thumbslam wrote:
Just wanted to interject something about the neck profiles of the new Warwicks coming out of Germany If you want that baseball bat neck that they became known for you actually have to special order it. The new models have the thinnest necks of any bass around. They are almost as thin as the Pedula Pentabuz neck I used to own.
That IS great news. Do you know when they switched over and if it's specifically the BO models or all models across the board?
I have to concur, though, that I'd be a bit worried about any loss of tonality due to the thinner neck. (Though, honestly, I always thought the sound of my old BO Thumb was largely dependent on the PUPs and I never really heard the "Tone of Wood"). I assume they're Ovankol too, at least on the Thumbs?
I was worried to about loss of tone with thinner neck. This doesn’t seem to be an issue with my $$. I am no expert but I have owned 5 or 6 Warwicks and although each model sounds different than the other there still is a haunting sound of the dense woods Warwick uses. I hear what you are saying about their MEC pickups and there is some coloring from them for sure but I think that’s part of their intensions like Alembic’s magical electronics they both get some of the individuality of the company’s overall tone from that part of the bass.
However there is no denying to my ears 311’s P-Nut tone sounds like a Warwick. It’s undeniable to me. His signature basses as of late have no MEC components at all. Pickups are a Seymour Duncan SJ5-3n / SMB-5d set up with Basslines 3-band preamp. So back to the woods, this is just my opinion so please remember because I know how things can go around here sometimes. I feel that the wenge fingerboard wood over the stiff dense ovangkol neck wood comes across to me as much or more than the electronics coloring of the tone. Bubinga has some of the Warwick growl to it. I have not owned but played a few models with more traditional body and neck woods and although they sound great they would blend into the crowd when comparing to ash, walnut and maple to the bubinga, ovangkol, wenge etc. That’s why I have several!
In regards to my earlier post about my earlier project with the Stream Stage 1 with the broken headstock, I've pretty much finished the repair and if anybody is interested I posted a thread and some pics in the Blueprinting and Bondo forum.
