MusicRadar

Our test model has bubinga wings although a swamp ash model is available

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

This is an extremely powerful bass. Pulling up on the volume knob bypasses the onboard preamp, and this, coupled to all the other features, makes the versatility of sounds available from this hybrid passive/active machine quite exceptional.

If you think having just a two-band EQ is inadequate then think again; the tone circuit is perfectly matched for the job and as each control has a centre detent you can feel as well as hear where things are set.

As good as these tone controls undoubtedly are, by making use of the mini switches and treating each pickup in a separate way you can achieve various sound options even before you take advantage of the active circuitry provided. These switches even allow for hum cancelling should you find it necessary. For each pickup the switches work thus: up, humbucking in series; middle, single-coil (but still hum-cancelling, presumably by using one of the other coils as a dummy coil) down, humbucking in parallel wiring. So it's not hard to appreciate that mixing the switch settings with the EQ, or even with the volume on bypass, the Double Buck is obviously well provided for tonally.

In certain basses this sort of tonal complexity can mean loss of good old fashioned bottom end, but for those of you worried that these fat traditional bass tones will be absent please rest assured that with the neck pickup switch up, the bridge one down, treble rolled off and bass control fully on you're going to get as much full-on bass tone as you - or any amp - will want to handle. As for cleaning things up, there's so much here to focus your sound, (particularly in those hollow sound areas, sweet spots and upper mids) you're going to be spoilt for choice. With so much power seemingly to hand even the single-coil and passive settings can offer some extremely worthwhile sounds delivered with punch and tonal precision.

The close proximity of the two pickups does mean that the hollows are slightly less dynamic and a little harder to isolate, but well worth experimenting with. Finding your way around will take a while before it becomes second nature, but as always this necessary exploration is immensely enjoyable as you continually make new tonal discoveries along the way.

The keyword here is flexibility in both sound and general attack. One humbucker is good but doubling your buck apparently proves to be much more than twice as effective. This is a whole new tonal experience.

Conclusions

Any new bass from Warwick is enough to get the blood pumping, but a new configuration to the highly popular Corvette range is particularly exciting: this through-neck construction with twin humbuckers is well worth getting worked up about. Its design is neat and compact, yet in spite of this general lack of bulk it remains stunningly full-blooded in sound, very powerful and has excellent projection qualities. What it represents in real terms is a bass that has the potential to make any player shine whatever his or her preference of style.