=The Warwick Thumb Club=

[thndrstk6]

So I keep reading about the corvette kids and the P-nut group and the buzzard brothers but I haven't seen anything on the greatest Warwick bass of all... the Thumb. If there is a place for us then let me know, if not then please post your pix or just a comment on how happy you are with your thumb bass and why.

[maddrakkett]

The Thumb NT was my dream bass that I never thought I could afford. I love the small, curvy sexy shape of the body and the tight, snappy, growl and authority that no other bass can duplicate.

Before I thought I could afford a Thumb, I bought a Corvette Std. fretless and a Corvette $$. Then for some reason it occurred to me to check eBay for a used Thumb NT. I was leary of buying something that expensive over the internet, but sure enough, one with a nicely figured grain showed up and I won it for a reasonable price. When it arrived, I couldn't believe I actually had my dream bass in hand. I still can't believe it to this very day!

Then one day at my local Bass Place store, I came across a Thumb LTD Dirty Blonde that had been de-fretted. The pattern in the top wood looks like spread eagle wings and the thing plays so beautifly, I couldn't resist - and the price was decent too. I get sweet fretless mwah tones from the TJ and a blend of split TJ with a little P pickup, then I can go full P pickup and get a great classic funk tone, and I even get a good slap and pop out of the fretless board and I also get a nice "slap-n-slide" ala Pino Palladino on Paul Young's 'No Parlez' album...

I love all my Warwick models, but the Thumbs are my overall favorites. Two kinds of construction (NT and BO) and two kinds of woods (Bubinga Pommele/Ovengkol and Ash/Birdseye Poplar/Maple) for two different kinds of tones to cover all ranges with two Thumbs:

[thndrstk6]

I usually like ebony on my fret boards but for some reason your NT looks so good with the lighter color. Your NT is one of my favorite pix that I have come across in a while. I really like your DB as well. I'll post some pix of my thumbs tomorrow.

[maddrakkett]

I usually like ebony on my fret boards but for some reason your NT looks so good with the lighter color. Your NT is one of my favorite pix that I have come across in a while. I really like your DB as well. I'll post some pix of my thumbs tomorrow.

Thanks! The Thumb NT is a Wenge fingerboard. It's from the year 2000 and has a 7-piece laminate neck of Bubinga and Ovangkol. Looking forward to pics of your Thumbs and here's one more, a close up of my Thumb NT's grain that I've posted before. This bass now has Warwick Straplocks, a Hipshot D-Tuner, a JAN III, and a Bartolini 3-way preamp, but I kept the MEC pots and original knobs. As you probably can tell, I LOVE this bass:

[thndrstk6]

Yeah I made your bass into a single cut in the single cut thread. I want a 4 string thumb next so I can have the 4,5,6. They would look so cool next to each other in my room.

[herb vibes]

about thumb nt's:
the thumb was the reason i started playin' warwick and it was a dreambass at the beginning since i tried out in gc. over ricardo i realized a half of a dream a 02 thumb bo 4. loved the handling of the bass and bought as backup and for other uses a corvette ash.

but then....
i felt in love at a basscenter with a vintage thumb nt4 89! 12 hours later a thumb bo, fender jb and 550 euros less i took the thumb home and since them i love vintage warwick!
love the handling, 7piece wenge/bubinga neck, emg-pu, jan1 and wenge fretboard. they are more special then the present warwicks to me. i don't even have neckdive!

3month later again ricardo and a little bit of help thru this forum i bought another vintage thumb nt from 88 this time a 5er for an amazing price of only 550euros :D this bass is killer because of the pu-position!!!

i'm thinking that i gonna switch from 4 to 5 love this bass so muchX)

anyway back to the thumb:
the sound is great and very unique. it may be a little bit heavy for the small body but this bass is just amazing for its look, handling and sound! it has that typical warwick growl with a lot of mids and a very unique slapsound. i never thought that j-pu can do something like that! but in combination with the right woods here we got bubinga it just makes a brutal good sounding bass which is at the same time a piece of art like warwick use to say!
i can use this bass for any sound genres is it funk, rock, jazz, hiphop or metal! the sound always fits. and it always makes me handsome no matter how hard the last night was;P

my tipp:
if you planning to buy a thumb then checkout when possible the older ones! and always kepp an eye open on ebay since they always have older wicks for cheap price.
the new basses are great too you can't deny but a little bit expensive too the older handcrafted ones are perfect in all small details except they don't have the volute! plus they shoudn't be so expensive anymore (secondhand of course!).

thumb <3

[schlobodan]

about thumb nt's:
the thumb was the reason i started playin' warwick and it was a dreambass at the beginning since i tried out in gc. over ricardo i realized a half of a dream a 02 thumb bo 4. loved the handling of the bass and bought as backup and for other uses a corvette ash.

but then....
i felt in love at a basscenter with a vintage thumb nt4 89! 12 hours later a thumb bo, fender jb and 550 euros less i took the thumb home and since them i love vintage warwick!
love the handling, 7piece wenge/bubinga neck, emg-pu, jan1 and wenge fretboard. they are more special then the present warwicks to me. i don't even have neckdive!

3month later again ricardo and a little bit of help thru this forum i bought another vintage thumb nt from 88 this time a 5er for an amazing price of only 550euros :D this bass is killer because of the pu-position!!!

i'm thinking that i gonna switch from 4 to 5 love this bass so muchX)

anyway back to the thumb:
the sound is great and very unique. it may be a little bit heavy for the small body but this bass is just amazing for its look, handling and sound! it has that typical warwick growl with a lot of mids and a very unique slapsound. i never thought that j-pu can do something like that! but in combination with the right woods here we got bubinga it just makes a brutal good sounding bass which is at the same time a piece of art like warwick use to say!
i can use this bass for any sound genres is it funk, rock, jazz, hiphop or metal! the sound always fits. and it always makes me handsome no matter how hard the last night was;P

my tipp:
if you planning to buy a thumb then checkout when possible the older ones! and always kepp an eye open on ebay since they always have older wicks for cheap price.
the new basses are great too you can't deny but a little bit expensive too the older handcrafted ones are perfect in all small details except they don't have the volute! plus they shoudn't be so expensive anymore (secondhand of course!).

thumb <3

550 Euros for the 5er?????

[herb vibes]

550 Euros for the 5er?????

http://www.warwick.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5924
:wink:

[Mr Rabble]

Thumb = Warwick 8)

[maddrakkett]

I'm diggin' this thread already. Some excellent vintage Thumbs there; love the grain on yours Mr. Rabble and the reddish color on that 5er Herb.

Great stuff, great stories - keep 'em coming.

Now we need Thumb Club member numbers...

[Mr.Demeter]

can Meshell and I join ?

[maddrakkett]

I love the grain on your fingerboard Mr. D.

Tigerstripe Ebony can look so exotic, especially when it's on a nice Thumb NT 6!

[herb vibes]

her's a old snapshot off my sold thumb bo:

was a great start into the warwick world, start to missing it a little:s

[herb vibes]

i think i gonna love this thread :wink:
@mrrabble:
since we got near serialnr. and now seeing your beautiful thumb i'm sure our basses were made from the same tree

[Casey]

My turn to chime in

Here are some updated pics of my Thumb... With all the crazy mods I've done!

Wenge trussrod cover
Wenge knobs
Chrome hardware
JAN 1
I don't know if you can notice from the pics much... But the back of the neck nearer to the nut is quite a bit flatter do to me "shaving" the neck a bit.
MEC 3 band EQ
And my not so famous... crazy oil mixture finish.
I'm sure I forgot a few other mods...

[cbbass123]

Wow...where did all these six stringers come from... I want to play too!!

[maddrakkett]

With a name like Thumbin, I knew Casey would show up in this thread with the 6-string modded beauty! :D

And cbbass123, those are some nice Thumbs, especially the wood on that NT!

[thndrstk6]

Wow nice thumbs guys. Every time I see a new bass picture on this forum I think, wow there cant be anything better than this, and then someone else post some crazy junk like you guys. Every time I come on to this warwick forum I love warwicks more and more. GAS GAS GAS!!!

[Greg]

Did someone say Thumb?

[herb vibes]

hey greg are you keepin' it now?
come on peoples i want to see more thumbs :D

[Mr.D]

Can I join the club ?
Here are my babies :D:D




The Thumb Bass is the reason why I love Warwick in the first place, I tried one on my bass teacher house and felt in love with it right away,
The shape , the look of the woods, and that amazing sound, so after that I spend almost two years saving money to get my Thumb NT and it's still my fav Wick :D:D
It has the sound I can't find on any other bass, I've already said this in other topic, and many people don't know what they're missing for not give the Thumb a try.

[maddrakkett]

I would say you are in the club Mr. D. You got a pair of great Thumbs there and you know the experience of a tone like no other! :D

[Bombi]

20 years between the two but obviously, they share some genetic material

[trujo777]

Wow those are sweet Bombi. Where did you get that thumb rest?

Also I have read the 4 ers aare supposed to have sm aller nodies that the othhers but it seems from the pic that the 4 you got is bigger than the 5er. am I right or is it just the angle of the pic?

[Bombi]

Wow those are sweet Bombi. Where did you get that thumb rest?

Also I have read the 4 ers aare supposed to have sm aller nodies that the othhers but it seems from the pic that the 4 you got is bigger than the 5er. am I right or is it just the angle of the pic?

The thumb rest was cuted out of a plank from my rooms floor ...

For the size, you are right, I realized when I took the picture that the 4's upper horn is attached at the 21 fret, the 5's is attached at the 24th fret.

Remember that the 4 is the old thumb shape (1986), I believe that the new ones have exactly the same size as my 5stringer

[Bombi]

More pictures of the old one here :
http://www.warwick.de/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3687&postdays=0&postorder=asc&star t=0[/url]

[saxonbass]

Just a couple of Thumb BO quickies!

[saxonbass]

Forgot to add... some great pics, by the way :D

[maddrakkett]

Sweet fretless! Beautiful! :D

[herb vibes]

bombi i love 4string! hey i see you changed the pu from barts to emg, how is the sound difference?
the thumb rest is cool man i also want to put a thumb rest between the pu.
anyway both are gorgeos!

[Bombi]

bombi i love 4string! hey i see you changed the pu from barts to emg, how is the sound difference?
the thumb rest is cool man i also want to put a thumb rest between the pu.
anyway both are gorgeos!

The EMG are more Hi-Fi, the Barts more brute force, anyway, I like to swap from time to time, I like both. Same thing for the electronic, my actual setting is no-preamp (but the ones in the emg), a la Jazz bass, one volume for each pup and a passive tone.

Thanks for your comments.

[Bombi]

Saxonbass, for me, the sexiest of the sexiest is the Thumb fretless, so pure, so hot.

[trujo777]

Wow those are sweet Bombi. Where did you get that thumb rest?

Also I have read the 4 ers aare supposed to have sm aller nodies that the othhers but it seems from the pic that the 4 you got is bigger than the 5er. am I right or is it just the angle of the pic?

The thumb rest was cuted out of a plank from my rooms floor ...

For the size, you are right, I realized when I took the picture that the 4's upper horn is attached at the 21 fret, the 5's is attached at the 24th fret.

Remember that the 4 is the old thumb shape (1986), I believe that the new ones have exactly the same size as my 5stringer

how did you attach the thumb rest to the bass? glue?

[thndrstk6]

So I finally got pix of my 2 Thumbs. Notice the color and wood difference between the two. There is a definite sound difference between the two also. By the way the sheets look tan because of the lighting not because they are dirty.

[thndrstk6]

Another

[thndrstk6]

Another

[thndrstk6]

And the last.

[trujo777]

love the grain on the 6er

[maddrakkett]

love the grain on the 6er

+1! SWEET!

[thndrstk6]

When I first got my 5 I was excited and let down a bit. I was excited because I just got my first Warwick, and let down because the wood didn't look as cool as I dream of it looking. When I ordered my 6 I was nervous because I wanted a really nice figured look for it. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the case. I noticed that my 6 looks very orange and my 5 is very brown compared to most Thumb NT basses I've seen. I have grown to love my 5 though. Its different.