Wood identification on a Warwick Thumb BO4

[Maestro & Muse]

Hello all,

A post by fellow forumite, pablomigraine, in the classifieds, had me thinking about my 'wick thumb BO4, and it's wood composition. The bass is a '99, and an anomaly in the sense that it has an all-wenge neck, after the '98 cut-off, when they switched to wenge boards only. Strangely, too, the body doesn't look like the rather straight-grained ovangkol that you see nowadays (and that I've only ever seen.) It should be an ovangkol body, but does anyone here think it's something different?

Here's a pic:

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I'll get more pics up shortly, but from this pic, the grain on the armrest is rather straight, but the rest of it isn't. If you've any thoughts, I'd be happy to hear. Just a fun thread for kicks.

Maestro

 

[Buslady7803]

plug the serial in at Warwick, it should tell you the wood there.
http://www.warwickbass.com/modules/support/serials.php

I kind of looks like bubinga...but im no expert with woods used.

Nice lookin Thumb btw, I'm switching my Corvette to black hardware, I think it looks soooo much better.

 

[Flaked Beans]

That's ovangkol, bubinga looks like this:

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[kevteop]

Bubinga doesn't have those broad stripes to it, the grain is quite subtle-looking.

 

[Maestro & Muse]

It's pretty sweet, I agree! I've long been aware it wasn't Bubinga, but if it's ovangkol, it's nothing like the stuff you see nowadays. The grain is so much more detailed, wavy, and has much more character. I'm going to have to submit an e-mail to them when I get more pictures, since there current system doesn't cover pre 2000 instruments. Thanks for the help, all.

 

[maxbass]

The bass is a '99, and an anomaly in the sense that it has an all-wenge neck, after the '98 cut-off, when they switched to wenge boards only.

As usual in Warwick history, changes are never cut-offs, so there are many 1999 basses with Wenge necks.

btw body is Ovangkol for sure

 

[Rano Bass]

Ovangkol IMO.

 

[Meatrus]

I'm not sure, but I dont think its Ovangkol, the pieces I have worked with have looked much more stripy in grain and nearly always olive coloured in places. Looks closer to the Bubinga, just a different piece of wood to the example above.

 

[BioDriver]

All wenge neck = ovangkol body. The pronounced grain is a dead giveaway. IMO the wenge neck is worth the not-bubinga body.