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Warwick tone from Warmoth?

krovx

krovx

Thump or Bust
Supporting Member
Mar 11, 2003
2,649
613
Michigan, USA
#1
I have always dug Warwick tone especially the Thumb. I am not a fan of the Thumb ergonomics. If I was a big deal in the bass community I would have a thumb on a corvette body and be happy. However, I am not that prestigious nor do I have deep pockets for a custom.

I know this is a shot in the air but wondering if it is ballpark feasible since Warmoth offers exotic woods. Keep playing around but I know the Thumb is just so unique.

Appreciate your opinions bass brethren, even if it shoots down my idea.
 
#2
krovx said:
I have always dug Warwick tone especially the Thumb. I am not a fan of the Thumb ergonomics. If I was a big deal in the bass community I would have a thumb on a corvette body and be happy. However, I am not that prestigious nor do I have deep pockets for a custom.

I know this is a shot in the air but wondering if it is ballpark feasible since Warmoth offers exotic woods. Keep playing around but I know the Thumb is just so unique.

Appreciate your opinions bass brethren, even if it shoots down my idea.
Click to expand...

As an longtime owner (yet now previous owner) of the thumb 5 bolt on and the thumb 5 neck through. I think the most unique thing that gives a thumb bass it's distinct sound is the pickup positions. Aside from that let me get into the differences between the bolt on and neck through thumb basses. The bolt on I had had an ovankol body the NT had a bubinga body, the necks were drastically different, the bolt on was ovankol with a wenge fingerboard if I remember right, the nt had a wenge/bubinga neck with an ebony fingerboard. If my memory serves me right warmoth will build a wenge neck with bubinga stripes and an ebony board but I don't think they offer either of the thumb body woods as a body wood. The two basses while both easily identifiable to me as thumb basses have some different characteristics. The bolt on having a more aggressive sound with a growling midrange. The neck through is a prestine instrument with massive lows and low mids and more prestine highs in comparison to the bolt on. It's also a bit more flexable having a 3 band eq as opposed to the bolt ins 2 band eq. Personally for me if was going for more of the nt thumb sound and was building say a jazz 5 string with warmoths options Id probably go with a wenge/bubinga neck with ebony fingerboard and an ash body. Ash is lighter than both bubinga and ovankol, but it emphasizes lows and low mids in a similar way to bubinga. I'm a bit clueless out of warmoths options as to what body wood to go for if you were looking for the more aggressive midrange of the bolt on thumb. But I would definetly try to get actual warwick MEC electronics a warwick nut, bronze frets(I can't remember of warmoth offers them or not), and also try to get a real warwick bridge. The high end Warwick bridges do a great job of transferring the energy of the strings to the woods which really helps magnify the "woody" characteristics of thier basses. But by far the most important thing is the electronics and pickup position.
 
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#5
Back in the day I discovered a flaw in my warwick fna pickup, a grounding buzz when anchoring on the pickup. Warwick admitted it was an issue that was being worked on, and since it was under warranty, they replaced the pickup. They actually didnt want the old pickup back, so obsessive old me was all over the warmouth site thinking the exact same thing (15 yrs ago). Wanted to make a hybrid bass, jazz bass neck in ovangkol and wenge, ash stingray body.

I wound up not going through with it, but it probably would have been a killer bass, but not much resale value.

Shortly afterwards the olp stingrays came out surprisingly good for the money so I bought one. The warwick pickup ended up in that bass and it was a rested issue.
 
#7
Nope but it sure sounded better than it did with the stock pickup.

An extra pickup lying around does not justify spending that much money to build a bass around it ha. Having a good body or neck is another story. I just had a pickup. ...
 

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