=The Warwick Thumb Club=

[showdown]

Does it have the Thumb sound? And is €900 a fair price?

 

[Gnermo]

900 is a great price, and yeah it does have the thumb sound. I never did a/b it so I don't know if it's similar.

 

[kimgee]

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

You should get the Blonde and a NT! You can never have enough Wicks! The Bleached Blonde Thumb is awesome! It is relatively light due to the maple construction, sounds great. and is gorgeous to boot. I love mine! If there are 2 available at low prices, buy both and have a spare or sell one at a profit to help pay for the one you keep.

 

[eyvindwa]

I have the 06 Dirty Blonde ltd, and it's a killer bass. Different tone from my other thumbs, but still definitely Warwick sounding.

BTW: If anyone has a 5 string version they want to get rid of (or trade for a 4 string), hit me up

 

[BrusselsBass]

Does it have the Thumb sound? And is €900 a fair price?

900 € is a steal ! Get it quickly if technically OK. Great sound, very light.

 

[showdown]

900 € is a steal ! Get it quickly if technically OK. Great sound, very light.

I’m trying to get a good price on an old Thumb NT now, but if it falls through I’ll grab one of the blondes

 

[steembass]

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

even the electronics look like original

 

[steembass]

 

[steembass]

….I think I ve posted ‚mine‘ not only once…acc to serial number (top of headstock) it is a december 1986 built. The 2-piece bridge was used - according to e-mail answer from HPW- already on 5-string Thumbs back then..

 

[steembass]

PU, electronics, tuners are ‚new‘…I ve exchanged those over the years..

 

[showdown]

Well, looks like I've bought myself a bass. The price was too low to pass up, so a bleached blonde Thumb should get here in a few days.

 

[showdown]

Got my Thumb today, this thing is pretty damn good!

 

[Nachobassman]

Sweet!

 

[steembass]

View attachment 26451
Got my Thumb today, this thing is pretty damn good!

have fun!

 

[showdown]

have fun!

Thanks! Here it is with its older sibling:

The flamed maple looks very nice, the photos in the ad I bought it from didn't really show how good it is. There's a few small nicks and dings, but it's really in excellent condition for a 20+ year old bass. It can't have been used much, the MEC pickup logos are still intact. It has a bit of Thumb character but it's brighter, almost like a Spector growl. I like it a lot!

 

[berni]

Most of time I prefer my Streamer or Corvette in bigband. The sound of both is universal and fits everywhere.

Last week I took my 30year old thumb to the rehearsal.
I must confess that I fear the powerful sound of the thumb, because it roars like a hungry tiger.
But our set is more modern (latin, funk, fusion, ...), less classic and warm jazz, so the voice of the thumb fits perfect.
It was a good counterpart to brass section, but not too much. I was very surprised.

Maybe I use it more often in future. It's a great bass. It deserves it.

 

[evilgus]

Well, after a few months of delays, I finally got my triple-pickup Thumb BO back from the luthier and it's a BEAST! It took him quite a few weeks to figure out the best way to wire it all up, but he came up with a pretty good system:

1. The switch on the front simply turns the middle MEC pickup on or off, like a typical bridge Jazz or Humbucker coil-tap. (Like a Lakland 55-94 or MTD Kingston Heir 5, etc.)
2. But inside the control cavity, there's a toggle-switch that selects which pickup will be "paired" with the bridge pickup - either the mid pickup or the neck pickup. Pairing the mid and neck pickups seems the best, so far, or at least the most "normal".

You can certainly get quite a lot of interesting tones with this setup, including a fairly crisp Jazz-ish tone, but switching on all 3 pickups with a decent amount of bass and treble boost, is absolutely KILLER! I've never owned a Dingwall NG-3, but I reckon this would be just as fat and have a better tone!!! (I have owned earlier Dingwalls, before the prices sky-rocketed, but never really bonded with them.)

P.S: Yes, the EMG pickup needed to be wired differently to be in-phase with the MECs. (Swapped the red and white wires on the EMG.)

Cheers,

EG

 

[Nachobassman]

Looks awesome!
Could you share sound clips ?

 

[Mr Praline]

I’m considering a custom Thumb order. Sadly, there’s no Swedish dealer anymore, so I’ve had to pursue other options. Waiting on a quote.

- Thumb NT5
- broadneck (20 mm spacing)
- bubinga body
- three piece wenge neck
- wenge fingerboard
- Bartolini 2J Squared pickups with series/single/parallel switches for each pickup
- darkglass tone capsule preamp
- black hardware
- natural satin finish on both neck and body
- blue luminlay side dots
- no front dots/inlays
- brass just-a-nut III
- regular thumb control layout

Basically a Thumb NT5-6 hybrid. Bartolinis and Warwick is a magical combo.

 

[Foal30]

Forgot how to link video

But Joan Armatrading
“Willie” promotional video
Pino Palladino Thumb Bass …must be an early model