:date: 2019-01-13
:save_as: bass/thumbs.html
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Opposable Thumbs
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For many years, my main axes were a pair of four string `Warwick Thumb basses
`_ I like to call my Opposable Thumbs. Here are
some poorly scanned pictures (I'm working on improving the scans, but trust
me, these are gorgeous basses).
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1990 Fretless Thumb Neck Through 1989 Fretted Thumb Neck Through
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|fretless| |fretted|
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These basses sound and play incredibly, and the fretless has probably the
warmest and most singing fretless tones I've heard. They are fantastic in the
studio; I basically plug them straight into the board, add a tiny bit of
compression and go. They are excellent for live gigs too, although due to the
bubinga bodies they are pretty heavy. I don't mind the weight of the 4s too
much, but the Thumb 5s are just too heavy for me. You gotta be a monster to
play a Thumb 6!
The fretless has a Hipshot Bass Xtender key on the E string tuning peg. This
is similar to the one on the back of my other 4 stringers. Since the
headstocks on the Thumbs are particularly compact, a standard Hipshot won't
fit them. Fortunately David Borisoff of Hipshot is a very nice guy who has
custom built the one on the fretless, and a different one on the fretted
(installed after this picture was taken).
The fretless is actually my second Thumb. In 1990 I played a friend of mine's
Warwick Thumb fretless 4 that was nearly identical to this one. I loved it so
much, I immediately bought one just like it, and switched to mostly fretless.
Sadly in 1994, this bass was stolen, along with my friend's fine Warwick
Streamer fretted 4, and another friend's '68 Strat. A very painful day
indeed.
Fortunately, my bass was insured, and I was able to obtain a brand new, 1990
fretless, as pictured here. All three fretless Thumbs were basically
identical; in fact they were all built the same year and were very close in
serial number. Imagine that!
.. |fretless| image:: /_static/wt_fretless.jpg
.. |fretted| image:: /_static/wt_fretted.jpg