| Author | Message | ||
| funkyjazzjunky
Intermediate Member Username: funkyjazzjunky Post Number: 110 Registered: 5-2007 |
Warwick Basses preaches that Wenge gives all of the benefits of Ebony for less weight and less money. Any oen have experience with Wenge as a neck wook laminate (or fingerboard) | ||
| funkyjazzjunky
Intermediate Member Username: funkyjazzjunky Post Number: 111 Registered: 5-2007 |
Previous Post should read 'Anyone have ... | ||
| elwoodblue
Senior Member Username: elwoodblue Post Number: 453 Registered: 6-2002 |
I have no experience with wenge...I have noticed it's more porous...which to me would seem to make a difference. I'll look forward to learning as comments pour in. | ||
| glocke
Advanced Member Username: glocke Post Number: 389 Registered: 9-2002 |
I once owned a warwick with a wenge fingerboard. The grain certainly did have many more open pores than any other wood I have seen. I never really cared for it and I didnt own it very long, I sold it to get a '72 jazz bass. Ive always thought of ebony as a very closed grain, dense wood. I dont see how the open grain of wenge could be compared to ebony in any fashion. | ||
| elwoodblue
Senior Member Username: elwoodblue Post Number: 454 Registered: 6-2002 |
I guess that's why we are here instead at the warwick discussion board. | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 1981 Registered: 3-2004 |
Wenge may have a different grain, but it is a pretty dense wood. Based upon what I have read, it isn't quite as dense as ebony, but is heavier than maple and probably in the ballpark for rosewoods. That sounds like it would have at least some properties suitable for use in a guitar neck. | ||
| olieoliver
Senior Member Username: olieoliver Post Number: 1895 Registered: 2-2006 |
I have a Warwick Dolphin with Wenge fretboard and I like it just fine. It does sound and play different than my Thumb bass with a ebody neck. The Wenge is more open grain but you can't tell while playing (fingers rest on the strings) but you can feel it if you run your finger down the finger board when changing strings. While my Alembic basses are by far my favorite, my Warwicks are in the top 2 or 3. OO | ||
| lmiwa
Junior Username: lmiwa Post Number: 17 Registered: 2-2008 |
I have a Warwick Thumb 6 neck through with a Wenge neck and fingerboard. The bass weighs a TON! While Wenge is open grained, it is also very dense. IMO, Wenge does not produce the same bright high end that ebony does. From Warwick - Wenge is a dark brown wood with blackish streaks. It sometimes has a bleached appearance. It is open to medium grained, hard, dense, and heavy.  (Message edited by lmiwa on July 07, 2008) | ||
| jbybj
Intermediate Member Username: jbybj Post Number: 172 Registered: 6-2006 |
When I was in Jr. High, (1973) I made a lamp. It was a redwood base, that I scorched with a blow torch, and then scraped with a wire brush. The ridges of the grain stood out after this abuse, and it looked an felt very textured. The one Wenge fingerboard I played for a day or two, (fretless) reminded me of this lamp. The grain edges stood out. I don't know if it would have flattened out with more sanding, I returned the bass without altering it. Because the grain made the surface somewhat uneven, I felt that it made the tone somewhat dull and thuddy, lacking in sustain. When I discussed this with a coworker, he told me of his own fretless Warwick with Wenge that he sold for the same reasons. The uneven grain has far more influence on a fretless of course, but that was my experience/impression, FWIW. | ||
| hifiguy
Intermediate Member Username: hifiguy Post Number: 139 Registered: 10-2006 |
Owned a Warwick Corvette Pro Line (J/J) with a 2-piece (fretboard and neck were separate pieces glued together) bolt-on neck for about ten years. Second most of the comments above - wenge is dense as hell and very open pored. It took a few weeks to toughen up my fingers as those open pores can be a bit tough on the hands, even if you have well-developed fretting hand calluses. Sound of the bass was not unlike a really nice Gib T'bird; top not as extended as ebony, but there was a hard, almost "farty" sound in the upper mids that could really cut through a mix. Think Jack Bruce even before he started playing Warwicks and you'll get the picture. Sold the Warwick last year, Kept my Alembic. Nuff said.  (Message edited by hifiguy on July 07, 2008) | ||
| funkyjazzjunky
Intermediate Member Username: funkyjazzjunky Post Number: 112 Registered: 5-2007 |
Seems like I should pay extra for the Ebony neck laminates and forget about Wenge. Thanks for the feedback. | ||
| lmiwa
Junior Username: lmiwa Post Number: 19 Registered: 2-2008 |
While I have no problem with the wenge in my fretted Warwick, I would never recommend it for a fretless fingerboard. And if your question is "Wenge or ebony for an Alembic neck laminate?", then I would say absolutely go for the ebony. I would think that having very open grained wenge laminates between other closed grain laminates would feel REALLY weird. | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 484 Registered: 8-2005 |
I have a Cort Curbow bass at home that has a complete Wenge neck/board It seems that she is a rather rare beast now and tends to command a higher price. Personally, I LOVE it. It seems about twice the volume of the other Maple necked Curbow, and just seems to respond so well The down side is that it feels a little "sticky" on the rear of the neck after a bit of playing, but for the bucks----I'd put it up against anything at 3 x the price Just my 0.02 G | ||
| bassjigga
Advanced Member Username: bassjigga Post Number: 336 Registered: 8-2005 |
The only basses I've played with it were Warwicks as well. The tone wasn't for me. Don't know if it was down to the wenge specifically or just the overall bass. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the body woods they use as well, but they sounded too dark to me. And the wenge has a very pronounced midrange thud to my ears which I didn't like for every situation. | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 486 Registered: 8-2005 |
Try a Curbow original Dude G | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 487 Registered: 8-2005 |
Try a Curbow original Dude G they're great!! | ||
| bassman68
Junior Username: bassman68 Post Number: 41 Registered: 10-2007 |
I too have some Warwick basses,Two of which have wenge fingerboards & agree with the above comments, My Thumb 5 string has a very dark tone to it, but with a pronounced mid range & with a 3 band eq, i only ever boost the treble control. The other 'wick has a wenge figerboard only on a maple neck (B.O) & maple body which helps brighten the tone somewhat giving an almost jazzbass tone to it, but lacks any real mid range so is great for funky slap. I used this bass at the weekend instead of my Rogue & 3 songs into the first set, missed the smoothness, growl & even frquency range of my Alembic. Still you have to try these things sometimes to remind yourself how perfect our Alembics are...  | ||
| s_wood
Advanced Member Username: s_wood Post Number: 273 Registered: 5-2002 |
Mike Tobias often uses wenge necks and fingerboards for his MTD basses. To my ears, wenge produces a tonality that is quite distinctive and tends to dominate the tones produced by the other woods used in the neck, or even the body, of a given bass. Subjectively, wenge is a little dark and very punchy (meaning that either the attack or the decay of the note, or both, is quick). I tend to think of bass tones on a continuum, with a tuba being at one end (dark and punchy) and the bass notes of a piano on the other (bright with lots of sustain). Wenge produces tones that are more tuba-like. Does that make sense? To my ears, ebony produces a tone that is dark, but with lots of sustain. A piano without the upper harmonics, if you will. Wenge, though dark, attacks or decays much faster, and so it doesn't sustain nearly as well. YMMV, of course. (Message edited by s_wood on July 08, 2008) | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 3160 Registered: 7-2004 |
I'd certainly believe a guy named "Wood" on this subject! lol Bill, tgo | ||
| svlilioukalani
New Username: svlilioukalani Post Number: 4 Registered: 6-2008 |
I got 2 Warwicks. The old school warwicks. One with a all wenge neck. One with a ebony fingerboar. The basses with the wenge has a much cleaner and brighter tone, and the sustain lasts forever. I don't buy into the tuba sound theory. This is a great bass. I'll never sell it. The one with the ebony neck will be available at BassNW next week. Theory and reality are not always the same. Like combinding spices cooking, it is all the woods and electronics the make up the tone of the bass. I think it would be foolish to use wenge on a fretless finger board. But beauty of the grain pattern on the neck is awsome. I never make truss rod adjustments on the Warick with wenge. It doesn't go out of tune. A can't say that about my Alembic basses. I just bought a epic with wenge top. Sort of a tribute to my Warwick bass. Which I will only use only as a beater. Because, lets face it, the Germans got nothin on California hippies. It takes more than good wood to give an ax soul. | ||
| texangerbil
Junior Username: texangerbil Post Number: 25 Registered: 11-2007 |
I have a Warwick Fortress with a wenge neck and fingerboard. I second the comments on tonality of wenge. Not for everyone but quite distinctive. I'd just add that personally I really like the feel of the unfinished/oiled wood - the open grain gives it a very positive "grip" which I actually prefer to a varnished neck. I seem to remember reading somewhere that wenge can be quite oily and doesn't always take lacquer finishes very well. Another reason not to mix it in your neck laminates... | ||
| elwoodblue
Senior Member Username: elwoodblue Post Number: 464 Registered: 6-2002 |
Gary, Will you be going to the get together this 12th? (...and thanks for the wisdom). | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 5405 Registered: 6-2000 |
Wikipedia entries for Wengé and Ebony. I need to edit the entry for Wengé as I think that Warwick's use of the wood should be mentioned first and that their application is greater than fingerboards alone. I think of it as Warwick's house wood. Ours must be Coco Bolo. We only used Wengé as tops on original Epics, Orions, and Rogues when we used the satin natural polyurethane finish. We found the polyester finish would encourage mineral deposits in the long open grains to come to the surface. These either looked really cool like little crystals, or really awful, like dirt and dust. That's one of the reasons we don't currently offer it except with an oil finish (since we don't offer the satin natural polyurethane finish anymore). Another reason is that I personally seem to attract Wengé splinters! The wood is so irritating that I think the infection starts a few seconds before the splinter actually punctures my skin. At this time we're not interested in using Wengé as a neck laminate or a fingerboard. Specific gravity of Wengé ranges from .75-.9 typically and for Ebony the range is .9-1.15 so Ebony can be dense enough to sink in water (any material with specific gravity value greater than 1 (the density of water) will sink). Since our use was limited to tops only, I don't really have an opinion on the tonal impact on an Alembic bass. I can say it doesn't seem to have a distinctive tonality, I'd place it on the Alembic "main sequence" woods. For tops on our instruments, I think of Maple at the bright end of the spectrum and Koa as the warm end. Most people I ask can hear these woods. Most of the other woods are on the main sequence between these points and are harder for most people to distinguish. Coco Bolo doesn't really fit on the spectrum since it has attributes from both ends. That's true of all the Rosewoods. So you have to think about wood used in stringed instruments in complex terms, since it's not only a complex natural material, but each person's audio experience is unique, and language is a difficult medium to describe the sound of something. It's both interesting and frustrating. And we're not even talking about the effect of construction, pickups/electronics, strings, talent, emotion, and personal taste. | ||
| bassjigga
Advanced Member Username: bassjigga Post Number: 337 Registered: 8-2005 |
Mica, To my ears ebony seems to have a similar quality as coco bolo with the attributes from both ends of the spectrum, but maybe with a smoother less agressive quality than rosewoods. Do you guys find this to be true? Dave | ||
| funkyjazzjunky
Intermediate Member Username: funkyjazzjunky Post Number: 114 Registered: 5-2007 |
I will save up and get the Ebony neck laminates | ||
| malthumb
Senior Member Username: malthumb Post Number: 435 Registered: 5-2002 |
Back in April I acquired the Devon bass in this Talkbass thread http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=417525 I can say that I'm experiencing a lot of what has already been said here. This bass has a predominantly dark tone to it, despite the fact that it is by far the lightest bass I've ever owned. I would tend to believe that it has a lot to do with the predominance of Wenge in the neck construction and the fingerboard. The body is a very light swamp ash. The only other bass I've ever owned with a swamp ash body had a Pau Ferro board and was very twangy. This one has no evidence of twang in any form. I've played basses that were dark to the point of being muddy and undefined. Not the case with this one. Notes are true, but super-bassy. | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1425 Registered: 10-2003 |
Hiya James! That's a really beautiful instrument! John | ||
| 2400wattman
Senior Member Username: 2400wattman Post Number: 567 Registered: 11-2005 |
I had a beautiful Devon 5 string ( kind of a Tobias body shape) which had a Wenge fingerboard, wenge on back of body and a lacewood top. This thing sounded nothing like a Warwick, just great growly to smooth bass tones. I believe it was the build and Bartolini p/ups and pre amp. I did'nt think about comparing it to my old Pedulla MVP 5 (which has ean ebony board) since it's a neck through and I specifacally bought the Devon for I wanted a bolt on 5 that sounded killer!! | ||
| juggernaught
Intermediate Member Username: juggernaught Post Number: 127 Registered: 3-2007 |
I really have to get me one of those "Devon" basses ;) | ||
| white_cloud
Advanced Member Username: white_cloud Post Number: 394 Registered: 11-2007 |
I have never owned a Warwick (came close) or a Devon bass but I actually like the appearance of the Wenge wood - really rich looking! My number one choice has always been ebony though!! John. | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 492 Registered: 8-2005 |
Not at work today John?? You can play my Curbow with the all Wenge neck and see what you think. I LIKE it. G | ||
| white_cloud
Advanced Member Username: white_cloud Post Number: 396 Registered: 11-2007 |
George, getting my hands on your Series 1 and Curbow is one of my number one objectives for the remainder of this year - I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN! The biggest problem will be leaving them behind when I leave As for work - only 20 years till retirement and counting! John. | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 493 Registered: 8-2005 |
Well John She's still here!! I think Graeme and Mike liked her when we met at the Reunion in April. Phone me on 078 12 14 98 60 and let me know when tou can make it. Best to come through here, as I don't have any transport at the moment. It's not too far if you drive, and I've got the home studio available to play her through! You must bring your bass along as well, as I've never played a Persuader, and would love to try her out. PS Nearly a Senior Member now---Congrats when it arrives George | ||
| white_cloud
Advanced Member Username: white_cloud Post Number: 398 Registered: 11-2007 |
Thanks George, I promise to make the trip sooner rather than later! My humble Persuader will bow before the tones on your Series 1 and pay homage In fact I reckon you should loan me your Series for a few years - just until I die of natural causes at least John. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 6795 Registered: 5-2002 |
Juggernaught; I have a couple of Eden's David cabs. | ||
| jacko
Senior Member Username: jacko Post Number: 1833 Registered: 10-2002 |
let me know when you're going over John and I'll try to make it along too. Could be scottish get together mk2. Graeme | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 495 Registered: 8-2005 |
Hi John As I've said before, the Series is a good bass, but people will prefer others!! The Persuader sounds really cool to me, as I had a Precision once that I put Activators on when they first arrived in the UK. Great sound, but not quite the sound of the Precision (which I love dearly). Very HiFi---not like a Precision----each to their own I say Ps My flat is a bit of a bomb scare, so just accept it as a single guy's flat-----ie a dump!? | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 496 Registered: 8-2005 |
By the way John If you've never played Graem's basses amplified, then I think you should!! When I played them at the Reunion, they were equally as good as the Series Don't think that the Series is the B all & end all-----------------I still have a love for Graeme's Epic, and his Rogue------------------eh merde, and for the MK, and all his basses!! The MK was truly stunning but I never had enough time to really get to grips with her. Mike's Europa was just amazing, but much too heavy for me-------------------Always remember---------------They are all Alembic basses, and make a certain Alembic sound. The sound you prefer may not always be the "so called" top of the range model!! Just my 0.002 G | ||
| white_cloud
Advanced Member Username: white_cloud Post Number: 400 Registered: 11-2007 |
A good point George! You know how it is, certain things just click inside you with certain designs! For me the Series 1 is an iconic design - it wouldnt look out of place even if used as an iconic ornamantation to decorate a trendy pad! Kind of like a high backed Rennie Macintosh chair (wow weird connection!) The persuader is really beautiful and it has a great straightforward Alembic tone! Its a pleasure to own and play! It may be one of Alembics former designs but it still beats a lot of trendy "boutique" basses for me! Dont worry about the state of your place - I was single once you know John. | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 497 Registered: 8-2005 |
Happy new Senior Membership John! Did I mention that I have a Cort Curbow fretless as well?? Try them when you come over Don't forget to bring the Beast George | ||
| georgie_boy
Senior Member Username: georgie_boy Post Number: 498 Registered: 8-2005 |
I'll E Mail you a pic G | ||
| white_cloud
Senior Member Username: white_cloud Post Number: 404 Registered: 11-2007 |
Great George, cant wait! I currently have a custom Carl Thompson lookalike being built to my specs by a great young builder - should be ready by the time we meet! Something to look forward to, hee hee John. |
