What bass to pick

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deano

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I am look at getting a thumb 5-string thru-neck or a warick streamer stage I or II, I was wondering if anyone had advice on them as I have heard good things about all three; also.
> What is the difference between the stage I and II,
> I ask a guy in the shop and he started talking about all different woods, so what wood if better

Thanks
 
The musicshop I go to every week has all of those models. The Warwick Thumb NT is very comfortable. I love the small and contoured body.

The main difference between the Stage I and II is that the Stage I is made entirely out of maple. This means that you'll have a much brighter sound and not the typical Warwick growl that you get from the ovangkol neck. The Stage I is also a lot lighter than the Stage II. The string spacing by the Stage I is 20 mm by all models (5 and 6 stringers are broadnecks). The Stage IIs have 18 mm spacings.

It all depends what on sound you like. If you want a brighter sound go with the Stage I. You might want to reconcider if you have a problem with the broader neck. If you want the typical Warwick growl go with the Thumb. I find it a lot lighter and more comfortable than the Streamer II. It's really up to you. If you want to find out which one suits you best go out there and try them out!
 
Deano i posted this in another thread, here it is again mate:


ok.... the differences...


Firstly, the main difference are the woods.

A Stage 1 is made of Maple with strips of ovangkol (?) for the neck. This gives the bass a bright sound with nice mids; it's also lighter in weight than the dark-wood warwicks.

A Stage 2 on the other hand is Afzelia with ovangkol for the neck. The afzelia is a much denser wood than maple; this is said to give the bass better lows and mids... and after all, the dense dark woods are what gives Warwick basses their 'growl'.


The next and most significant difference is the string spacing. The Stage 1 has a wider string spacing than a Stage 2... thus at the 24th fret the stage 1 neck is significantly wider than a stage 2 neck. Have a look at the photos of both basses and you'll see that the Stage 1 neck tapers wheras the Stage 2 neck looks straighter. I think string spacing is 20mm on the Stage 1 as compared to 18mm on a Stage 2.


OK, another difference is in construction. Both basses have neck-thru construction... HOWEVER, a Stage 2 has 'hidden' NT construction.... thus the body of the Stage 2 looks solid from the front... you only see the neck laminates from the back. With a Stage 1, you can see the wood strips from the front and back.


Stage 1 basses have a P/J pickup configuration (4-string) and 2 humbucking soapbars (5-string and 6-string models). Stage 2 basses have J/J pickups in both 4 and 5-string models. Both basses have active 3-band electronics, yet from what i know the Stage 2 has a slightly different pre-amp that better suits the denser woods.


Finally, Stage 2 basses are only available in 4 or 5 string models. Stage 1s are available in 4 through to 6 strings.




I own 2 Stage 1s (one Fretless, the other is the custom shop all-white bass with blue LEDs).

HOWEVER — i had both of these made in Afzelia.

The reason is i prefer the sound of Afzelia, but enjoy the wider string spacing available on a Stage 1. In addition, my fretless is a six-string... so that was not available as a Stage 2. Both basses feature a Stage 2 pre-amp.

I guess both basses could be called a 'Stage 1-and-a-half!'



I hope all this info helps. I think the best thing to do is play both basses and see which you prefer in sound and spacing. Remember you can do ANYTHING as a custom shop bass so all the options are there!

Cheers,

Lex
 
Good points above from Maverick and Lex.

To summarize IMHO:

Thumb = most aggressive midrange, growlier, my favourite
Stage 2 = deeper, more 'balanced' sound
Stage 1 = brighter, less dark growl
 
well done Lex,I think you hit the nail on the head there mate. :wink:
 
thanks a lot guys for the comment, it really is a big help. Maverick I will take your advice and go and try all of them out. I am still sitting toward the thumb bass because of its famous growl and plus some of my fovourate bass player play it: jack bruce, ryan martinie out of mudvayne.

Lex thanks a lot for your detail input

"HOWEVER — i had both of these made in Afzelia.

The reason is i prefer the sound of Afzelia"

so did you find that you got a deep sound with using this wood as I looked at the stream stage one and two but the stage I just looked fatter and cooler but you also pointed out that the stage II has a deeper sound. the reason I would like a deeper sound is that i have a nice bright sound overwater bass (j-series - 5-string black) check it out if you want
so I thought that i sound get a a new bass but on the other side of the scale
 
yeah mate, i would think you'll get a much fuller and 'growlier' sound from an Afzelia, Bubinga or Ovangkol bass than an all-maple Stage 1.... although i have played maple stage 1s that just sound fantastic...

best thing to do if you can is to check all three out (thumb NT, stage 1, stage 2)... good luck!

Lex
 
thanks, I will and get back to you. one more thing didn't warwick change the type of wood they used on the thumb, and now it is of lower quality.
 
not to my knowledge... it think it was always bubinga (?) but i may be wrong...


the only significant change in woods i can think of is the neck woods — previously wenge... now ovangkol

Cheers

Lex
 
Warwick hasn't changed woods for the construction of the bodies so far. As LEx mentioned, the only significant change so far was for neck construction, for which we switched to using Ovangkol instead of Wenge as a standard. This doesn't mean it is lower quality, but just a little change in the sound, too little to be noticeable by most of our players. Wenge is still available in the custom shop for neck wood in case someone desires a bass with this kind of neck.

We still use Wenge for our fingerboards, except on the Thumb NT and Infinity LTD for which we use Ebony and Rosewood respectively.
 
ok thats cool, I was looking on the internet and there was a review on thumbs, the guy just slated them and how the change in neck wood with the wrong decision. lex I am deferently going for a Afzelia body no matter what I choose and if i go for a thumb i will get the neck in wenge. I checked out the custom shop there is some pretty nice basses there.
 
Hello deano,

If you e-mail [email protected] you let our Custom Shop know what things you're interested in and they will be able to let you know what's best depending on the sound you're looking as well as some other custom options you might want to add like LEDs or custom inlays or finishes. Also on the User's Manual (which you can download online) we have a short description of the standard woods so that you can have a better understanding of how the wood composition may affect the sound of your bass.


Let us know if you need more help. People here in the forum are always willing to help.
 
yup good info Ollie!

an afzelia thumb... i'd like to see that! :D
 
yeah same here lex,afzelia infinities sound great,at least the one i heard did.but yeah,a thumb in afzelia would be nice.
 
Sorry,the infinity i refered to was zebrano.not afzelia,now i've confused myself.streamer,thats what i meant.
 
The five strings have a 16.5mm string spacing, Modulus has a fairly wide string spacing at 17mm. I played a broadneck five string and it was a rediculously huge stretch to the D and G strings, not comfortable at all.
 
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