Reviewed by:
unregistered, on august 18, 2006
5 of 7 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Swee Lee
Features: This 2006 Warwick Rockbass Vampyre was handcrafted in China with some parts coming directly from Germany. It has 24 frets on a 34-inch scale on a rosewood fretboard. The neck and body are alder with bolt-on construction. I got mine in high-gloss black. There is a one-piece Warwick bridge and bass, treble, tone and volume controls. Active electronics are paired with a set of J-style "Gold" MEC Jazz pickups. Everything is perfect except that it would have been better with neck-thru construction. Quilted-maple top would have been good too, but that's purely visual and for the price, this bass a shockingly well-speced. Very impressive! // 9
Sound: I play this through an Ibanez 35 Watt bass amp for home practice and through Roland mixers and Tourque speaker boxes and pre-amp during rehersals. I plan to soon add DigiTech or Boss pedals in the form of Wahs and Fuzz/Distortion or maybe even a DigiTech multi-effects amp modeller if the price is right. I play mostly Korn, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. but also some classic rock songs for performances. It sounds good on all genres of music and the power never ceases to amaze anyone. Not even my bass teacher whose played countless different basses over 20 years. The low-end is incredible thanks to the B-string and more importantly the incredible pickups that come with this thing. If you use bass amps that have tweeters as well, you'll immidietly realise that this Vampyre manages equally astonishing high-pitches. Both the bass and treble outputs make this a great guitar for both Korn style A-tuned slapping as well as standard E-tuned (ignoring the 5th string) Red Hot Chili Peppers popping and slapping and scaling. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: Everything was truly exceptional except that by the time I got it the input jack was a bit loose and had to be tightened. The fret-board shined, the body was perfectly glossed, no oxidisation. Perfect. Just plug and play basically after tightening the input jack. // 9
Reliability & Durability: This appears to be one strong bass. Nothing about it suggests even the slightest bit of weakness. No Doubt on this. Strap buttons are solid but bottom one doesn't fit all straps. I recomend you test out straps before buying them. the hardware seems sturdy. Good bass! // 10
Impression: This is an excellent match for metal, funk, jazz, and even classic rock. Just plug and play. Between the pickups and the design, it's awesome. I've been playing for a few months. Been playing drums for years now. Besides this guitar, I have a BC Rich Warlock, a ESP LTD F-50, a Takamine semi-acoustic, a Admira spanish-made solid top classical guitar, and a cheap, battered Yamaha classical guitar. I also have a drumset consisting of Yamaha drums, many Sabian Cymbals, Yamaha and Tama hardware, Yamaha Flying Dragon double-kick pedals. Aside from those, a Petrof piano, a keyboard/synthesiser, two violins, and some ethnic drums.I wish I had tried on the strap before buying because not all straps fit on the uniquely shaped bottom of this bass. If it were stolen I would without doubt buy it again if I can afford to. I love the pickups and the B-string and I hate nothing. I wish it had neck-thru construction, though. I compared it to ESP LTD B-55 and B-155, Ibanez SoundGear and BTB 5-strings. This Warwick is by far better than any of those. // 10
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