Let me start by saying that I had a very unpleasant experience with Warwick. The company's customer service was absolutely atrocious. I really needed these guys to step up and stand behind their product (a lemon Thumb NT) and they didn't. As a result of that experience I swore I'd never buy another Warwick product. Having said that, however, I will offer my take on the Warwicks I owned (it's not all bad!). I have owned three Warwicks in the past: A '92 Streamer Stage I (4 string), a 2002 Thumb NT 5 and a 2003 Thumb BO (4 string). Playability-wise, the Streamer was my favourite. It had perfect balance and was fairly light. The Thumb NT was ergonomically horrendous - it just didn't sit well in my hands (and yes, neck-dive was a problem). The Thumb BO was okay balance-wise (it pretty much sat right in-between the Streamer and the Thumb NT) but I found the neck to be a bit on the thick side (the neck on the NT was also pretty thick). Nevertheless, I found I was able to adjust to the neck. Tone-wise, the Thumb BO was, without a doubt, the best of the bunch: articulate, punchy, warm and tight. This bass really sat in "the mix" well. A very easy-to-record bass. The downside for me was that the fundamental of each note was fairly compressed and the notes wouldn't coat the foundation of the mix the way a Fender would (which is to be expected - Fenders and Warwicks are very different beasts). Not a good bass for blues or old soul/R&B, in my opinion (you couldn't get much fatness out of the D and G strings). For what this bass did do, however (produce a tight, modern tone), it was fantastic - a really solid instrument that generated lots of good feedback on the part of listeners. The Streamer, on the other hand, was way too brittle-sounding for my taste, and it tended to get a little lost in the mix at times (at the time I put this down to its being a neck-through). The Thumb NT was even worse when it came to cutting through live. Just useless. The bass sounded great in my living room (well, to be honest, the B string never sounded all that good - too muddy and flubby) but get it on stage and forget it. The bass didn't have a lot of natural low end (actually, I was always boosting the bass EQ to full on all of my Warwicks just to get a fatter sound) but when I'd boost the bass EQ it was mud city. Just horrible. What's more, that Thumb NT was the WORST bass for slapping that I'd ever tried. I think this had to do partly with the 26 frets (making the string very taught just before where the fingerboard meets the body). Anyway, I really wanted to like that bass, but it never happened. Personally, I think you can do better than Warwick for the styles you seem to be into. Whatever - if you've tried different Wicks and you like the sound (and don't mind supporting a company that has some lousy customer service policies), then find one you're comfortable with and run with it. Just make sure you're comfortable with how the basses hang and how the necks are shaped (if you can, play the bass standing up with a strap before actually buying the thing). I would also suggest sticking with a bolt-on design if you want to be able to cut through in a live setting.
Love that wenge neck. Regarding my above post, it's possible that the wenge-necked neck-throughs cut through a mix better than the later ovankol-necked models. Just a thought.
