Yes, you are lucky. Your bass must have just the right body weight to neck weight ratio. My 5 string Thumb had neck dive, Hipshot Ultralight tuners helped a bit but did not cure it. Sounded great though!
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Yes, you are lucky. Your bass must have just the right body weight to neck weight ratio. My 5 string Thumb had neck dive, Hipshot Ultralight tuners helped a bit but did not cure it. Sounded great though!
I’ve owned only NT thumbs over the years 4’s,5’s, and 6. I found the 4 strings to not have that bad of dive while strapped high. But that does make the first fret feel like a mile away. The 5 is manageable with a wide strap, but the 6 is an absolute boat anchor. They truly are one of the kind sounding basses, and since I don’t play but at home sitting down, the ergonomics don’t bother me. Now the Fodera Ryan Martinie is extremely comfortable and ergonomically designed, but sound wise isn’t quite the thumb
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Couldn't tell you if it was more ergonomic or not, but Dean certainly tried to rip off the thumb bass with the Dean Sledgehammer lol. This was aroudn the time almost everything on their guitar and bass pages looked clearly like a knockoff of like 10 different brands models lol. I don't know how much you could change with it keeping the same overall vibe of a thumb bass is the issue, at what point adding or removing mass is it just a normal look bass with rounded horns. Also, it appears from feedback im lucky as hell that mine has no neckdive, but i find the ergonomics on my Thumb 4NT amazing... i like the curved body, the neck isnt any fatter than my stingray or some Pbasses ive tried and the fret access is crazy.... that said, i will agree with what someone above said that the first fret ends up pretty far away, but i have long arms so maybe thats why its less of a pain for me.
I think its just physics, if we're sticking with the same body shape. Top horn too short. Longer horn with a longer tail (Dolphin shape) seemed to work. Heavier wood (>10lbs) in the body helps the dive, but some folks are more sensitive to weight. So long as it's the Thumb shape, there doesn't seem to be a winning solution.
Whenever this topic arises, I wonder how a Spector compares. Anyone owned both a Thumb and a Spector of similar shape?
Did the Sledgehammer sound like a Thumb? It doesn’t have the same pickup layout.
Never tried one but i doubt it in general.. if anything its probbably how they slightly avoided some copyright stuff but who knows. TBH, it might be an unpopular opinion but i feel like its not even so much a "Thumb Bass" tone as much as its a "Warwick" tone, or the "Warwick Growl" as they market it. So although slanting the pickups has some effect, the bolt on models and other Thumb models have double slanted or other configurations. I think it mostly comes down to the combination of the bell brass frets and the MEC pickups that give warwick "the Warwick sound", especially considering those are the most common ingredients to all their instruments.
The unique pickup layout ABSOLUTELY is what gives Thumbs their distinctive tone, which IME differs from other Warwick models. Pickup location is king when it comes to the tone of different basses.
JeezyMcNuggles
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Pickup placement, pickups, bridge, frets, fretboard wood, body wood, preamp.
imho , in that order.
To each their own but that order seems wild to me lol. Pickup placement is certainly has an effect and is an ingredient, but the difference between slanting the pickup half an inch on the thumb, although it softens the top end a bit, is not signficant especially with all the other factors affecting your signal running through your patch cord on an electric instrument. Yes... if you put a pickup bumped directly by the fretboard and neck its going to sound muddier than if you have one bumped up against the bridge however those are the two extremes that are part one of the equation, but the magnet type, pole peices, type (single or humbucker ect) - especially when thrown through an active preamp that completely modifies and shapes the signal on an electric instrument... most things revolving around placement are easily compensated for or made variable, so agree to disagree lol.
The most surprising to me is the bridge being third (above body wood) and the pre-amp being last when its factually the thing shaping the signal the most aside from the hands hitting the strings. Like if you are under the impression that bridge is that big of a factor i assume you think thats beause you beleive it has a singificant effect the sustain of the the string vibation / resonance of the vibrating string... but then wouldnt the wood be more important in that argument? I feel like you would be hard pressed to listen to 5 audio clips with a jazzbass with 5 different bridges and order them from high mass to a fender peice of bent metal, let alone the fact people buy customshop basses with a bent peice of steel still.
Anyways kinda getting off topic here, the great tonewood / tone debate continues on!
A Warwick (owned several) retains the signature regardless of the preamp engaged or not, even when entirely removed. The passive (silver) mec still carry some of character ( I’ve used them in a jazz bass build) the golds are active pickups. The preamp from MEC is my least favorite part of the stock offerings.
I’ve had bubinga, boire, ovangkol, maple, ash, carolena, bodied wicks with Wenge, maple, and ebony fretboards. Maple, wenge, and ovangkol shafts.
I’ve had neck through multilam necks.
Streamer, dolphin, thumb, corvette, FNA.( which had seymour Duncan pre, factory )
Double buck, single, dual J.
4 and 5 string.
A couple with bartolini (factory)
only one (90 streamer standard) did not have the 2 piece bridge.
all with the 2 piece ( unique design with a big block of brass beneath the saddle block, and another block as the tail stop) have a noticeable attack envelope that differs, not the sustain so much. The contribution of the bridge carries through regardless of the woods employed.
the pickup location, combined with the pickups tone is a major component.
like all else, it’s a recipe and open to personal interpretation
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Here's my 1991 NT, no hands. Balances perfectly and the wide soft leather strap makes its 10lb 4 oz easily manageable, even at my age (61).
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Try lowering it and put the body centerline/ string path at your belt buckle, and try again.
At the height you are showing, even an EB0 would balance. Not everyone plays that high (some even higher I acknowledge)
You are cruel! Lol. The whole point of buying the curved Thumb was to mould around my beer belly. Anyhow, this is as long as my strap will go and it still balances exactly the same.
I'm also happy to accept that mine is one of only two Thumb NT ever made that balances and is worth thousands more than the inferior head diving examples. The only other Thumb I've tried was a BO4 and that was pretty horrible in comparison; thick neck and a lightweight body that induced neck dive.
Like it seems like people are on a mission to say there is horrible neck dive on the NT models, yet two people gave proof that its literally not even close to a problem, it even rests not just "diving" but tiled up in playing position... yet were clearly lying with our pictures lol. My picure is at or below belt level and im 6'2" ... no dive lol.
"drop it your ankles and it will dive, no one would play it that high normally" If you are dropping it anywhere completely below your waist, you aren't concerned with ergonomics to begin with lmfao.
So to join in on the fun. Here’s my 2022 Thumb NT5 and my Fodera Ryan Martinie Standard with the same strap. With a wide strap and held in my preferred playing position, I don’t get any dive. The fodera is lighter by at least a pound.
