Nbd - ‘99 Thumb Nt 5

B

Bliff Curton

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No Big Deal
Lol,
Yea right, its a surreal day

I was worried about the customs tax, being that I bought it online from Japan.
But I got to the post office, sign this olease, and all good. Yay.

I was super worried about shipping since it had to be shipped in a gig bag (I pleaded with TC Gakki to let me buy a hardshell for shipment but they said no) but it arrived fine.
They even loosened all the strings for shipment.

I just left Home Depot where I bought metric allen wrenches and Howard Feed-N-Wax.
Question—-can I tung oil the wood? Is there any negative to doing it?

I rushed a couple photos for you guys in the Home Depot parkinglot.
And holy schneikies, batman, this lil dude is heavy. Lol.

I notice the string saddles look close to corroded, the grey looks faded and aged. Gonna look into replacements.
 
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Happy new bass day! They are heavy little suckers. You can def get replacement saddles for the bridge just make sure to get the right slot sizes, there are wide and narrow you will need (from memory) three wide two narrow on a fiver but best check them.
 
Bliff Curton said:
Question—-can I tung oil the wood? Is there any negative to doing it?
Click to expand...
Congrats on your Thumb!

Can’t really remember what is recommended for cleaning and conditioning

I'm sure someone will come along to answer this

Anyway have fun with your new bass!
 
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Thanks for the warm welcome, y’all.

I’m gonna hop on the Warwick site now and look at replacement saddles and a hardshell/flight case
 
Wow, $400 for a brass bridge
Craziness.

Anyone retrofitted their pre-2000 Wick with a new Bridge and Brass Just A Nut?
Is it worth it?

Fun jazz note, my JaN II has the side tabs still attached.
 
Oh and yes you can tung oil, I prefer to wax myself, personal preference. I wouldn’t bother with the solid brass bridge it will add weight and make very little difference to sound and look and costs a bomb. Bonus points for having a wing intact JAN II! I’d replace with a JAN III in tedur to match the bass but for some bling you could do brass, again no difference to sound except open note, mostly cosmetic and practical for adjustments as one day the JAN II will break.
 
Honestly I wouldn't tung oil it or apply any finish for that matter. The bass looks fine, you may want to find other ways to mess with it like replacing some hardware, heh. Have fun and enjoy the bass!
 
Congrats on the Thumb! Beauty!

I personally would never use anything but Warwick's official wax. It's what it was born with from the factory and in my opinion, it's still the best product to give Wicks the feel and look HP and crew want their babies to have. Up to you though.

In any event, have fun with it!
 
As for hardware and wax... Always call Jon over at the Warwick Nashville Showroom, before you try buying on Reverb or the Bay. You'll save some money.
 
Hoggles said:
As for hardware and wax... Always call Jon over at the Warwick Nashville Showroom, before you try buying on Reverb or the Bay. You'll save some money.
Click to expand...

Are they cheaper than the W official shop? Should be helpful for all forumers in the US...
 
Thank you Hoggles for the hookup.

Wow, these saddles are so easy to loose!
I took the strings off last night to use Feed-N-Wax. The nut and the two larger saddles fell out. Founf the nut right away but lost the saddles til this morning.
Lesson learned.
Btw, she looks so much more beatiful after getting oiled up (2 applications as she was dry then wiped, and then another application and wipe down).

I plugged the bass in with no batteries to see if it would play onstage with a dead/dying battery. Passive worked fine.

I plugged a battery in and passive got way better sounding and much louder.
Mingia, I love the sound of this bass even just in passive.

On active I noticed a few things right away. Dynamics.
Every little subtlety in my right hand technique is amplified. No more lazy playing, lol.
I also noticed - this is the sound I’ve had in my head for ever.
I like to hit the strings hard but with a bit of finesse - around the 4-8 frets, this produces a really cool harmonic with the fundamental. On the Warwick, this harmonic comes out so very loud and detailed - amazingness.

The neck had strong backbow from having the strings detensioned for transport.
I tuned her up to ADGCF to start pressuring the neck while I tested the sound.
Then I destringed her and did a 1/4 turn towards relief on the trussrod.
I love the look of the raw wood inside the trussrod cavity. Good ol African redwood.

I got some new strings - D’Addy XL super light Nickel Rounds - 40-60-75-95-125
Ive never gone this light but the local guitar store didnt have much selection for bass strings.
I’ll get the Rotosound PSD-99 online. Never tried them but I feel they will be perfect.

Do you notice the divot above the ‘neck’ pickup?
Someone was playing this a Lot.
Frets look pretty good though. Wont be able to tell until I get te neck straight.
 
Oh yea,
Neck Dive!

I used my wide bass strap and the dunlop strap locks.
This thing neck dives like crazy.
I let it keep inching down to see where it finds equilibrium.
Pretty much perpendicular, maybe just a degree or two of elevation.

So, I’m prolly gonna be bringing a stool onstage to play it.
Plus, she is way heavy and my back and neck are way fubar (broke them too many times).
She is good motivation to get back into physical therapy to strengthen my back
 
jester said:
Are they cheaper than the W official shop? Should be helpful for all forumers in the US...
Click to expand...

Almost always. Yes. At least those of us in the States.

Though I did buy 3 brass JANs from Thomann last year...and even with the $30 shipping from Germany....I saved something like $60, if I would have bought them from Nashville.

As you no doubt know, the official W shop (as the official W website) is severely lacking modern technology and website design.
 
Bliff Curton said:
Oh yea,
Neck Dive!

I used my wide bass strap and the dunlop strap locks.
This thing neck dives like crazy.
I let it keep inching down to see where it finds equilibrium.
Pretty much perpendicular, maybe just a degree or two of elevation.

So, I’m prolly gonna be bringing a stool onstage to play it.
Plus, she is way heavy and my back and neck are way fubar (broke them too many times).
She is good motivation to get back into physical therapy to strengthen my back
Click to expand...

Haha. Oh yeah.

Just watch videos of Jack Bruce. He rocked a Thumb since the mid 80's. You do have to get used to the more level neck...but it just takes time....AND a wide strap :D
 
Thank you guys for being such an awesome community.

I have sine more questions:
- passive tone: is this cut only, or is there boost/cut
-volume and bass/treb knobs are a bit loose, the whole thing wiggles/jiggles. I tried tightening the knob bolts - they look missing. I went into the preamp to try and tighten the clamp/nut around the stack on the inside but the preamp blocks that access. Any ideas?
-is the trussrod double or single action?
- how do I tell if I have a broadneck (pre-databass)?

Many thanks
 
EErrr,

Having problems with string buzz.

When I first tuned her up to 1-step down, she buzzed badly.
I destrung her, oiled her, loosened the trussrod 1/3turn.
I restrung her with extra light strings and did another 1/4 turn. Tuned to 1-step down.
Next day another 1/3turn and tuned to standard tuning. Buzzed so I waited another day. Retuned, buzz.
So today I gave another 1/3 turn and reset the bridge and saddles.
Using allen wrenches as measuring tools, B-string fits the 2.5mm between 7th fret and string.
E-string is 2mm
G-string aprox 1.8mm.
Still buzzing from 2nd-7th frets, B-string not as bad.

I eyeballed the neck from the bridge and its almost straight.
Fretting the 1st and 24th fret leaves a string-fret gap just less than a credit card.

While the movement is slow (laminated 5-piece neck and single action trussrod), the neck has started forward bow.
Originally, I was worried the trussrod was stuck.

Do you guys have any thoughts?


—edit—-
I did some more research and found it is in fact a 2-way trussrod and warwick recomends 1/8 not 1/4 turns.
To me, a 1/3 turn is the full travel the setup allows (2oclock — 10oclock)
I also found the thickness of a creditcard is .7mm, so its still on the “flat” side of neck relief.
 
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Bliff Curton said:
EErrr,

Having problems with string buzz.

When I first tuned her up to 1-step down, she buzzed badly.
I destrung her, oiled her, loosened the trussrod 1/3turn.
I restrung her with extra light strings and did another 1/4 turn. Tuned to 1-step down.
Next day another 1/3turn and tuned to standard tuning. Buzzed so I waited another day. Retuned, buzz.
So today I gave another 1/3 turn and reset the bridge and saddles.
Using allen wrenches as measuring tools, B-string fits the 2.5mm between 7th fret and string.
E-string is 2mm
G-string aprox 1.8mm.
Still buzzing from 2nd-7th frets, B-string not as bad.

I eyeballed the neck from the bridge and its almost straight.
Fretting the 1st and 24th fret leaves a string-fret gap just less than a credit card.

While the movement is slow (laminated 5-piece neck and single action trussrod), the neck has started forward bow.
Originally, I was worried the trussrod was stuck.

Do you guys have any thoughts?


—edit—-
I did some more research and found it is in fact a 2-way trussrod and warwick recomends 1/8 not 1/4 turns.
To me, a 1/3 turn is the full travel the setup allows (2oclock — 10oclock)
I also found the thickness of a creditcard is .7mm, so its still on the “flat” side of neck relief.
Click to expand...

What I would do is get a set of 40s and set the bass up to standard tuning. Trying to get as good a setup as possible. Then you can take it from there. Detune a half step, check the setup and playing, adjust if needed etc. I 'd advise against drastic changes on a new bass when you don't have a good starting point. If the bass can't be set up properly with a light set of strings, there's no need to try anything further, as it probably needs repairs.
 
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