SeriesWarwick Thumb

After trying every bass under $1500 dollars that I could get my hands on, I eventually tried a Warwick Thumb. I had previously been opposed to Warwicks. I'm not sure what my prejudice was. Perhaps I thought that Warwicks would sound too modern, and artificial. After I played this bass, every other bass sounded weak. I got the bass for 1,400 after tax, from Chuck Levins. I love the warm buttery tone of this bass. It sounds warm and natural. Tone is Mid rich. Active Preamp lets you dial up more bass or treble for when you need it. I typically run it passive. The B string is tight and clear. I can actually play on the B string high up on the neck and it doesn't produce too many overtones to be useful. Neck is fast and responsive. The ablity to switch from active to passive is a great feature. The adjustable string spacing is a nice touch. The neck is wide enough to allow slapping, but it still takes a little getting used to. I previously played a 4 string Fender Jazz, and it didn't take long at all for me to become adjusted to the narrower spacing. The neck is thicker than many other basses. This is not a problem for me. I like a thick neck. It keeps my fingers properly rounded. Some players might not like this. The Bolt on neck does not get in the way. You can easily reach the 24th fret. Adjustable nut is a great feature. I had no problems with it at all. The only complaint that I have about this bass is that it is very headstock heavy. Of course, if it was not it wouldn't sound as good. So, I move the rear strap button up about four inches and it now balances a lot better. An easy fix! Adjusting the intonation is difficult. The bridge gets in your way. The string saddle for the B string is narrow. Meaning that you can only use tapercore B strings. This narrows your choice of strings. Solid as a rock! Nothing loose, no gaps, no spaces. Beautiful woods with no blemishes. This is a gorgeous bass. Worth every penny I spent. Despite the Saddle and Intonation troubles, I still rate it a Five due to the great sound, construction, and playability. I had none of the negative experiences that the previous reviewer had. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

US $1299 Purchased from:Reliable Music, Charlotte, NC This bass was made in Germany in 1999. I bought mine new for $1299. It has a bolt-on wenge neck & fingerboard, 9-volt active electronics, 2 jazz pickups, 24 bell-brass frets, an that sexy curved ovangkol body that fits my gut ever so nicely. It has 3 pots: volume (pull for passive mode), pickup pan, and boost/cut bass/treble at +/- 12dB. (Sounds confusing, but it's not)You can tell i like this bass. I've heard some people bitching about the snap-on electronics cover, but i love it. no screws to mess with, and it's nearly impossible to break the tabs unless you are a moron. Like most Warwicks, the thumb BO has a very bright top end, and that famous midrangey Warwick "growl" that you hear so much about. This is the bass's signature sound. However, you can get a very smooth, jazz sound, or a tight punchy sound, and pretty much everything in between. The pickups are very hot, though, and they sometimes overdrive my Dunlop bass wah, so on songs with the wah i leave the bass/treble knob flat. Like most basses, there is a ever-so-slight amount of hiss when you crank the treble, but oh well. This bass also cuts through the mix like crazy: you will be heard. I will give this an 4 because sometimes its hard to get a very punchy sound (but i'm using a shitty peavey combo, so thats probably the amp's fault) The setup from the factory was superb: the intonation was perfect, the pickups were adjusted just right, and the bass was looking beautiful. However, the action was a tad too high, so I simply lowered the bridge (I like all my strings level). That's another good thing about this bass: the adjustibility. The just-a-nut II is incredibly easy to work, and the bridge, saddles, intonation screws, and pickup screws all work smoothly. Anyway, the neck was also perfect, so the action can be low and buzz-free. One more thing: because of the two-piece bridge assembly, it creates a much tauter string tension. I love it; it really helps in achieving a very tight, fat sound, and provides great rebound for slapping. The tighter tension did open up some old calluses, but now every other bass I play feels loose and sloppy. I do have some things that you might want to watch for: - Heavy, but who cares? - Because of the small body and short horn, the neck tends to dive, so you'll be playing more horizontally. TRY THIS OUT ON A STRAP BEFORE YOU BUY IT! I did, and I didn't mind the neck dive (you can compensate by lowering the bass), but you might - This one sucks: the ovangkol wood is really soft, and scratches easily. About a week after I got it, I noticed some chipping going on between the neck pickup and the neck. Turns out that when I was slapping, my fingernail was catching in the wood, so I was gouging out the ovangkol. If you slap with your thumb aligned with the string ( a la flea), you'll need to keep your nails short and be careful! The bass is very sturdy. I treat this bass better than I do my girlfriend (sorry), but there have been some bumps. Luckily, if you wax the bass once a week, it keeps the wood healthy and strong. So aside from the aforementioned chipping, there haven't been any glaring problems. The volume pot came a little lose, but i had that fixed in about 2 minutes. Another thing is that if you are active on stage, jumping, rocking out, and so forth, the recessed jim dunlop straplocks will eventually wear down, and you'll have to buy new ones probably every 7-9 months. It's only about $22, so I don't mind, but if you do, you can be an idiot like Fieldy and duct-tape your strap onto the bass, then play it vertically. Great. before i bought this bass, i e-mailed their website a bunch, and they always responded within 3 days. When the chipping incident happened, they apologized profusely, suggested using steel wool, and it worked great. In closing, I would say that aside from the chipping problem and bad choice of straplocks, this bass is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a tight, funky sound that really cuts. When I went looking for a new bass, I tried this against top of the line Musicman, Ibanez, Fender, Modulus, and MTD. The thumb bested all of them easily. I am definately a Warwick man for the rest of my career: next, I plan to order a Streamer Stage I with high-gloss blue color, gold hardware, and blue LEDs on the neck. HELL yeah. peace This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com