Warwick vs Fender

[Mikey R]

Could I suggest you have a look at the Nordy super Jazz basses, with the big split pickups - they are so much more than your average Jazz bass and I got a nice range of tones from the one I tried at last years Bassday.

Also, +1 to the custom option - take the best bits of the Wick and Jazz and put them together

[morsefull]

I own streamer stage II 5 and can honestly say it's awesome. In terms of tone and playability i've not found anything to touch it
It's also great in the studio, with great warmth without sacrificing presence .
Totally recommended.

[tauzero]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='526380' date='Jun 27 2009, 11:07 PM']No, and reading it back I don't see how you're reading it that way?[/quote]
I see what jakesbass means - if you read it one way, it looks like you've divided sad blokes into two groups, and you don't belong in the "most" group but there's an implication that you're in the other group. I wouldn't have described it as grammatical though.

[mike257]

I'm going to predictably weigh in behind Sandberg, especially on the versatility front. Sounds great active, great passive, and if you go for a JM, the coil tap means you can go from a reasonable approximation of a Stingray, to a great Jazz-type sound, and I think I get fairly close to some P thump with just the neck pickup and some judicious use of the preamp.

With a £2.5k budget, buy two, put flats on one, rounds on the other, and you'll have every bass tone you need!!!

[neilmiddlemass]

The FNA Jazzman has been great for me - it's not heavy, it's got some great tone and a bit of punch and warmth too. I found the top end to be a bit thin, other than that I can't find much fault with it for what I use it for. To be honest, I just fancied getting some new gear and have a bit more money to play with now than I did back when I bought the FNA so fancied the Thumb or the Fender.

Looking at the posts on here, I've decided that the Thumb is the way to go. Since I made my first post, I've put a call into Warwick to find out about custom models and I'm looking at a Thumb5 with a maple body and neck+fingerboard and Indian apple wood top. Mainly because I want something unique which is really mine. I've chosen these woods for weight and asthetics mainly (the 'Tineo' looks lovely) - not too au fait with the sound characteristics. Anyone got any advice with this sort of thing?

Also, Thumb owners - is it worth getting the 3 band EQ option or is this a waste of time? I use all 3 bands on the FNA and like to be able to control the mid from the guitar. Having said this, presumably there's a reason it comes with a 2-band?

Any advice welcome! Will post pictures once I've got it. = )

Neil

[Chris2112]

[quote name='neilmiddlemass' post='528837' date='Jun 30 2009, 05:12 PM']Looking at the posts on here, I've decided that the Thumb is the way to go. Since I made my first post, I've put a call into Warwick to find out about custom models and I'm looking at a Thumb5 with a maple body and neck+fingerboard and Indian apple wood top. Mainly because I want something unique which is really mine. I've chosen these woods for weight and asthetics mainly (the 'Tineo' looks lovely) - not too au fait with the sound characteristics. Anyone got any advice with this sort of thing?[/quote]


First of all, I'll tell you right now that even with typical Thumb pickup placement, this is not going to sound like a "normal" thumb bass. The throaty, powerful midrange of the Thumb BO comes from the ovangkol body and the wenge or ovangkol neck. Similarly, the Bubinga of the NT gives you some midrange pop but not as much as the BO has...

I'd expect given your wood choices that the top end will sparkle a little more and there will be less of a prounced, characteristic midrange. Did Warwick not advise you on this when you called them?

[neilmiddlemass]

[quote name='Chris2112' post='528933' date='Jun 30 2009, 06:29 PM']First of all, I'll tell you right now that even with typical Thumb pickup placement, this is not going to sound like a "normal" thumb bass. The throaty, powerful midrange of the Thumb BO comes from the ovangkol body and the wenge or ovangkol neck. Similarly, the Bubinga of the NT gives you some midrange pop but not as much as the BO has...

I'd expect given your wood choices that the top end will sparkle a little more and there will be less of a prounced, characteristic midrange. Did Warwick not advise you on this when you called them?[/quote]

Thanks for advice, appreciate it. Bit stuck with this as I'm after something light,but with rich throaty bass, punchy pit and plinky full top end. I've been told before that the maple neck should brighten up the sound, but would it be at the cost of the growl? Warwick has so many beautiful looking woods available I guess it's easy to get carried away with asthetics (also important though I think!) Is the top or the body wood more important? My communication with Warwick in the end was through a distributor rather than direct so haven't had the benefit of their advice yet, any extra input is appreciated (although I realise every instrument is different).

I suppose my questions are:

Can you get throat from a maple neck?
Can you get a lightweight bass with a defined, clear but powerful bottom end?
Which parts have the greatest influence on the overall sounds if any?

[warwickhunt]

Whereabouts are you based? I ask because I have a maple necked NT Streamer (ebony board) with birds eye maple body, you could have tried this to get an idea of different woods.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=48352&hl=warwick+streamer"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...arwick+streamer[/url]

[neilmiddlemass]

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='529103' date='Jun 30 2009, 09:29 PM']Whereabouts are you based? I ask because I have a maple necked NT Streamer (ebony board) with birds eye maple body, you could have tried this to get an idea of different woods.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=48352&hl=warwick+streamer"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...arwick+streamer[/url][/quote]


That's good of you,thanks-think we're too far apart though-I'm just south of London.how would you describe the sound though?

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='neilmiddlemass' post='529131' date='Jun 30 2009, 09:51 PM']That's good of you,thanks-think we're too far apart though-I'm just south of London.how would you describe the sound though?[/quote]

Sound is so subjective, I'm almost reluctant to say too much as 'one man's meat...'!

I will state that the Maple necked, ebony board, maple bodied Streamer has big Bart' pups which will colour any description I might give! However... the Ltd Ed Maple bass in question has a lot more mid 'snap' to it than other basses I own and when compared to say the Maple necked (wenge stringer) SSI that I have the Ltd Ed bass has more presence but not necessarily more growl (could be down to the pups/stringer/wenge fingerboard). I'll see what I can do to record the bass along with a SSI & a SSII for comparison (same strings).

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='neilmiddlemass' post='528837' date='Jun 30 2009, 05:12 PM']I'm looking at a Thumb5 with a maple body and neck+fingerboard and Indian apple wood top. Mainly because I want something unique which is really mine. I've chosen these woods for weight and asthetics mainly (the 'Tineo' looks lovely) - not too au fait with the sound characteristics. Anyone got any advice with this sort of thing?

Also, Thumb owners - is it worth getting the 3 band EQ option or is this a waste of time? I use all 3 bands on the FNA and like to be able to control the mid from the guitar. Having said this, presumably there's a reason it comes with a 2-band?[/quote]

I think some of the Thumb sound comes from the dense body woods they use, although I never tried their limited edition maple ones. But yeah my Thumb is smaller than any 4-string (headed) bass I've ever seen but weighs more than my mate's Stingray 5, so I don't know if a lighter body wood will give you the same results.

As for the 3-band EQ it might be useful if you want a mid cut (you'll never need a mid boost!), but generally if I'm going for a scooped sound I just solo the front pup on mine and leave the 2-band EQ flat, works pretty well.

[Golchen]

Fender Reggie Hamilton jazz bass.

What more could you ask for: Jazz AND precision pups, both active AND passive.

[Chris2112]

[quote name='neilmiddlemass' post='529096' date='Jun 30 2009, 09:22 PM']Thanks for advice, appreciate it. Bit stuck with this as I'm after something light,but with rich throaty bass, punchy pit and plinky full top end. I've been told before that the maple neck should brighten up the sound, but would it be at the cost of the growl? Warwick has so many beautiful looking woods available I guess it's easy to get carried away with asthetics (also important though I think!) Is the top or the body wood more important? My communication with Warwick in the end was through a distributor rather than direct so haven't had the benefit of their advice yet, any extra input is appreciated (although I realise every instrument is different).

I suppose my questions are:

Can you get throat from a maple neck?
Can you get a lightweight bass with a defined, clear but powerful bottom end?
Which parts have the greatest influence on the overall sounds if any?[/quote]

You can easily get growl with a maple neck but it won't be that same unique flavour of growl in the lower midrange that Warwick basses get, it will tend to be more of a honky, upper mid kind of bite like Jazz basses and Spector basses have, IME. You can still get a throaty, powerful sound, but it won't be the kind of sound that a wenge or ovangkol neck will provide.

As for a lightweight bass with a clear, defined and powerful bottom end - yes, you can get get them like this. My Status basses have been fantastic examples of this.

Parts that have the greatest influence on sound: IMO it's the woods, the the pickups and the pickup placement...just about everything then! Thats why basses can be planks of woods with metal frets and metal strings on and yet sound so different. I'll say for the Thumb though that in terms of wood composition and pickup placement, there is nothing else like it tonally, at least not unless it's made by a custom builder...and even then, it won;t have the look and feel of a Thumb!

If you can get your hands on one of the limited edition Thumbs like the Dirty Blonde you'll see that they sound good, but not like the famous "thumb" sound. I find that the Warwick basses that have Wenge or Ovangkol necks and an ash body just don't have the full throated growl of a Thumb. Great basses, but not for that sound that I typically associate with Warwick.