Loving my new Thumb!
I just bought a used '97 Thumb 4 BO! I have always heard Warwicks have great bass sounds. So, I'm very excited about it. I've gotten it for maybe a week, and I am playing it every day! Can't put it down! It's that inspiring.
I started off with a relatively cheap Ibanez bass to see if I would stick with bass playing. Don't get me wrong. The Ibanez is a great place to star with. Fast neck. P/J pickups. Verstatile, and great for it's price. Well, it's 5 years since I had it, and I thought it's time to seriously get a better sounding bass, especially now that I can begin to heard the difference (so learning to distinguish what a good bass sounds like).
Over this long deliberation period, I tried as many basses as I can at Guitar Center. I had always thought of starting with the Covette, because that's the price range that suits me. I actually wasn't impressed with them. It's either it's way too noisy at GC to truly test drive the Covette, or that I can't hear the difference. Likely it's both. Hence, I was just holding off till I am sure. Meanwhile, I tried Fenders (of course), Peavey, other Ibanez models, etc., etc.
One day I saw a used ad in a local online website for a Warwick Thumbs, and decided to check it out. Finally, I can hear the difference! Although I'm still not all certain, I know the Thumbs is a higher model than the Covette, and I knew I have to take the risk of playing it for extended period of time if I want to be acquainted with its sound.
Well, so far, I'm really loving it! Playing is very smooth, notes seem to sound forever, and I find I don't have to fight the instrument to coax it to do what I needed it to do. I find I can spend more time practicing and improving techniques, rather than working around barriers...if you know what I mean
And of course, the tone. I mean, it's just sounds great! I think I now know what people mean when they say it growls. I paired it up with a Markbass (also a recent purchase in my attempt to get more serious on this instrument), and because the Markbass is a very transparent bass amp, I can hear very clearly the true nature of the Thumb.
Finally, the thumb looks great! The wood, the grain...wow. Because it's made in '97, it looks somewhat aged. Hopefully through periodic waxing I can bring back its luster. It's heavier; I just have to get used to it.
Overall, I am very pleased with this instrument, and I'm happy to be able to own this wonderful bass guitar. I hope I can do justice to it through my playing to bring out its qualities. I will be spending lots of time working on the Thum, that's for sure!
The other great thing was that I found this Warwick website, which is choke-full of great information and tips for a newbie Warwick Thumbs owner like me
I do have one question for the experts out there: when I set the Thumbs preamp knobs flat (in the middle), it sounds trembly and mid-rangey. Is that normal? When I bypass the preamp (by pulling out the volume knob) to set it to passive, it sounds even more tembly. Of course, I can pull back the highs and increase the lows, but it struck me odd that the default settings sound mid-range instead of boomy low. I hope the bass preamp is not malfunctioning. Thanks in advance if you can shed some light on this for me. (Or direct me to another thread in this forum.)
I just bought a used '97 Thumb 4 BO! I have always heard Warwicks have great bass sounds. So, I'm very excited about it. I've gotten it for maybe a week, and I am playing it every day! Can't put it down! It's that inspiring.
I started off with a relatively cheap Ibanez bass to see if I would stick with bass playing. Don't get me wrong. The Ibanez is a great place to star with. Fast neck. P/J pickups. Verstatile, and great for it's price. Well, it's 5 years since I had it, and I thought it's time to seriously get a better sounding bass, especially now that I can begin to heard the difference (so learning to distinguish what a good bass sounds like).
Over this long deliberation period, I tried as many basses as I can at Guitar Center. I had always thought of starting with the Covette, because that's the price range that suits me. I actually wasn't impressed with them. It's either it's way too noisy at GC to truly test drive the Covette, or that I can't hear the difference. Likely it's both. Hence, I was just holding off till I am sure. Meanwhile, I tried Fenders (of course), Peavey, other Ibanez models, etc., etc.
One day I saw a used ad in a local online website for a Warwick Thumbs, and decided to check it out. Finally, I can hear the difference! Although I'm still not all certain, I know the Thumbs is a higher model than the Covette, and I knew I have to take the risk of playing it for extended period of time if I want to be acquainted with its sound.
Well, so far, I'm really loving it! Playing is very smooth, notes seem to sound forever, and I find I don't have to fight the instrument to coax it to do what I needed it to do. I find I can spend more time practicing and improving techniques, rather than working around barriers...if you know what I mean
And of course, the tone. I mean, it's just sounds great! I think I now know what people mean when they say it growls. I paired it up with a Markbass (also a recent purchase in my attempt to get more serious on this instrument), and because the Markbass is a very transparent bass amp, I can hear very clearly the true nature of the Thumb.
Finally, the thumb looks great! The wood, the grain...wow. Because it's made in '97, it looks somewhat aged. Hopefully through periodic waxing I can bring back its luster. It's heavier; I just have to get used to it.
Overall, I am very pleased with this instrument, and I'm happy to be able to own this wonderful bass guitar. I hope I can do justice to it through my playing to bring out its qualities. I will be spending lots of time working on the Thum, that's for sure!
The other great thing was that I found this Warwick website, which is choke-full of great information and tips for a newbie Warwick Thumbs owner like me
I do have one question for the experts out there: when I set the Thumbs preamp knobs flat (in the middle), it sounds trembly and mid-rangey. Is that normal? When I bypass the preamp (by pulling out the volume knob) to set it to passive, it sounds even more tembly. Of course, I can pull back the highs and increase the lows, but it struck me odd that the default settings sound mid-range instead of boomy low. I hope the bass preamp is not malfunctioning. Thanks in advance if you can shed some light on this for me. (Or direct me to another thread in this forum.)
