Warwick Introduces Artist Series Steve Bailey Bass
As part of their new line this year, Warwick has introduced the Artist Series Steve Bailey bass. Available in 4-, 5- and 6-string versions, the bass shares many of the specs of his Signature Series bass and is based on Warwick’s Streamer bass, with modifications to improve access to the upper register of the neck.
The bass is built with a swamp ash body, bolt-on ovangkol neck, and tigerstripe ebony fingerboard. Though Bailey is known for his fretless playing, the new model has both fretless and fretted options.
Pickups vary based on the number of strings. The 4-string sports a pair of active Seymour Duncan J-pickups and the 5- and 6-stringers have active soapbars. Each of the basses is fitted with Seymour Duncan Steve Bailey active 2-way electronics.
Hardware includes Warwick’s 2-piece bridge, Warwick tuners, and security locks.
The Warwick Artist Series Steve Bailey Bass has MSRPs of $2,439 for the 4-string, $2,789 for the 5-string, and $3,159 for the 6-string. For more info, check out the Warwick website.
Warwick Steve Bailey Artist Series Specs:
- Construction: Bolt-On
- Available as: 4-, 5- and 6-string
- Right Handed Only
- Fretted or fretless
- Tuners: Warwick Machine heads
- Nut: Just a Nut III
- Scale: 34? (long scale)
- Frets: 24 Jumbo Bronze frets
- Fingerboard: Tigerstripe Ebony
- Neck: Ovangkol
- Body: Swamp Ash
- Finish Available In: Black High Polish
- Pickups: Seymour Dunan active 4-String J/J, 5-String and 6-String Seymour Duncan active Soapbars
- Electronics: Seymour Duncan Steve Bailey active 2-way
- Volume Balance stacked P/P slap preset / Treble Bass stacked P/P for Mute
- Bridge: Warwick 2-piece
- Warwick security locks
- Hardware Color: Chrome
- Weight: 4-string: 9.2 pounds (4.2 kg); 5-string: 10.3 pounds (4.7 kg); 6-string: 11.7 pounds (5.3 kg)
- “Deluxe” RockBag included
oh god this bass just looks terrible. it is like impossible to play these warwick instruments. the height of the body´s surface and that of the fretboard at the neck joint are divided by lightyears. well the Fender take on the steve bailey bass sucked too, and hard. what the fuck is wrong with manufacturers nowadays?
$3,000 for a bolt on bass with minimal tone shaping and its ugly to boot? I’ll stick with my Schecter Stiletto Studio 6 thanks very much.
Meh, thought it was a misshapen Fender at first. Hate to say, but Warwick can’t build good bolt-on basses. Thank whatever-deity for the Thumb NT, but they haven’t produced anything playable since the old Fortress.
Oskar: Nu är du väl ändå lite väl taskig ;)
@[792693842:2048:Johannes Olofsson] Inte då!
lol…I was just getting ready to argue with this post til the last line…since I have a Fortress!
I’ve got an old 1991 Warwick 5-string bolt on. Threw a Kahler whammy on it, and only break it out for fun. Neck is too thick…
I like it, I have a warwick and it’s nice to play.
I disagree with the bolt-on remarks – I have been plenty pleased with my fretless Corvette Std (the old one, with the wenge neck); it feels and sounds terrific. (My main axes are still Zons though, the Warwick is a bit heavy, and I don’t like sweating on bare wood….)
I don’t see what’s wrong with having a bass that doesn’t look like a Fender. I think this is a beautiful guitar. Besides, form follows function. Have you actually played one of these basses?
Anyway, I’m diggin it. I’ve played one of these basses and its great. Still, I agree with Karl — for the money, I can purchase a good variety of Schecter and Ibanez basses. I would have a myriad of tones available to me as well, and the playability would probably be better as well.
For my $1600, I’ll build my own fretless Warmoth Gecko 6 with custom Nordstrand “ultrajazz” pickups… :)
Wowee, we’re at the point where we’re charging $3G for a Korean made bass? Yikes. This is, however, a significant price improvement over the $11,000 list price (granted) of the German made model, which differs only be country of construction and fingerboard wood. I’ve never understood the pricing of super-expensive bolt-on basses. Ditto with the new Jimmy Earl signature.
I think the bass is ugly only because of the pickguard (ditto for the aforementioned JE sig).
I wonder how much the NT Trujillo bass will cost of this BO job is ~$3G?