Who here uses Warwick basses but not MEC pickups?

[Malkav]

I agree with the general mehness of MECs, my bassist has them in his 5 string fretless Warwick and they just don't do anything wonderful at all for the tone...

Also I don't really like the adjustanut either, generally I've found every Warwick that I've seen that's had that nut replaced by a traditional bone nut or graphtech or whatever has sounded way better, the resonance and clarity were much improved.

 

[angus]

Just out of curiosity: Have you tried the Warwicks that are made today, and what do you feel about them? I've been thinking of buying a Thumb one day and they seem to have made a lot of changes to that series (or maybe it was just the wood combinations, I can't remember).

At a certain point, I think in the very early 2000s, they switched from wenge necks to ovangkol. The wenge-necked models have a very specific, deep dark hyper-compressed tone that most people associate with Warwicks, while the ovangkol necks IMO sound very middle of the road. The former models are 10x the instrument, imo, if that is the sound you are looking for.

 

[Dregg]

At a certain point, I think in the very early 2000s, they switched from wenge necks to ovangkol. The wenge-necked models have a very specific, deep dark hyper-compressed tone that most people associate with Warwicks, while the ovangkol necks IMO sound very middle of the road. The former models are 10x the instrument, imo, if that is the sound you are looking for.

Yeah, if I were to get a Thumb it would most certainly be one with a wenge neck (just bought another pre-Gibson Tobias recently with wenge in the neck and it feels amazing).

But according to this vid, all 2013 models have wenge necks, so that I means I either have to get a 2013 or or a pre-2000 model.