New Pickups/preamp for 2007 Warwick Thumb Flamin' Blonde BO 5 string

B

BigKD

Apr 19, 2014
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4,586
#1
My 2007 Warwick Thumb Flamin' Blonde 5 string is a stunning bass with a wenge neck that is as dense as concrete and feels like butter.

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Through trial and error, I finally figured out that this particular bass needs thick gauge strings to have a tight low B and E string. It also needs bright strings, since intrinsic tone of the bass is rather dark.

Although I've got this instrument sounding pretty good acoustically now, it still sounds relatively lifeless plugged in, which means that the preamp and pickups need to be changed.

I'm looking for a setup that has a ton of punch, growl, a deep lowend, and lots of treble on tap. I really just want the intrinsic warwick tone on steriods.

The preamp is definitely coming out...that's for sure. The heavy gauge strings are going to cut out some fundamental lows/boom, so a preamp with a lot of deep bass available would be ideal. I'm thinking a Bartolini preamp should a good choice, as I always liked the hifi tone coming out of the older Laklands with the bart preamps. Any others? Aguilar? EMG?

As far as pickups go, the current pups are passive, but I'm thinking that I'm more of an active pickup kind of guy. If I want a more classic and passive tone, I think the Warwick thumb is honestly just the wrong bass for the application. Any thoughts on pickups given what I'm looking for? Anything dark is probably not the greatest idea, as the bass tends to be on the darker side.
 
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#2
That IS a beautiful instrument!
Is the body maple...or maple-topped ash?

Pickup-wise, i would suggest either a Nordstrand or Delano (even Seymour Duncan). I'm partial to Alnico V magnets, but I don't think Nordstrand offers ceramic; Delano and SD do.

I am more partial to Bart preamps, but any of the manufacturers of pickups above offer very fine preamp as well. I have used Bart 2 and 3 band preamps in the past, and the SD MM-3 preamp. I like how both of those preamps have trim pots for Gain control; SD also incorporates a mid-scoop "slap" switch.

I have at one point tried am Aguilar OBP-3 and didn't like it at all. Sounded way too clean for my tastes. The Bart preamps have an inherent grit to them which I like.
 
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#3
eastcoasteddie said:
That IS a beautiful instrument!
Is the body maple...or maple-topped ash?

Pickup-wise, i would suggest either a Nordstrand or Delano (even Seymour Duncan). I'm partial to Alnico V magnets, but I don't think Nordstrand offers ceramic; Delano and SD do.

I am more partial to Bart preamps, but any of the manufacturers of pickups above offer very fine preamp as well. I have used Bart 2 and 3 band preamps in the past, and the SD MM-3 preamp. I like how both of those preamps have trim pots for Gain control; SD also incorporates a mid-scoop "slap" switch.

I have at one point tried am Aguilar OBP-3 and didn't like it at all. Sounded way too clean for my tastes. The Bart preamps have an inherent grit to them which I like.
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It's actually lacewood with yellowheart sandwiched in between.

Right now I'm seriously considering the EMG BQC preamp due to the sweepable midband and EMG's plug/play ecosystem.

Some of their pickups look great as well on paper, and people have written that using them brought their Warwicks to life. They're also solderless, which is nice. I can solder, but a plug/play system is such a great idea that all preamp/pup mfgs should be doing imo. MM5TW and JAX would be the likely pickup combination if I go with EMG.

I think my hesitation to use Bartolini stems from their supposed darker sound, which could be problematic on this particular bass. These Barts sound pretty damn good to me, though:
 
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#4
Here's a wonderful comparison of jazz pickups that is helping me a lot!



The Bartolinis sound great, but my gut feeling is that they might be too dark for the particular Thumb bass in question...

The EMG JVX has some serious punch, and is brighter. Probably a good choice but not as "natural" sounding.

Nordstrands sound great to me. A little more bright/defined than the Bartolinis.

Slap version:



Bartolini obviously much darker for slapping.
 
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#5
I had the same bass and I agree-the tone is dark and I didn't like the electronics on this particular wick.
Keep in mind, this isn't a typical thumb.
Bart's are great and we're used by Warwick in certain models; I had a streamer with factory Bart's and preamp
 
#6
joebar said:
I had the same bass and I agree-the tone is dark and I didn't like the electronics on this particular wick.
Keep in mind, this isn't a typical thumb.
Bart's are great and we're used by Warwick in certain models; I had a streamer with factory Bart's and preamp
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If this were anything but a dark thumb, I'd be seriously considering the Barts. They have a great sound. I loved them on a Lakland that I played about 10 years ago. I think they sound wonderful in brighter basses. Just listened to an entire concert that was done with a Modulus Q5 with Barts, and it sounded really good.

The streamers I have heard are certainly brighter than the thumb. The same jazzman setup that's in my thumb sounds better in the streamer IMO.

 
#7
So I ended up installing EMGs in this bass along with EMG preamp. Did some recordings to compare back to the MEC setup, and the MEC sounds much better to my ears! So needless to say, the EMG stuff is being returned.

I think I'm going to try an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp next along with some nordstrands and/or bartolinis.

Any thoughts?
 
#9
Stefan Verbeeck said:
Semi off topic but I heard people liking their warwicks more by modding it to take two batteries (aka 18 V mod).
Also EMG are supposed to be as close as possible to the strings - did you do that?
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I tried all sorts of different pickup heights. The EMGs actually sounded better at lower pickup heights. The recordings and playback on hi-res studio monitors do not lie, though: MEC > EMG.

I've never done the 18V mod or heard of anybody doing it to their 'Wick. Good luck fitting 2x9v batteries and a preamp/pots in that tiny Warwick control cavity. If your preamp/pups can handle 24v, you can do a 24v mod that fits into the space of a single 9v, though.
 
#11
Installed the delanos [AL versions]...and they are the real deal.

They have an incredible low end response that is pure like a synthesizer. I also used 500K pots for this install, and that along with the new pups seems to have brought out some much needed treble on this bass.

Now I want to try the ceramic "FE" versions to see if something great can be made even better...

I wasn't thrilled with the Delano preamp, however, so I will be returning that. Sounded choked like most onboard preamps I have tried.
 
#12
BigKD said:
Installed the delanos [AL versions]...and they are the real deal.

They have an incredible low end response that is pure like a synthesizer. I also used 500K pots for this install, and that along with the new pups seems to have brought out some much needed treble on this bass.

Now I want to try the ceramic "FE" versions to see if something great can be made even better...

I wasn't thrilled with the Delano preamp, however, so I will be returning that. Sounded choked like most onboard preamps I have tried.
Click to expand...

Did you ever end up trying the BQC (EMG)? Those are indeed pretty sweet preamps.
 
#14
songwriter21 said:
Did you ever end up trying the BQC (EMG)? Those are indeed pretty sweet preamps.
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I did try the BQC. I ended up returning it, lol. I think it had a better treble boost than the Delano, but I was not a fan of the bass boost. Midrange was kinda kewl since it was sweepable. The nail in the coffin was that I did not have the option of turning it off.

My conclusion is that there's only so much a little battery-powered preamp can do. They ALL sound choked to me. I am now a huge proponent of running my basses completely passive and leaving the preamp/processing to outboard preamps/equalizers that have huge dedicated power supplies and transformers. There's no way that an onboard preamp can compete with that.
 
#17
BigKD said:
I did try the BQC. I ended up returning it, lol. I think it had a better treble boost than the Delano, but I was not a fan of the bass boost. Midrange was kinda kewl since it was sweepable. The nail in the coffin was that I did not have the option of turning it off.

My conclusion is that there's only so much a little battery-powered preamp can do. They ALL sound choked to me. I am now a huge proponent of running my basses completely passive and leaving the preamp/processing to outboard preamps/equalizers that have huge dedicated power supplies and transformers. There's no way that an onboard preamp can compete with that.
Click to expand...

My Delano JMVC5 FE are wired passive. I really don't feel the need of a preamp.
 
#18
Frenchy-Lefty said:
My Delano JMVC5 FE are wired passive. I really don't feel the need of a preamp.
Click to expand...

They sound GREAT. What impresses me the most is how well they handle the low B string compared to the MEC stuff that came on the bass.

Are you using the dual coil or single coil version of the FE? I got confused by all the different models and ended up ordering the dual coil J FE and quad coil FE MM for my Lakland lol. Hopefully it works out on that bass.
 
#20
The dual coil neck pickup is mighty fine. It sounds quite close to my PBass when soloed. What I'd say about Delano's is that they are all about punch and will help cut through. It is not what I usually play (I mostly play reggae roots stuff) but I once played in a Death Metal band detuned in C and the power and clarity of the C on the B string was stunning in that context.
 
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