Ran a search, i doubt this is been done before so here it is... Obviously the vast majority of people will say Wenge is better because it gives more growl and wenge has a tighter grain thus less dirt getting inside it's pores (correct me if i am wrong please!) But does it give more clarity than ovangkol? Is it heavier than Ovangkol? Discuss away and state anything else you would like to add! I was bored so i started this thread, don't kill me
Wenge is heavier, but In my opinion that makes it a more stable neck wood. The Ovangkol necks feel smoother to me but I like Wenge better. I just ordered a custom thumb 5 with a wenge neck.
Hmmmm i see, but wouldn't wenge have TOO much growl compared to Ovangkol? Growl is good but when there's too much, it sucks imo. I was on another forum and some guy had a warwick swamp-ash corvette with wenge neck and fretboard, he was using an ashdown amp, don't know which model, he was complaining the amp kept overdriving maybe due to the wenge neck as his other non-wariwkc basses seem to be fine
I think you're giving too much credit to the neck wood. It's gonna effect the sound, but it's not going to overpower the whole sound. It's only one ingredient to the tone of your bass, and depending on who you listen to, not one of the bigger factors. I also refuse to believe that you can overdrive your amp by having a Wenge neck on your bass. That's a very VERY silly assertion.
Hence the confused emoticon and i find it strange that a piece of wenge neck can overdrive the amp that much too, oh wells! Guess the guy is an EQ n00b much like i am wood n00b aswell
I like both, it didn't make that much of a difference to me really. I had a 97 Thumb 4 with the wenge neck and brass nut and whatnot. It had great tone, and so do my SSIIs, that both have Ovankol necks. It did sound a lil different, but not different enough to swear by one over the other. Basically, Warwick ROCKS no matter what wood they use in the neck...
The wenge does feel a slightly smoother feel to it. The wenge is also slightly more on the growly side, but not so much that I'd pick one and not the other. These are differences you'd have to actually try to listen for to pick out really. People also say the Wicks with wenge necks are better cause the pre-98 Wicks(with wenge) had slimmer necks. It's not like you couldn't order a new one(ovankol neck) with the slim neck ya know? It's nothing to worry about really, either way you can't go wrong IMO. Good luck!
Ditto here. My only comparison is my own 97 Thumb 5 neckthrough with Wenge neck vs the handful of times I have played newer models with the Ovangkol neck. Tone was very similar to my ears and the differences I felt were probably as much due to setup/amp issues than the neckwood.
I have a bass with wenge neck and rosewood fingerboard , and one with ovangkol neck and wenge fingerboard. The first has a midrangy growl with a slower attack , it "shouts" in the mids , with well defined "bell-like" highs . The second has a faster attack with a growly , "farty" midrange and very metallic highs . Actually the common point between the two necks is the presence of a powerful midrange, now I've found that the wenge fingerboard gives a faster attack than the rosewood. But ovangkol and wenge have almost the same sound.
The obvious question then, is, why did they change to ovangkol? Especially now that they have switched back to wénge. Perhaps it is a matter of economics and material availability, yes?
