Long story short
back in 2016 I purchased a 2004 Warwick Streamer LX 6 string bass with the sole purpose of de-fretting it since I was in dire need of a fretless. It was the smoothest transaction ever, I bought it from a good friend, bassmaster Chris Kollias from Greece.
What I didn’t expect though is to really like the way it sounded with frets! I managed to do a couple of videos, but I had made up my mind and had it de-fretted with a couple of coats of epoxy on the fretboard. Lookie here!
Fast forward a couple of years and another 200+ gigs with my beloved Thumb bass and I started to think about options for a lighter or at least a better balanced bass. The Thumb is 5,6kg/12.3pounds, in case you’re wondering. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still the Mother Of All Basses in my book, but I’ve reached an age where…
After a long battle of trying to justify to myself (and to my wife, though she actually welcomed the idea (!!)) why I’d want another bass, I started the search. It took a couple of months of digging through the internets and a couple of missed deals, but finally I struck gold(en hardware).
With the help of my friends Michi and Alberto I managed to snag this 1998, WENGE necked Streamer all the way from Italy.
Full disclosure
it cost me a whopping 850 € + 30 € shipping fees. A good price, if I do say so myself, for a bass in this condition. 6 string basses (or maybe just 6 string Warwicks?) tend to be the sellers’ nightmare, they are not exactly fashionable these days. Except from hip brands like Kiesel or Dingwall, otherwise they might be a hard sell.
I also intended to change the hardware to black, as I prefer black to golden, so that added to the cost.
- black bridge – 49,58 €
- 6 black tuners – 50,88 €
- black flush mount straplocks – 20,92 €
- 4 black knobs – 10,40 €
- 4 pickup screws – 5,12 €
I refuse to do the final math but all in all I like the bass a lot, even with its small problems that you can see in the video below. The beauty spot above the pickups is just mojo and we approve of mojo in this house.
I documented the “restoration” in my lengthiest video yet, 18+ minutes, I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed geeking out while making it.
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