FS: 1990 warwick thumb nt 4 with barts and wenge neck

ArwinH · #1 04-08-2007, 04:37 PM

I am selling my beloved warwick thumb, a blast from the past from 1990. My first 'nice' bass. I have moved into a jazz bass phase so that's where I'm at right now. The tone of the warwick is beautiful, fat, and articulate. It features a 7 piece wenge/bubinga neck with a figured bubinga body. Bartolini pickups and mec active preamp with 2 band eq, blend, and push/pull volume knob for active/passive operation. This model features the brass just-a-nut 1, an ingenious system that, along with the great frets, solid neck, and great setup allows for the lowest action on any bass I have. Mine is upgraded with a hipshot d-tuner on the E string, and I i'll include the original tuner. The bass features schaller straplocks and comes with a warwick rockbag. Price is $2000 plus shipping.

This bass is the epitome of everything to love about warwicks, it is from the golden handcrafted era and has the highly sought after thin neck profile. The neck is even thinner and more comfortable than my sadowsky nyc. The bathroom scale method shows it as weighing in at an even 10lbs, but I don't know how accurate that is. For what it's worth the sad comes up as an even 8lbs with a pg and pickup cover.

here are some pics.

ArwinH · #2 04-09-2007, 01:01 PM

noon bump

old_skool · #3 04-09-2007, 01:13 PM

Hows the neck dive on this one? Are the Barts original?

ArwinH · #4 04-09-2007, 01:28 PM

Neck dive is not bad at all, I just stood up with my franklin strap, which is a slippery 2 inch leather strap, and there was none whatsoever. I have more enck dive on my rob allen mb2....but of course everything is relative, the ra weighs less than 6 lbs so the neck dive isn't an issue.

I've played 3 hour sets with the warwick wihtout feeling any fatigue, but otoh if I'm playing a 2 hr set where I'm constantly all voer the place, running into people, headbanging, and jumping off the walls (which I have done before) it can be an issue.

The barts are original, the only thing not orignial on the bas is the d-tuner

Bigoo7e · #5 04-09-2007, 01:40 PM

Ohh no, don't do it... You will regret it man, Jazz basses are so hit and miss, you have an awesome bass here dude. If you love the way it plays and sounds then keep it, you have a sweet bass on your hands man and it will do nothing but gain value. A good buddy of mine has a 90 model like yours except his had emg's in it and that thing growls man cuts like a knife, don't do it!

Peace,

ArwinH · #6 04-09-2007, 01:48 PM

Trust me, this is still a hard decision and it's been a long time in the making. My tone preference has completely changed over the past few years, but this one was been my main instrument since I started seriously gigging. I've recorded two lp's with it and have used it on dozens and dozens of shows.

I guess I'm jsut a jazz bass guy right now. I have two that I love right now, and it's just time to let somebody else enjoy this.
P.M. me if you want to hear it, I'll see if I can provide some tracks from an old band.

natselection · #7 04-09-2007, 01:55 PM

bump for a great bass, gl with the sale

ArwinH · #8 04-09-2007, 02:01 PM

Thank you very much.

I kind of wanted to point out, while I can, that the bass this bass has a very cool versatility to it. While it will never do a full on fender impersonation, its mockup can be very suprising.

When put in active mode with bass and treble set flat and the pan pot dead center, it gets a really punchy and modern tone, I've used this tone to great effect on recordings to punch through a dense mix of doubled up guitar tracks and background vocals.

Something I've appreciated more lately though, is favoring the neck pickup and running the bass in passive mode. I'm not sure where that neck pickup is in realtion to a p bass, but the warwick takes on a fat growly and super thick high output tone this way.

Those are two completely different tones from the same bass, although you never lose the compressed punch you get from all that wenge and dense bubinga.

ArwinH · #9 04-21-2007, 11:58 AM

ArwinH · #10 05-29-2007, 12:27 AM

air_leech · #11 06-02-2007, 11:03 AM

someone buy this bass before I do something stupid!

ArwinH · #12 08-25-2007, 10:33 PM

ArwinH · #13 08-27-2007, 07:46 PM

I was able to snap some new pics, I feel these better represent the bass.

ArwinH · #14 08-27-2007, 07:48 PM

klanger2003 · #15 08-29-2007, 10:34 PM

a p.m. was sent.

ariwax · #16 08-30-2007, 08:13 PM

Bump for a great bass. I have a '93 Thumb that I modded to passive-only, pulled out the MEC's and dropped in Nordstrand NJ4SE's. (For anyone screaming sacrilege, don't knock it 'til you try it.) The build on the Thumbs from this era is unbelievable - handmade, and it shows. Snap this up!

ArwinH · #17 08-30-2007, 08:39 PM

I was considering doing a similar deal. i just really love the passive sound on this bass, it takes it from being super modern, tight, with that compressed bottom end, growly mids, and glassy top to a more natural and vintage-y sound. I was thinking volume, blend, tone. But eventually I just tried an old school jazz bass and fell in love. Despite the major difference in woods and construction, it's amazing how close you can get to the sound of an old p on this bass. It's almost worth keeping for that sound alone. neck pickup, passive...man, that's a great tone for rock.

xEriatarka · #18 09-01-2007, 01:18 PM

Man do I wish that I had the money for this. Absolutely amazing looking Thumb. Good luck with the sale.

Senor SQUID · #19 09-01-2007, 05:06 PM

WOW!! Where was this bass last month

ArwinH · #20 09-01-2007, 06:03 PM

same place you see it here. I put the bass up for sale 4-8-2007.