LeftyBassist.com

1996 was the year I first picked up the bass.

Oooooh congrats! Those are such killer basses. Looks great!

Thanks! I never bonded with the tone of my Corvette, but I loved the build and ergonomics, so kept GASing for another 'wick after selling it.

The fingerboard on this one needs some love, but otherwise it appears to have been supremely well cared for (only one owner, per the description).

Wow nice bass!! Where did you pick it up?

Yeah, looks like it just needs to be hit with some lemon oil or something to clean the funk

Reverb! It wasn't listed as a lefty, so it had been lingering for a while. Last week was my birthday, so I made an offer and the seller accepted.

Yup. The frets have a smidge of green, so I'll polish those up a bit, too, and it'll be good to go.

Hell yeah. Good find. It's looks like it's in really good shape. Please report back on it. As a non-thumb owner I'll live vicariously through you Tim

Might I add- that’s a lovely backside.

Thanks! I work out.

Did you get it from the Italian guy?

No, this one was from Indiana.

Nice score, this one seems to be in great shape! Congrats!

Awesome!! I can’t see from the pics, but if this still has the just a nut 1 on it, you can still order replacement screw in brass “saddles“ from Warwick. I did that for my ‘95 Fortress. You may not need them though, looking at the condition of the bass

Nope, the nut is great as is. Action perfect, and was still in tune within a couple cents when I finally plugged it in.

Sweeeeet!

My initial impressions of this bad girl, split into two posts to avoid making a wall-o-text:

Ergonomics:

The Thumb isn't quite as awesome as the Corvette was ergonomically. The short horn pushes the low frets way out. It's not so much that I can't reach--I'm 6'2" with a +5" ape index--but I've got four G&Ls that are almost identical to each other, so I really feel the difference with the Thumb. That said, the high frets are wayyy more accessible than on my G&Ls (26 frets!!!). Maybe I should learn to play some stuff up there...

There's also a bit of neck dive, event with a nice leather strap. And the neck is narrower at the nut and thinner front to back than the 'Vette. I personally like a chunky neck, but it's not uncomfortable at all.

I will have to spend a lot more time with it to see if I can adjust to the geometry.

Tone:

The tone!!! Sounds great set flat, but also super easy to tweak, even though I generally don't do active basses. I tend to play two-pickup basses with the balance straight up the middle, in part because my practice space has so much electrical interference that causes crazy buzzing if I get away from perfect humbucking. But the Thumb sounds pretty damn good turned a little to either side of middle, although I didn’t care for either extreme setting.

I found the tone to be generally in the ballpark of my Kiloton, meaning that it’s good for the same songs as the Kilo, and bad for the same songs the Kilo is bad for. I won’t play a lot of Jamerson lines on it, but it’ll be good for Bernie Edwards and Flea stuff. It has mids to spare, obviously, but the treble isn’t at all offensive–fret clank is right where I like it, and finger noise / string zing don't feel amplified.

I’m actually surprised at how musical the Thumb can be while being so aggressive. You can crank the mids knob and it will still sound pretty good, or you can cut the mids a little to sit a little further back in a mix. Obviously not a bass you would grab for subtle work, though!

A beautiful bass! I love the Wenge stringers in the back... I think it's finally time to take the the film off the plastic EQ cover though...