Warwick RockBass Infinity 5 Fretless

Review: Warwick RockBass Infinity 5 Fretless - five-string fretless bass guitar at the edge of the lower-middle and middle class

CONTENTS

Overall rating

If you set your criteria as I do (see below), you don't have much choice in 5-string fretless basses (in EU). My choice was quickly focused on just two - Warwick RB Infinity and Ibanez SRF705. I chose Warwick.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

• absolutely (regardless of price) ... 80%

• relative to the price ... 90%

Pros: Humbucker at the bridge, unconventional and excellently adjustable bridge and overall adjustment options, solid workmanship and good materials, decent fretless sound, unobtrusive design

Cons: The sound of the pickups lacks a little treble, or overall "juiciness", light neck diving

Made in China, 2019

Bought in Czechia: 1,120 EUR

Pictures of the new Warwick RockBass Infinity 5 Fretless bassguitar, with Thomastik JR345 strings

Selection process

I've been happily using a Cort B4FL bass for years, which I've tuned a bit, so I've been very happy with it (mainly replacing the Bartolini MK1 single-coil bridge pickup with a Bartolini BC4CBC dual-coil pickup). But the new repertoire pushed me to buy a bass with five strings.

My functional and non-functional requirements were:

• Humbucker pickup at the bridge (I don't need to imitate the sound of a double bass, but I need a punchy midrange sound)

• 34" scale (my favorite Thomastik JR345 strings are not made in XL length and I generally don't want to limit my choice of strings)

• String spacing up to 17mm (I'm used to this from my fretted bass and it suits me great)

• Completely clean fretboard, no "fret" lines (I just don't like lines on fretless fretboards)

• Quick availability, problem-free application of any warranty (so Czechia or EU)

• Price up to EUR 1,250 including VAT (more like between 1k and 1,2k)

I also would like, if the bass guitar did not fall on its head, if it had a fingerboard made of ebony or another proven material, and if it had active electronics offering some variability of sound options (for example, a second pickup, double-single coil switch, etc.). However, I did not mark these additional requirements as mandatory.

Above all, the restriction of the string spacing on the bridge to 17mm resulted in a fundamental limitation of the range of possible candidates. After further limiting the selection to bass guitars from the upper third of my price range, only two options left:

• Warwick RockBass Infinity 5 Fretless

• Ibanez SRF705

My first impressions of both of these options were as follows:

• Ibanez is nicer to look at, I like neck-through construction, it also has a piezzo pickup under the bridge, but it doesn't have a humbucker pickup at the bridge (and I'm generally not enthusiastic about Bartolini MK1 singles), and replacing it with another one would cost another approx. 200 or 250 EUR.

• The Warwick has a humbucker at the bridge, an ebony fingerboard, but I'm a bit surprised that I can't find any proper reviews, tests, sound samples, etc. for it.

I decided on the Warwick, not only because of its bridge humbucker, but also because I had been playing Ibanez for many years, while I had never even held a Warwick in my hand, and I like a change. I applied a similar thought process when purchasing my current fretted bass guitar (Schecter SLS Elite-5) and even after years of use, I still can't praise it. I was further strengthened in this decision by the very helpful communication of Mr. Wilfer from Warwick, with whom I discussed the possibility of the most economical way to purchase the instrument.

Construction, equipment

Warwick RockBass Infinity is a bass guitar from the popular Warwick RockBass series (do not confuse with Infinity instruments without the word RockBass in the name, it is, on the contrary, a higher class for completely different money).

The body is made of red alder wood, decorated with decorative maple veneer on the front. The body is completely flat from the front and back, with a standard recess for the player's body from the back, but the bevel for the right hand is completely missing from the front. This is compensated by the significant rounding of the edges of the body. The neck is made of three pieces of maple combined with dark strips of ekanga wood veneer. The neck is attached to the body with (only) four screws. Access to the truss rod is from the head side, but thanks to the placement of the tuning machines, it is well accessible. The body has a transparent glossy finish, the neck has a pleasant satin surface, the head is painted by matte black from the front.

Note: The bass guitar is still produced in the Nirvana Black Transparent color variant.

The body has a fairly standard height (or, if you prefer, width), but it is quite short, so the overhang towards the head is also short, which, when hung from the strap, results in a slight neck diving. But it didn't bother me during practical play.

Hardware parts already offers some interesting features. It is primarily a specific two-piece Warwick bridge, which I find very practical. The strings are attached to the separate tailpiece very comfortably, and the bridge itself is adjustable beyond standard - not only for fine-tuning the height of the strings, octaves and string spacing, but also for the fine adjustment (height, inclination) of the entire bridge. It looks and works very well so far. The Warwick tuners are closed and seem fine to me. Although there is a little gap when changing the direction of rotation, they work nicely, the operation is smooth and the string tuning is being hold perfectly. Strings travel from the pins to their notches in the nut at different angles. Although I'm a fan of the strings passing through the nut as directly as possible, this has an advantage here, which is easier access to the truss rod.

All metal parts have a chrome finish. An interesting detail is the strap rolls. These are primarily designed for use of "Security Lock" system, which is included in the delivery. But it works even without it.

The nut called Just a Nut III, is another specialty of Warwick. This one is made of Tedur synthetic material and is height adjustable using two allen screws. This is very practical.

The electrical equipment is characterized by a combination of a humbucker "MM-style" pickup at the bridge and a single-coil "J-style" pickup at the neck. These are passive pickups from the German manufacturer MEC. The sound is processed by an active two-band electronics. The electornics offer four knobs (volume, blend, bass, treble) and a three-way switch, which controls the connection of the coils of the bridge humbucker - serial, single-coil, parallel.

Adjustment, tuning

The adjustment of the instrument is problem-free and some of its capabilities exceed standards. By the above-standard options, I mean e.g. the multi-adjustable bridge and the height-adjustable nut. The materials used for the individual parts of the bridge look of high quality and it can be assumed that the bridge and the nut will be able to be adjusted without problems in the future. I rate these options positively.

Access to the neck brace to adjust its deflection is on the side of the head. I much prefer access from the body of the tool, which is much more practical in most cases, and even more so when no key (typically an allen key) is needed for adjustment, but just any rod, weaker screwdriver, etc. is sufficient, as is the case, for example, with my Schecter Elite fret bass. In the case of this Warwick, however, there is good access to adjusting the neck brace, even without the need to loosen or even remove the strings. The strings from the pegs to the notches in the zero fret point from the sides at different angles, leaving the corridor in the middle free for access to the neck reinforcement. In addition, the brace cover is hinged without screwing, and the tool comes with a long and funny shaped allen, which makes the practicality of adjusting the brace almost close to the solution at the neck. The price for this practicality, however, is that the strings do not pass through the zero fret directly and can theoretically offer some resistance when tuning. But that didn't happen to me, so again I rate this solution positively.

Adjusting the instrument was therefore really simple and the tuning is perfect.

Note: The bass guitar came already well adjusted from the factory and it was immediately playable without any problems, so my interventions in the adjustment were not big and were more related to changing the strings for strings with lower tension.

Sound

I rate the sound as average. The pickups don't stand out in terms of heights or overall brilliance or "juiciness", but they provide a good sound just for fretless use. My favorite setting is the bridge pickup wired in serial in combination with the neck pickup, which naturally shows up quite a bit in the overall sound. When playing with a noisy live band, I typically only use a bridge pickup in serial. Other combinations can also be useful (e.g. for trying to imitate the sound of a double bass, a single-coil or parallel connection is suitable), but they are not very important to me. And for the double bass sound, I have an EUB. The advantage is that the bridge pickup has the standard dimensions of Music Man-style pickups, so it can be replaced in the future with some other "MM-style" pickup if someone needs to tune it.

I think the weakest part on the sound chain is the preamp. But the sound is not bad for fretless bass.

Note: The instrument came strung with Warwick Red Stainless Steel strings from the factory, which I do not consider a happy solution. In general, I don't think stainless roundwounds are the most suitable for a fretless bass guitar, both in terms of sound, their typical unsmoothness for the fingers, and the fact that they destroy the fingerboard. So the Red Warwicks went down quickly and I replaced them with my favorite Thomastik JR345 strings, which have a nickel finish, significantly thinner wire used for the top winding and also lower tension, so they meow nicely. You can find a comparison of the sound of a bass guitar with these two types of strings on my SoundCloud (see link below).

Practical experience

I already mentioned that the bassguitar suffers a bit from neck diving, which is due to the shorter body. This is generally an unforgivable sin for me, but I'm a bit more tolerant of five-string basses and I decided to close my eyes in this case. The neck diving is not such that it practically bothers me while playing, I never once noticed it as a problem during a long game. But objectively, the bass is not perfectly balanced on the strap.

The strap rolls are designed primarily for use of Security Lock system. The Security Lock system consist of two pads, between which the strap is inserted, and the whole thing is simply clicked into the hole in the roll. Disconnecting the strap is then done by pressing the small button in the axis of the roll. The SL system works well, but there may be situations where its use is not practical or appropriate. My first impression was that without this SL system in the rolls the strap would not hold well, but this has not been confirmed and the use of the SL system is not necessary.

Note: The strap roll in the center of the body is somewhat drowned between the design protrusions of the body, which brings possible difficulties when using wide straps on this side. As the strap width increases, so will the need to use the Security Lock system.

The bevel for the right hand is missing on the front of the body. This is compensated by the pronounced rounding of the edges of the body, and in practice it doesn't bother me at all. After all, I'm used to the much sharper edges of the Schecter SLS Elite bass body and I don't mind it there either.

If you are used to often resting the instrument on the ground without using a stand, then you need to be careful that the instrument is not supported by the roll of the strap, but by the protrusions of the wooden body, so it is quite easy to damage the paint on these protrusions. However, most of us pay attention to our instruments and store them in racks or hang them up, so this danger is not great.

Keeping the battery in the electronics pocket seemed like a pretty good idea. But it turned out to be quite impractical, changing the battery is a bit of a pain, you have to be careful about the surrounding wires and it's quite difficult without tools. The cover is only snap-on and is held by two small plastic handles - hopefully it will last a while...

Too much force is required to insert/extract my favourite Planet Waves cables into/out of the instrument and there is a risk of tearing the connector if the cable is pulled. It is impractical especially when changing instrumnents during production, which is a very frequent process for me. For those who connect the instrument at the beginning of production and disconnect it at the end, this will certainly not be a negative.

Details of Security Lock system

Summary

Warwick RockBass Infinity 5 Fretless is not a perfect bass, but its quality and capabilities match the price. The shortcomings of the type of light neck diving and sound mediocrity (which, however, due to the fretless design, is not actually a negative) are balanced by an unconventional design (for those who appreciate it), quality materials, above-standard adjustment options and good sound flexibility. The  mark "Made in China" has not been a bad sign for some time and I think Warwick certainly monitors the quality of production. The bass comes with a Warwick Rockbag Student Line gig bag, which is really just a basic bag and not useful to me, but it's a nice touch.

Personally, I have evaluated the pros and cons in such a way that I will keep the instrument and am not even afraid to recommend it to others interested in a five-string fretless bass guitar of this class.

Note: On the Internet, at least at the time of writing this review, it is practically impossible to find audio samples or reviews, which, combined with the fact that an instrument manufactured in August 2019 was delivered to me in February 2023, suggests that it is probably not a worldwide bestseller. However, being one of the several owners of this instrument in the world is not bad.

February 2023

Specs

In the table below you will find the complete specifications of the bass guitar, including a comparison with other instruments that I have had or have dealt with: