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Warwicks with Wenge Necks

rogerbmiller

rogerbmiller

Gold Supporting Member
Sep 16, 2003
7,103
5,920
NYC
#1
Can anyone give me a quick primer on Warwicks that have wenge necks? I've heard conflicting things from different folks and just want to get my facts straight as I have recently acquired a Warwick with a wenge neck. Here are some questions:

1) Is it true that Warwick no longer makes all-wenge necks? I heard that the wood is too difficult and therefore expensive to work with so now most necks are ovankol.

2) When did Warwick stop making all-Wenge necks?

3) What are player's general thoughts about all-wenge necks?

4) Are the older Warwicks with wenge necks highly sought after?

Would appreciate some feedback. I personally like the tone of the wenge neck. The wood us super hard and the notes and harmonics ring pretty clear.
 
#2
1. Yes it's true, they now use Ovangkol. They still use Wenge for some of the fingerboards.
2. I believe the late 90's
3. The tone on the all wenge neck's IMO is Amazing. I heard some people had some issues with warping and with temperature changes though.
4. Yes. That's why on eBay they are selling for a lot more than a used Newer Warwick.
 
#3
2) When did Warwick stop making all-Wenge necks?

- 1998 was the last year. -

3) What are player's general thoughts about all-wenge necks?

- if you look at the grain of the wenge, either on the neck or the fingerboard, it is very tight and forms very long strait lines that run the entire lngth of the neck. i believe that wenge is a bit more dense than ovankol, and consequently some people find that it has a more desirable tone. i have a corvette 5-er with a wenge neck, but it's fretless so i can't really compare it with my other warwicks to tell you if these claims are true or not. it feels slimmer to me though.

- cosmetically, i prefer the wenge neck on a corvette, but not on a thumb. somehow, the continuity of the thumb with an ovankol neck and body strikes me as beautiful beyond words...

4) Are the older Warwicks with wenge necks highly sought after?

- more than the ovankol necks, but not "highly." most of this, imo, is due to hype more than anything else. the tone of a bass is more affected by the wood that is used for the fingerboard and the body, and certainly more affected by strings, pups, how you play, etc. neck wood is just one small peice of a large picture.

btw, congrats on your "new" warwick, a true friend for life. you can tell the yr it was made by the last two digits of the serial number on the back of the headstock.
 
#4
rogerbmiller said:
Can anyone give me a quick primer on Warwicks that have wenge necks? I've heard conflicting things from different folks and just want to get my facts straight as I have recently acquired a Warwick with a wenge neck. Here are some questions:

1) Is it true that Warwick no longer makes all-wenge necks? I heard that the wood is too difficult and therefore expensive to work with so now most necks are ovankol.

2) When did Warwick stop making all-Wenge necks?

3) What are player's general thoughts about all-wenge necks?

4) Are the older Warwicks with wenge necks highly sought after?

Would appreciate some feedback. I personally like the tone of the wenge neck. The wood us super hard and the notes and harmonics ring pretty clear.
Click to expand...

general thoughts: i have an '01 thumb NT with ovangkol and a '97 SSII with all wenge and the all wenge neck is SO much better to play with (i hardly ever pick up the thumb anymire...it's actually for sale on craigslist)...the tone is amazing...the SSII is the best bass ive ever played by far

highly sought after: YES...the reason i got my SSII was becasue i saw that is had teh all wenge neck so i went on a whim and decided that if i won it (ebay) i would sell my thumb...i got the SSII for $1500 which is pretty much unheard of with a hard case in perfect condition and now im selling my thumb to pay for it:bassist: i'd prefer all wenge necks 10/10 times...they are also thinner and i have small hands so they're much better for me...the newer necks are a bit chunkier....

anyways..nice grab.....pics by any chance??
 
#5
Mine is an odd one. It's a '98 Thumb (January I think), it's got the 4 piece wenge neck, but, it's quite chunky. I love the look of it, it's nice figured wood, even if it's very dark. Was probably one of the last all wenge Thumb BO. They stopped in 98. You can still get them as a custom option.

Feels rough to the touch. I haven;t noticed mine moving around though. As for the sound, difficult to say, I don't have a thumb Ovangkol to compare with :) But yeah, it's very hard, and very resonant, especially unplugged. It's also very heavy.
 
#6
birdxofxprey said:
- cosmetically, i prefer the wenge neck on a corvette, but not on a thumb. somehow, the continuity of the thumb with an ovankol neck and body strikes me as beautiful beyond words...
Click to expand...
Nicely put :) My thoughts exactly

birdxofxprey said:
4) Are the older Warwicks with wenge necks highly sought after?

- more than the ovankol necks, but not "highly." most of this, imo, is due to hype more than anything else. the tone of a bass is more affected by the wood that is used for the fingerboard and the body, and certainly more affected by strings, pups, how you play, etc. neck wood is just one small peice of a large picture.
Click to expand...

I agree.

And a lot of the Ovankol necks have a Wenge Fretboard
 
#8
rogerbmiller said:
Can anyone give me a quick primer on Warwicks that have wenge necks? I've heard conflicting things from different folks and just want to get my facts straight as I have recently acquired a Warwick with a wenge neck. Here are some questions:

1) Is it true that Warwick no longer makes all-wenge necks? I heard that the wood is too difficult and therefore expensive to work with so now most necks are ovankol.

2) When did Warwick stop making all-Wenge necks?

3) What are player's general thoughts about all-wenge necks?

4) Are the older Warwicks with wenge necks highly sought after?

Would appreciate some feedback. I personally like the tone of the wenge neck. The wood us super hard and the notes and harmonics ring pretty clear.
Click to expand...

1) They make it, but for custom orders only, or with upcharge on standard models. They stoped using it for all models becouse wenge became too scarce and thus too expensive.

2)In '99. Some say in '98, but i have thumb BO that's '99 an has all wenge neck.

3)Yummy :)

4) To me, wenge neck is THE neck for warwick. Non of the newer wicks had half the tone of all wenge neck. Ovangkol has too much growl or fart :D in the middle and hasn't got great low end like wenge. IMHO :)
So definetly try both before buying it... i did ;)
 
#10
'99 was the last year. You can still get them through their custom shop. I changed my corvette's ovangkol neck with a wenge neck and didn't notice a difference. That said, the feel of wenge on the hand is wonderful, never felt anything quite like that.
 
#11
momo said:
I got mine right around the transition, and I didn't notice a decernable difference between the shapes of the necks at all. Now, it seems, the necks are a bit thicker.
Click to expand...

I used to own a '97 Corvette with an all-wenge neck. The neck on it was NOTHING like current production warwick necks. I would compare the neck on my old bass to something like an Ibanez Soundgear. Very thin with a pretty tight string spacing. Before I had much to compare it with I always wondered where the "baseball bat neck" comments about Warwicks were coming from as mine was a VERY VERY VERY thin neck.

Anyone else experience this? Did they offer different neck profiles/shapes at one point? Did all Warwicks have this uber-thin neck on them? Did I get some goofy one-off model that I should have never sold? :p
 
#12
birdxofxprey said:
...the tone of a bass is more affected by the wood that is used for the fingerboard and the body, and certainly more affected by strings, pups, how you play, etc. neck wood is just one small peice of a large picture.
...
Click to expand...

You're very far away from the truth.
The neck is one of most important thing that affects thesound of a bass, together with pickups type and placement
Body wood is also important (less than neck anyway) , but fingerboard wood is a small piece of the picture.
 
#13
Silky- I own a '97 Vette as well with the all-wenge neck (and IMO superior brass nut) and the neck is quite slim. I've had opportunities to play newer Warwicks and the ovangkol necks are noticeably chunkier, but I don't find them cumbersome. I may even prefer the newer chunkier necks to the skinny wenge one.

Still, my 'Vette's the best playing, best sounding, most mojolicious bass I've ever owned and probably will ever own.

Old wenge neck is like a slimmer Jazz Bass neck. Newer ovangkol neck is like Jazz Bass width with P-bass thickness.
 
#15
I agree that they are bigger now, but the ovankol necks werent always big. I think mine is a 99 or 00, and the neck feels great. It also seems that the problem with the newer necks has more to do with the contouring in the upper positions than the lower registers. I prefer a bit of beef to my necks, but the heel seems too square on brand new models.
 
#16
To set the record straight, Warwick stopped using Wenge because of splintering issues, not because of a scarcity of the wood, although, there was a hefty price increase for a few years because the African countries decided to restrict the supply.

You can order Wenge for a neck with an upcharge. They actually use Wenge for the neck on the new P-Nut II Sig.

Is the Wenge more sought after, I'd say probably yes, but it's not as substantial as one may think. I think the real reason that the "older" Warwicks are more sought after is that the pre 98's had more of a hand built feel, so some collectors prefer those models more, and that drives up value.

As far as tone, I actually think that the Ovangkol sounds very good. One of my good friends was a Warwick endorser, and he had a few Stage II's with the Wenge, and we compared those basses with the newer Ovangkol neck, and both he and I thought the Ovangkol sounded better. I actually thought the Ovangkol had more growl than the Wenge.

Ovangkol gets a pretty bad rap for whatever reason. It's a very good tone wood, essentially the same as Bubinga. It's funny that a lot of people like Shedua a lot, and it's the same wood, just a different name.
 
#17
Halftooth said:
Is the Wenge more sought after, I'd say probably yes, but it's not as substantial as one may think. I think the real reason that the "older" Warwicks are more sought after is that the pre 98's had more of a hand built feel, so some collectors prefer those models more, and that drives up value.
Click to expand...

Pre '98 were already CNC made.
Neck through's were hand made until 1995, while Bolt-On had always been CNC made


Halftooth said:
As far as tone, I actually think that the Ovangkol sounds very good. One of my good friends was a Warwick endorser, and he had a few Stage II's with the Wenge, and we compared those basses with the newer Ovangkol neck, and both he and I thought the Ovangkol sounded better. I actually thought the Ovangkol had more growl than the Wenge.
Click to expand...

I think it all depends on what "growl" means to each of us.
I identify the Warwick sound with a low-midrange growl, and in this area Wengé blows away Ovangkol.
Ovangkol necks still sound very good, and have a more open, brighter tone.
Ovangkol necks growls in a way much more similar to Maple necks.


Halftooth said:
Ovangkol gets a pretty bad rap for whatever reason. It's a very good tone wood, essentially the same as Bubinga. It's funny that a lot of people like Shedua a lot, and it's the same wood, just a different name.
Click to expand...

+ 1 on this.
 
#19
Halftooth said:
To set the record straight, Warwick stopped using Wenge because of splintering issues, not because of a scarcity of the wood, although, there was a hefty price increase for a few years because the African countries decided to restrict the supply.
Click to expand...

Soooo if I have what I thought was a late '90s Streamer (But has 00 as the last two digits of the number) that has streaks that go the length of the neck, sounds great, feels great and splintered twice on me recently, I've got a Wenge bass?

:hyper:
 
#20
This, on my '97, is what Wenge looks like, correct?

warwickwenge2.gif


warwickwenge1.gif
 

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