I am a Warwick freak and saw that too. Proper maintenance gets the oils of the wax treatments to darken and deepen the wood sometimes like that. I have almost exclusively raw wood basses Warwick and others. The feel of that in your right hand is a connection with the instrument like no other. I hate glossy type finishes (Fingerprints make me want to rip my hair out) and it’s sticky, YUK!! I have never owned a NT thumb but had a couple bolt ons. I will own a NT thumb as no other bass on the planet sounds like one. Wear one up high with a strap that has suede inside and change the tuners to Ultralites and it helps with the dive thing but look man all basses have something that’s not perfect.
Now I have to say Bass Player Mag has been taking a nose dive for a while and having less and less content. The one major advertiser they still have is Warwick. It’s almost obnoxious how much they advertise but here is the kicker. After reading the article it too rekindled my want for a NT thumb 5 so I go on line and Musician’s Friend and all other on line major retailers dropped Warwick within the last few weeks. Whatever they have is the Chinese Rockbass stuff or just leftover. Warwick website has no USA dealers listed at all. The only thing that comes up is there new broker company
http://www.usmusiccorp.com/index.htm and that’s it. They went from Danna B. Goods to Hanser House and that last less than 6 months and now with U.S. Music corp. They spend so much on advertising and yet their US relationships with dealers are horrible and up in the air to say the least. I wouldn’t order one without proper representation. What would you do if there is a warrantee issue?
The other thing about the review in BP is I can’t help but think it’s totally biased because of how much Warwick advertizes in there pathetic rag.
All that being said I will probably order one in the next moth anyway. It’s all Addison’s fault!!! I have Addison’s older bands CD and the bass tracks are not only drop dead bad ass but his tone gives me ear boners.
