Every once in a while, a new bass catches my attention and which I just have to feature here on The Guitar Column. Okay, this is actually the first bass I'm featuring on TGC, but who's keeping track, right? Let it be the first of many firsts..
The original groundbreaking small-bodied Warwick Thumb bass has been around since the mid-80's and has won its share of players and fans. Its clear, hi-fidelity tone, active electronics and use of exotic woods like African wenge and bubinga really turned the bass world on its ear. These basses were also precisely set-up out of the factory with low action, allowing even a guitar player like myself to fake some Stanley Clarke runs with minimal effort.
But a common gripe with the original Warwick Thumb bass was that the size of the small body and close positioning of the strap buttons made reaching for that low F on the 1st fret (or low C on a 5-string) something of a stretch. Great for players 5'10" or taller with long arms, but not so good if you were a little guy.
On the new Warwick Thumb Bass SC, the front strap-button is moved further up to around the location of the 13th fret, which helps with the instrument's overall balance and solves the stretching dilemma mentioned earlier.
Oh yeah, and no surprise that all that extra wood attached to so much neck area is a great tone and sustain enhancer as well. If you ask me, the Warwick Thumb SC actually bears a striking resemblance to Fodera's design. Hope we won't be looking at another Gibson guitars vs PRS Single-Cut debacle.
The neck-through Thumb SC comes with Warwick's proprietary height-adjustable nut, 2-piece bridge, passive MEC pickups and active electronics, flame maple neck, tiger-stripe ebony fingerboard, American swamp ash body and a Bubinga Pommelé top. The Warwick Thumb Bass SC is also available in fretless and 6-string versions.
See http://www.warwick.de/ for more details.
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