A very very old Thumb bass..... 1985 content.

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LukeFRC

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I was never that musical, then one day at high school I wandered into a band practice, my friend was fed up and wanted a drink so handed me his peavey 6 string, showed me the notes to play the white stripes 7 nation army and wandered off. That 10 min trying to make my hands go where I wanted them too got me hooked.

Later I told an older friend what I had learnt and he ran to his room and came down with his Warwick thumb (5 string from 1992) and gave it to me and there and then gave me a wee lesson.
I went out borrowed a bass, then bought one and started playing - I always dreamed of that thumb bass though and always wanted a Warwick bass.

I had a Status Shark to start on, then a precision bass - then Warwickhunt was good enough to let me buy a Streamer Stage one off him and I had a warwick! Didn't get on with it and sold it, bought another SS1 which I preferred.... then went through... Cimar, Valenti, Fender, JV Squier, Peavey T40, Squier, Yamaha, and so on - a great journey through basses - lots of fun.
Then a couple of years ago I switched the pickups on my SS1 to barts and the preamp to an ACG one and it became my main bass.
Eventually I sold the JV Squier and realised that the money could maybe make my dream of a Thumb come real.

I wanted one of the early ones - why? well the reason is the carving on the back of the headstock is one of the coolest things ever.... that's why!

And today I got one! It's actually my birthday present from my wife so I get to make sure it's ok (and take photos to share with you) and then need to hide it away for a month! :(

So some photos!

P1060407_zps7c4e5787.jpg
 
G135 85 so July 1985.... it's stunning - you could pass it off as a new bass almost - new fret job so must have been played but you can hardly tell.

So some questions.... I thought I would ask here before emailing Warwick direct... cos theres a lot of knowledge on the forum... and it's more fun!
- The preamp has been put in... a little oddly - which I think is original - anyone ID what it is? 2 band, no passive option.
- Switches on the pickups seem to change the resonance and give a boost according to the SD website... except I have 3 switches! where should I put them?
- What's going on with the truss rod cover - I've seen one or two around but don't know anything about it.

oh the bridge looks cool - is this normal like there is layers of brass to raise it up....


it sounds good anyway! :D very different to theACG equipped Streamer - very articulate and percussive, very clear... very loud sounding too. :)
 
Wow , nice looking bass man !

Had these PUs with SD s preamp installed years ago in a Spector , hated those , but it s me . Luckily these can be replaced easily . Did you try it yet !
 
I found an on-line reference to what the switches did and they do change frequency centres, a bit of experimentation and I found the setting I liked... till one of my pups went haywire and I swapped them out for MECs (one bought from you)! ;)

The shims under the bridge are period correct and not uncommon.

It could be the rollers on the schaller bridge aren't original (can't imagine it was manufactured like that) and have been swapped out of a gold coloured bridge.

Wouldn't come as a shock if someone confirmed that the pre is an early MEC jobbie.
 
the pre is odd in that the IC is mounted on a socket. I can't imagine Seymore duncan or EMG doing that - could be utterly wrong though!
 
bingo.... post 55 in there - same thing - so an EMG preamp??!
 
Looks really nice. Congratulations.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
 
hidden away in a case until my birthday now :( it's going to be a long wait!
 
Looks great mate! What is it like on a strap? The strap buttons seem almost in line with one another! Unless it is very body heavy I imagine you may need to move it to get it to balance nicely?

Gotta love the scalloped headstock, lovely stuff :) Always a reason why I wanted a JD (or earlier!) Thumb.

Great find, enjoy!
 
BassManKev said:
Looks great mate! What is it like on a strap? The strap buttons seem almost in line with one another! Unless it is very body heavy I imagine you may need to move it to get it to balance nicely?

Gotta love the scalloped headstock, lovely stuff :) Always a reason why I wanted a JD (or earlier!) Thumb.

Great find, enjoy!
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It's ok on a strap - having chatted to warwickhunt I was expecting a nightmare! But I'll tentatively say it's ok, a tiny bit neck heavy but no more than a non sloppy strap will support. I had it out for a wee test and the main problem was that the strap pulls out a bit from the strap button - so with my strap it keeps falling off! A bit different to the inset strap locks on my SS1! I may have to drink some grolsh. It sounds great though, and - recently my test for basses is messing around on them and seeing if I end up doing anything new on them - and playing the thumb it did inspire me to do new things.... a good thing! :)
Need a new strap and maybe new strings more like what i'm used too!
 
Cool! Get a set of Schaller strap locks-buttons, most secure way of strapping a bass up in my not so humble opinion :) I have a set on order for my Dolphin, as I just do not trust the Warwick Strap Locks.
 
the mop trussrod cover is usually found on 86 custom order basses
 
BassManKev said:
Cool! Get a set of Schaller strap locks-buttons, most secure way of strapping a bass up in my not so humble opinion :) I have a set on order for my Dolphin, as I just do not trust the Warwick Strap Locks.
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Had them before - couldn't stand them- they seemed over a few weeks to work loose - much prefer the dunlop system. Grolsch seals are also almost as good, cheaper and more fun! :)
 
LukeFRC said:
Had them before - couldn't stand them- they seemed over a few weeks to work loose - much prefer the dunlop system. Grolsch seals are also almost as good, cheaper and more fun! :)
Click to expand...

How so? By their very design they are so much safer than using the Dunlop and Warwick system. The Schallers cradle the strap button, as opposed to relying solely on a little push/pull button, and cannot ever imagine them failing. What was coming loose, the strap attachment?
 
BassManKev said:
How so? By their very design they are so much safer than using the Dunlop and Warwick system. The Schallers cradle the strap button, as opposed to relying solely on a little push/pull button, and cannot ever imagine them failing. What was coming loose, the strap attachment?
Click to expand...
I find that once the dunlops are fixed on the strap they don't come off (the strap) and for the lock to come out the would need the whole system to fail quite spectacularly.
- whereas I found with the Schallers that over time the nut unscrewed itself off the strap which wasn't a nice thing to happen!

Anyway my SS1 has the recessed strap buttons so I have to use dunlops and the new thumb means I'll end up investigating schallers again! :)
 
+1 on schaller straplocks unscrewing.
TBH, I am using all of them the wrong way. I put the strap as on any normal strap button, then I am putting the straplock to secure it :-)
Pretty safe that way!
 
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