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Wenge Neck Basses

This is pretty much the stock picture that floats around TalkBass. It doesn't give a decent view of the neck...guess you'll just have to use your imagination!

ElrickNJS-1.jpg


Riis
 
So, what basses come stock with a wenge neck? Warwicks, of course, and a couple Ibanez SR's have a wenge/bubinga combo. What other basses?

MTD USA basses. Its an option and has gone up in price. Some MTD fans consider the Wenge neck and Wenge Fretboard coupled with a tulipwood or Ash body to be Mike Tobias's recipe for TONE. I owned a 93 Warwick Thumb 4 neck through back in the day that had a wenge board and combined neck that I loved but as MikeBass stated Warwick moved away form Wenge and went to Ovankol (sp?) Anyway I HATE Warwick necks now, baseball bats. Sorry all you Warwick lovers! :hiding: I LOVE the feel of my MTD 535, the neck is just soo smooth! Very Comfortable.
 
Wow, it seems like a lot of these basses are pretty high end models. Are there any, more conservatively priced basses?

Depends on your definition of conservatively priced. Mid-range Warwicks (Streamer LX, Pro M, etc.) can be had in the $800-900 range, Elricks $1400-1600 range. As you mentioned, I've seen several imports with really nice wenge / maple / whatever necks. The Ibanez Soundgear series comes to mind.

Riis
 
Some Ibanez basses have wenge / bubinga or purpleheart necks, but with rosewood boards. (That always confused me, but whatever!)

From what I had gathered Warwick went away from wenge because it's expensive, comes from the Congo which is not a very fun place right now, it destroys their shop equipment, splinters, and is generally a pain in the butt to work with.
 
Wenge is becoming scarce and is a pain to work with from what I understand. I'm shocked that it's available on lower end basses like Corts. I wonder if it's real wenge or if it's another variety that's similar enough no one would really notice... That or it's a lower grade wenge than Mike Tobias uses.