=The Warwick Thumb Club=

thndrstk6 said:
So I keep reading about the corvette kids and the P-nut group and the buzzard brothers but I haven't seen anything on the greatest Warwick bass of all... the Thumb. If there is a place for us then let me know, if not then please post your pix or just a comment on how happy you are with your thumb bass and why.
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herb vibes said:
about thumb nt's:
the thumb was the reason i started playin' warwick and it was a dreambass at the beginning since i tried out in gc. over ricardo i realized a half of a dream a 02 thumb bo 4. loved the handling of the bass and bought as backup and for other uses a corvette ash.

but then....
i felt in love at a basscenter with a vintage thumb nt4 89! 12 hours later a thumb bo, fender jb and 550 euros less i took the thumb home and since them i love vintage warwick!
love the handling, 7piece wenge/bubinga neck, emg-pu, jan1 and wenge fretboard. they are more special then the present warwicks to me. i don't even have neckdive!
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3month later again ricardo and a little bit of help thru this forum i bought another vintage thumb nt from 88 this time a 5er for an amazing price of only 550euros :D this bass is killer because of the pu-position!!!
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i'm thinking that i gonna switch from 4 to 5 love this bass so muchX)

anyway back to the thumb:
the sound is great and very unique. it may be a little bit heavy for the small body but this bass is just amazing for its look, handling and sound! it has that typical warwick growl with a lot of mids and a very unique slapsound. i never thought that j-pu can do something like that! but in combination with the right woods here we got bubinga it just makes a brutal good sounding bass which is at the same time a piece of art like warwick use to say!
i can use this bass for any sound genres is it funk, rock, jazz, hiphop or metal! the sound always fits. and it always makes me handsome no matter how hard the last night was;P

my tipp:
if you planning to buy a thumb then checkout when possible the older ones! and always kepp an eye open on ebay since they always have older wicks for cheap price.
the new basses are great too you can't deny but a little bit expensive too the older handcrafted ones are perfect in all small details except they don't have the volute! plus they shoudn't be so expensive anymore (secondhand of course!).

thumb <3
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The used thumbs I looked at were a bit suspect with cracks and odd hardware and so on. Buyer beware. I bought a new one. I have purchased a probuilt corvette fretless 6 and master built musicman fretless 5 through reverb. These are fantastic! I paid a fair price. Not cheap but waaay cheaper than new or buying direct from Warwick. Their online prices have gone crazy!
 
thndrstk6 said:
So I keep reading about the corvette kids and the P-nut group and the buzzard brothers but I haven't seen anything on the greatest Warwick bass of all... the Thumb. If there is a place for us then let me know, if not then please post your pix or just a comment on how happy you are with your thumb bass and why.
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Yeah, I was sceptical about the thumb. It’s a strange little beast, But the sound, oh the sound…. My favourite. It’s a beautiful pugnacious little bass that commands respect. Its beautiful, For those who don’t know them, they are in for a shock. It’s got a mean punch n burp.
 
berni said:
But this masterbuilt seems to be flat.
Isn't it?

https://shopwarwick.cstatic.io/media/image/f1/13/34/1274030004BWBPOWWW_06GQ9LpNlzwupXn.jpg

A thumb with a flat body is not a real thumb in my opinion.
If I'm right about the flat body, I'd rather buy a corvette than a thumb.
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My '23 (BO) is definitely curved:
IMG_0912.JPEG
 
Eoin Domhnall said:
Welcome to the family. I’m a recent convert also. I now have 3 warwicks. Thumb 5, Corvette fretless 6, Musicman fretless 5. I’ve gotta stop looking at reverb. 😁
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I only have three also: 2001 Corvette Standard fretless 4; 2001 Corvette Standard 5; and the aforementioned Thumb 4 BO. I vowed no more basses until I sell the three I have on the market now (Duesenberg D-Bass 5, Landscape archtop fretless; Reverend Dub King in Mulberry Mist).
basses4sale.jpg
 
Second jam / audition. I love my thumb bass. It is small compared to my corvette fretless 6, enjoying that. A bit easier for long sets. It’s unassuming to others and then the sound. So easy to vary the tone with my fingers, then adding different pedal modelling chains. Most talk i’ve observed here was about aggressively cutting through the mix. Yep it does. But blending a defined tone with thumb character in soft alt indie / world music is sublime. Harder to do with my stingray and I don’t like the tone as much.
 
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Eoin Domhnall said:
Ist jam with my thumb in the wild. The tone was everything I had been told and hoped for. Everything from mild to wild to totally nasty. With the help of my anagram pedal I tried out multiple pedal chains. SO HAPPY 😁
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how are you liking the combo of the thumb plus anagram? I'm running a GPS BO 5 thumb + anagram, and I'm totally over analyzing my tone lol. It's getting in my head with all the options. I've sorta defaulted to the ampeg amp block and an ampeg 6x10 IR I got from shiftline. The cab sims on the anagram sound a bit muddy to me.
 
I’m a bit of a tone hound. I love love my thumb, it’s. such a solid bass for building excellent tone. I get sounds i enjoy but i’m never satisfied. I’ve auditioned all the presets. My favourites at the moment are…..
- Micro tubes, B3K
- Vintage micro tubes
- Peggy Pic
- alpha Omega
- Know you rage
- Boogie boogie honey

I only use these as starting points.

Effects I often add include:
- Darkglass GEQ EQUALISER.
- Gain
- Speaker cabs somtimes.
- Room Reverb

I’m trying new effects one at a time adding new ones, switching off old ones and sometimes deleting them . Seeing how they sound and fit. Usually I just stick to the presets and change a few things, play with the knobs and get sounds I like. I do most of my tweaking when I’m jamming. It’s the only way I find I can really work out what’s going on and improve my tone. I’m just a beginner though. building pedal chains from scratch? Too much work and my knowledge is well … basic.
 
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Eoin Domhnall said:
Warwick TeamBuilt Thumb BO 5-String Natural

ITS here!! So excited! Bit plainer than I expected. The finish is perfect.
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Is yours also the satin lacquer? I was disappointed to learn that you have to get the custom shop/ masterbuilt models to get the oil finish these days. My 2001 Corvettes both are natural oil finished and I find that much more elegant looking. My 2023 Thumb has the satin lacquer, and while it probably requires less maintenance, I wouldn't have chosen that finish over the natural oil.
 
Mine is the satin lacquer. I have a masterbuilt streamer that is the oil finish. It is beautiful. The satin lacquer will be more durable when gigging possibly. I have just purchased a 2006 corvette $$ ash with an oil finish. This one will be gigged lots. So we shall see. The lighter weight will be awesome.
 
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Took my 1990 Thumb 6 NT in for seasonal adjustments and some general fine tuning, and the truss rod is seized, just wouldn't add relief at all. Thankfully it's not in an unplayable state, but it's obviously not what I was hoping to hear. Anyone know how much I might be looking at to get this fixed if I send it off to Warwick? Thankfully the older designs do have removable ones but I imagine it's still a lot? Or is this something I'm just gonna have to live with?
 
Dani_On_The_Bass said:
Took my 1990 Thumb 6 NT in for seasonal adjustments and some general fine tuning, and the truss rod is seized, just wouldn't add relief at all. Thankfully it's not in an unplayable state, but it's obviously not what I was hoping to hear. Anyone know how much I might be looking at to get this fixed if I send it off to Warwick? Thankfully the older designs do have removable ones but I imagine it's still a lot? Or is this something I'm just gonna have to live with?
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They will want you to order a new neck for $1100; it will be built to match exactly what you have now. You must destroy the defective neck. Then have a luthier install it - they told me it may need adjustments to the neck pocket to fit perfectly.
 
ZomBeatle said:
They will want you to order a new neck for $1100; it will be built to match exactly what you have now. You must destroy the defective neck. Then have a luthier install it - they told me it may need adjustments to the neck pocket to fit perfectly.
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or find a luthier to remove the fretboard and replace the truss rod - that’ll cost about $500-700.
 
Dani_On_The_Bass said:
Took my 1990 Thumb 6 NT in for seasonal adjustments and some general fine tuning, and the truss rod is seized, just wouldn't add relief at all. Thankfully it's not in an unplayable state, but it's obviously not what I was hoping to hear. Anyone know how much I might be looking at to get this fixed if I send it off to Warwick? Thankfully the older designs do have removable ones but I imagine it's still a lot? Or is this something I'm just gonna have to live with?
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It should be possible to pull the trussrod out of your neckthrough 1990 thumb. If you have not done it, ask your luthier. Trussrod needs to loosen and then pull out with the hex-key.

With reference to your serial number, ask Warwick, which trussrod to replace it with (they vary over the years) - they answer: [email protected]
You may also ask the retired CEO (h.p.wilfer@)
 
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