Retailing for only $2,399 for the 4-string and $2,599 for the 5-string, the new Dolphin SN basses are accessible to a wider range of musicians. But does the lower price mean you are compromising quality? Not on your life! A closer look at this new bass will show you just how special it is!

The heart of this instrument's tone is the afzelea body. Afzelea is an African hardwood that is known for its very tight and aggressive low end and its very clean and "snappy" highs. Warwick also uses afzelea on the Streamer Stage II basses, which have been made popular by such bassists as P-Nut, Michael Chapman and Dirk Lance. To increase the sustain and resonance of the Dolphin SN basses, and make them sound more like a neck-thru Dolphin, Warwick carves small tone chambers inside the body. These chambers dramatically improved the tone of the bass, but they also served to make it lighter, which is always a good thing!

The necks on the Dolphin SN basses are also quite unique. The woods used are rather common - ovangkol for the neck and wenge for the fretboard. The frets are the made of the same bell brass that all other Warwick basses have. So what makes the Dolphin SN necks so unique? Well, it is a pretty subtle thing, really. The bass of the neck, which is glued into the body socket, is elongated, creating a greater contact area. This results in not only a stronger body/neck joint, but a better resonance connection. That means more natural sustain.

For electronics, Warwick opted to put the same package that is in the Dolphin Pro I basses. There is a MEC Twin-J pickup in the bridge position and a single MEC J pickup in the neck. By pulling on the treble knob you can coil tap the Twin-J pickup that opens up a whole new world of tones to you. The Dolphin SN also comes loaded with a MEC 2-band preamp, the exact same one that the Dolphin Pro I features!

Enough of this tech talk- let's get down to how it plays and sounds! I first plugged the Dolphin SN 4-string into a Warwick CL combo amp, with the tone controls set flat on both the amp and the bass. I started by playing with my fingers (well, I can't let them play by themselves!) and the tone was very clean and punchy. I ran through some scales and arpeggio exercises and immediately felt comfortable on the fingerboard. Next, I played some simple slap grooves and was blown away by the tone! Even though the EQ was flat, the low end sounded thunderous! I must admit that I slapped much longer than I had to, but it just sounded so cool. Finally, I played some chord melody pieces and a few two-handed tapping compositions. The piano-like tone was clear and aggressive, and I found it extremely easy to play in the higher registers.

The next stop on my journey was to take a Dolphin SN 5-string to a band rehearsal. It was a modern Jazz group, with a drummer, guitarist, keyboard player, sax player and me. I plugged into my trusty Warwick Quad VI head, which was powering a stack made up of one Warwick 115 Pro cabinet and one Warwick 411 Pro cabinet. (On the 411 Pro I set the horn attenuator to the middle position.) The first tune we played was a slow ballad and I alternated between finger style playing and some mellow slapping. The low B string was extremely clear and had a nice bite to it, and there was a nice presence to the D and G strings. After that first song all my band mates complimented me on how great my new bass sounded (I didn't have the guts to tell them it wasn't mine to keep…). The next song was a very upbeat, Weather Report-type tune, with some very rapid 16th note bass runs. This is always a tough song for me to play, but I must admit that something about the Dolphin SN made me play the passages much cleaner. Without boring you with the details of the rest of the practice, I can tell you that the Dolphin SN performed wonderfully. (I will probably have to buy one now, since the band liked it so much.)

My last test phase for the Dolphin SN was to record with it. Time and budget didn't allow me to take it into a professional studio, but I was able to record on a friend's Roland VS 880 digital recording deck. Using nothing but a cord from my bass to the deck, I recorded a few grooves with both the 4 and 5-string models. Initially, I had to pad the input a bit because the Dolphin SN was pretty hot, but once I got it set correctly, both basses just sang. The MEC electronics were very quiet, even though the room I was in had fluorescent lighting all over the place.