Warwick RB Alien Standard 4 FL NT

great quality instrument

I'm no longer a gigging bassist, so this is for home studio recording only.

Only four stars for features rather than five for the following reasons:

The Fishman preamp sounds great but it is very limited. Just volume & tone which is not a problem in itself, but the tone control is very subtle & doesn't do a whole lot, so there is no great tonal variety, it just does what it does. Luckily it sounds great!

One good thing is that the fret lines actually go around the side of the neck, so can be easily viewed from the playing position, this is a nice touch. Also the gigbag is quite nice quality, pretty decently padded.

But less forgivable is the strap pin situation. Firstly, you only get one. This is a bit stingy in itself (such an instrument would definitely need two, I wouldn't want to trust a shoelace on this neck) but there's more...you have to fit it yourself! Yes that's right, you have to drill the hole and fit the strap pin yourself. They do give you a spare battery which is nice to have but I would rather have a second strap pin than a second battery...and have them fitted please! Come on Warwick! This is not good enough!

Overall however it's a beautifully made instrument & sounds lovely so full marks for the important stuff, which is the sound & the feel.

I can't wait to put some flatwounds on this baby and see what she says :)