiples, as well as several models of electric guitars and electric basses, although none of these other instruments are still in production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acoustic bass guitar</span> Type of acoustic instrument

The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar and the double bass, the acoustic bass guitar commonly has four strings, which are normally tuned E-A-D-G, an octave below the lowest four strings of the 6-string guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonas Hellborg</span> Swedish bassist

Jonas Hellborg is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Anders Johansson, Ginger Baker, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaganesh, Jeff Sipe, Mattias IA Eklundh, Public Image Ltd, and Buckethead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Trujillo</span> American bassist (born 1964)

Roberto Agustín Miguel Santiago Samuel Trujillo Veracruz is an American musician who has been the bassist for heavy metal band Metallica since 2003. He first rose to prominence as the bassist of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies from 1989 to 1995, while also collaborating with Suicidal Tendencies frontman Mike Muir for funk metal supergroup Infectious Grooves. After leaving Suicidal Tendencies, he performed with Ozzy Osbourne, Jerry Cantrell, and heavy metal band Black Label Society. Trujillo joined Metallica in 2003 and is the band's longest-serving bassist. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Metallica in 2009.

Stuart Patrick Jude Zender is an English bassist. He is best known as a former member of the band Jamiroquai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hohner</span> German musical instrument manufacturer

Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner (1833–1902). It is a subsidiary of Matth. Hohner AG. The roots of the Hohner firm are in Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg. Hohner has manufactured a wide range of instruments, such as harmonicas, kazoos, accordions, recorder flutes, melodicas, banjos, electric, acoustic, resonator and classical guitars, basses, mandolins and ukuleles. Hohner is known mostly for its harmonicas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric upright bass</span>

The electric upright bass (EUB) is an instrument that can perform the musical function of a double bass. It requires only a minimal or 'skeleton' body to produce sound because it uses a pickup and electronic amplifier and loudspeaker. Therefore, a large resonating structure is not required to project the sound into the air. This minimal body greatly reduces the bulk and weight of the instrument. EUBs must always be connected to an amplifier and speaker cabinet to produce an adequate audible sound. The EUB retains enough of the features of the double bass so that double bass players are able to perform on it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guitarrón mexicano</span> Mexican acoustic bass instrument

The guitarrón mexicano (Spanish for "big Mexican guitar", the suffix -ón being a Spanish augmentative) or Mexican guitarrón is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican six-string acoustic bass guitar played traditionally in Mariachi groups. Although similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de uña ("fingernail[-plucked] bass"). Because its great size gives it volume, it does not require electric amplification for performances in small venues. The guitarrón is fretless with heavy gauge strings, most commonly nylon for the high three and wound metal for the low three. The guitarrón is usually played by doubling notes at the octave, a practice facilitated by the standard guitarrón tuning A1 D2 G2 C3 E3 A2. Unlike a guitar, the pitch of the guitarrón strings does not always rise as strings move directionally downward from the lowest-pitched string (A2, which is the 6th string from the lowest-pitched string, is a perfect 5th below its adjacent string E3).

<i>Guibourtia</i> Genus of tropical trees

Guibourtia is a flowering plant genus in the family Fabaceae, also known by the common names as Rhodesian copalwood, African Rosewood, amazique, bubinga, kevazingo, and ovangkol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Framus</span> German string instrument manufacturer

Framus is a German string instrument manufacturing company, that existed from 1946 until 1975. The Framus brand was revived in 1995 as part of Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG, in Markneukirchen, Germany. The company's has offices located in Markneukirchen, Shanghai and Nashville.

An extended-range bass is an electric bass guitar with a wider frequency range than a standard-tuned four-string bass guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leland Sklar</span> American bassist (born 1947)

Leland Bruce Sklar is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section, which supported so many of Asylum Records' artists that they became known as Asylum's de facto house band, as those artists became iconic singer-songwriters of the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeroen Paul Thesseling</span> Musical artist

Jeroen Paul Thesseling is a Dutch fretless bass player, most famous for his work in the German progressive death metal band Obscura and the Dutch progressive death metal band Pestilence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streamer bass</span>

The Streamer bass is a bass guitar manufactured by the Warwick company and launched in 1982.

Warwick Corvette is a line of bass guitars manufactured by the German Warwick bass company. The Corvette is one of the most popular Warwick basses. Among the more distinctive Corvette players are Erlend Caspersen and Hansford Rowe. Despite its similarity in woods and aesthetics to the Thumb bass, it has a drastically different feel, tone, and ergonomics. It is one of the most distinctive Warwick basses.

The Thumb SC is a bass guitar manufactured by the Warwick company. It is the first Warwick bass with the single cut design.

References

  1. "Climate Partner Database". ClimatePartner GmbH. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Wacker, Dirk (January 16, 2014). "Musicon Valley: The Home of German Lutherie". Premier Guitar . Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Herrera, Jonathan (September 30, 2013). "Warwick Bass Camp 2013: The Best of the Bass". Premier Guitar . Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  4. "FSC Certificate Database". Forest Stewardship Council. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  5. Hromadko, Jan (March 2, 2014). "German Companies Take Back the Power". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  6. "EMAS Registration Database". European Union/Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Wetzel, Michael (September 11, 2013). "Video: German Warwick Bass Guitars". Deutsche Welle TV . Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved May 29, 2018 via YouTube.
  8. Falkowski, Jens (September 20, 2013). "Bass Camp". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  9. Linn, Robin (September 22, 2014). "Desert Rock Chronicles: Bassist/Producer Scott Reeder Helps Spread Desert Rock Around the World". Coachella Valley Independent. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  10. "The beginning of Warwick Limited Edition". Warwick. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  11. Abdo, David (April 6, 2012). "Warwick Jack Bruce Survivor Bass Review". Premier Guitar . Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  12. D'Auria, Jon (May 5, 2014). "Jack Bruce: The Silver Lining". Premier Guitar. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  13. Osweiler, Rich/Rotondi, James (June 8, 2012). "Spectrum Road – Fusing Muses". Premier Guitar . Retrieved May 8, 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. Friedland, Ed (June 2008). "Jonas Hellborg: Take the Reins". JazzTimes . Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  15. Entwistle, John. Bass Culture: The John Entwistle Guitar Collection. Sanctuary Publishing, London 2004, ISBN   978-1-86074-593-5.
  16. Amador, Valery (2011-07-01). "Warwick releases Jeroen Paul Thesseling's 7-string fretless bass". Bassmusicianmagazine.com. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  17. Johnson, Kevin (2011-11-17). "Ultra Low: An Interview with Jeroen Paul Thesseling". Notreble.com. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  18. "Bass Cabinets". Warwick. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  19. 1 2 "Artists". Warwick. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  20. Jisi, Chris (May 7, 2015). "Tony Garnier: The Song Whisperer". Bass Player . Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  21. Villano, Freddy (January 22, 2015). "Troy Sanders Keeps it Low & Rocking with Mastodon". Bass Player . Retrieved May 29, 2018.