=The Warwick Thumb Club=

Brought my Thumb out yesterday - good times!

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steembass said:
you re welcome! happy to help.👍😃
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I seem to have hit post before I'd finished 😄
I didn't want to post an update too soon, but I've had it long enough now that I think the honeymoon period is over.

So, what do I think? My initial misgivings about the neck were misplaced, now the action's been sorted it's extremely confortable to play. I've been playing bass for 28 years and have dabbled in lots of different fivers over the years but have never found one that felt right - they've all felt like fat 4 strings with an extra low, extra floppy string on the side. A beautiful Spector Euro came close but not quite.

I can honestly say that this Thumb us the first 5 string I've played that feels and sounds like a cohesive, instictive and natural instrument. The B string is the sound of the Kraken itself, and there's absolutely no tonal shift between the E and B string - they all speak with total authority, even up the neck.
I'm genuinely quite astonished at how good this bass is. It is the king of 5 strings.
 
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So I landed number 122 of 350 year 2003. I've waited a long time for the right thumb to come along and the previous owner was a nice guy. A guitarist and a passionate one who originally bought this in Italy 18 yrs ago. I'm so happy🤩
 
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Hey, I bought a JD Thumb 5 string the other day. It is very interesting because it hast the JD trussrod cover and the JD contouring on the back of the headstock but has the two piece bridge and the "modern" pickup routing. It was born with the more aggressive pickup routing but that routing was filled during the build and rerouted because of the negative feedback that Warwick received for that aggressive pickup positioning.

The serial is hidden somewhere underneath the black lacquer but according to Warwick this Thumb is from somewhere between 1986 and 1987.

I usually play 4 strings but I wanted a 5 string and when I was offered this bass for a super fair price I had to get it ;)
 

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Congrats @DanTM !

We can safely take '86 out of the equation. I'm certain this an '87 with the 2 piece bridge. Probably autumn/early winter of '87. Definitely one of the last JD 5's as there are not many known examples with the 2 piece bridge.

This Thumb is definitely in the "interesting zone" when Warwick was switching things up a bit. For example.... we know J 992 87 (Oct) is a Thumb 5 with no "JD", yet has the Schaller bridge and scalloped headstock. Even though the 2 piece was already being used for the SS2 since Jan '87...we have seen many examples where there is crossover of "older" hardware, newer basses, etc. In fact, "most" '87 Thumbs and many (most) Streamers still used the Schaller (probably simply due to them having Schallers in stock and needed to be used).

My 2 cents on the pup reroute. We know Warwick (HP) has no official notes on these early builds, and I'd be a little surprised if Warwick did it themselves. Possible, sure, but a better scenario might be this was done after purchase and then painted black to cover up the work. Some more detailed pics of the bass/paint job might answer that question more definitively.

Regardless....Very cool JD! Have fun!
 
Interesting, good to know! We will take Father's word for it! It really is a rare JD with the 2 piece (maybe even more so with the now modern pup angle). Super cool. With HP's correspondence in mind, I'm very curious if you have this in hand yet, and are able to tell if there is any indication the bridge could have also been a reroute (maybe at the same time)? Any sign at all of a square around that area?

I'm getting in the weeds here ..but here's a scenario... Customer gets JD Thumb 5 natural oil, with Schaller bridge, og severe pup angle...and then decides soonish after to have Warwick switch it to the more modern setup, pups and new bridge system, paint it black to cover it up. Hmmm...maybe?

When you're able @DanTM more pics would be awesome.
 
Just to show how hard it is to pin down dates/changes... There are examples out there that defy what we think we know about the "timeline". Here's another one that sold in Japan a while back: '87 Thumb 5 with a modern pup angle, Schaller bridge, no JD, with the scalloped headstock. Wish we knew the # on this one.

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Well, I cant find anything that may tell that there was a different bridge routing before the two piece bridge.

What I can say is that the electronics cavity is so much cleaner than the one of my NT4 😅
 

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Very cool. Thanks for the pics. I'll gladly eat some crow, as it could very well/would most likely be an '86 "if" it originally had the Schaller as well (could possibly tell by taking off the bridge pieces, not that I'm suggesting!).

Most importantly, hope it plays great and you have fun with it! And lots of strap placement options! :D
 
Tell me about those 2003 bleach blonde Thumbs.... Are they any good, and how do they sound compared to a "normal" Thumb? There are a couple of them for sale relatively near to me, at what I would say were very low prices (for a Warwick). Are they just not that sought after?

I was really thinking of getting an old Thumb NT to go with my old SS2, but if these are good I just might consider one of them and save some money :)
 
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