After several months of searching, I finally tracked down a lefty
medium-scale, 5-string Warwick RockBass Corvette and it arrived today! Others have asked for a review, so I'll go into the details below.
I've mentioned in other discussions about my previous purchase - a Brice short-scale 5-string from Rondo Music, and how I feel it's a very good value at ~$400, if not faultless. So I thought it would be good to compare the two, given that the Warwick was quite a bit more money at just under $1000 with conversion rates & shipping from Europe(I'm including the cost of the hard case for each bass in those figures).
One issue with the Brice was that since I play inverted, the very first thing I had to do was cut a new nut for it. That's no fault of the bass - but with the Warwick Just-a-Nut system, it was as easy as ordering a right-handed nut along with the bass. The swap took less than 10-minutes.
The other significant issues with the Brice were the fact the neck needed shimming to get the action low enough for my taste, and that the frets were simply pressed into the neck(some less than others) and not dressed in any way. I was able to get the Brice playable myself, but eventually took it to my luthier friend for professional finishing.
The Corvette is setup by Warwick before they ship it, but of course they loosened the strings and truss rod before shipping it over here. Since I was flipping the strings(actually, I installed a new set), I knew I'd need to do a full setup on it anyway. Fortunately, the neck didn't require any shimming, and the fretwork on it is much better as well...although not perfect. For most bassists it probably wouldn't be a problem, but I run my action around .035" or so and at that low of setting there was a bit of buzz in the first position.
I did notice a couple other faults with the Warwick, they're nothing that bother me - It will only gain more wear with use from me - but I could understand if someone was upset that their brand-new ~$1000 bass had these issues:
First, the finish on the back has some very fine scratches from the foam padding it was wrapped in.
There was also a pretty good gouge in the fretboard.
The output jack also didn't want to engage when I first plugged it in, but it's working much better with use. I'll still let my luthier check it out while he has it tomorrow. One more picture: this is the tag from the bass, you can see it was built on 11/25/2013 - almost a year ago(so that possibly explains the wear on the back of the body) - I've read posts online from others here in the US who would love to have one of these basses, and I have to guess by the date on mine(and the fact that Warwick doesn't actually have any of the passive models produced, even though they're in the catalog!) that they're not selling well anywhere else in the world. So why wouldn't Warwick offer them here, since there's at least a handful of us freaks who want them?
Some other nice details about the Warwick: the bridge is a fine piece of German engineering. It's a bit of a hassle to setup with all the adjustments, but it's very well made. The fact they include strap-locks is a nice touch. Their truss-rod cover, and the tool they provide rocks. The cover pops open with a flat-blade screwdriver/pocket knife/pick/etc. and the tool is a long T-handled hex wrench, so you don't have to take your strings out of the nut to adjust it. The bass also included a spare 9v battery, not just one in the cavity.
Lastly, the sound - my style and setup are pretty atypical, but this thing offers a wide range of tones that all sound good! Punchy, growly, bright, dark, thick, thin, it seems to do them all well. I work on posting a couple sample tracks, one through my rig and a second directly into Logic, to give an idea of it's capabilities.
Overall I'm happy about it. I had doubts whether I'd "bond" with it, but so far so good. It was a pain to get it, but worth the effort and wait!
