Warwick Unveils 60th Anniversary Thumb Bass

Warwick celebrated their 35th anniversary last year with a limited edition anniversary bass. Now they’re celebrating another milestone. Founder Hans-Peter Wilfer turned 60 this year and the company celebrated with an incredible version of their Thumb bass.

“In line with the company slogan “The Sound of Wood”, the bass was made of extraordinarily high-grade tone-woods, some of which had been stored, and thus tonally matured for up to 30 years,” Warwick shares. “The body’s back is pommelé bubinga. The neck-through construction with 7 stripes combines wenge and bunge (bubinga) with white maple veneer. The fingerboard’s wild marbling originates from a piece of ebony heartwood. On the bubinga burl top, which features a wane part, the matte UV satin finish smoothly transforms into a shiny UV high polish finish. As required, all woods are CITES certified, of course.”

Using fine woods was just the beginning. The bass also has gemstone inlays across the body and fingerboard that follow the dynamics of the wood design. The dot inlays and side dots are gold-set sapphires that are back-lit by LEDs. Diamonds are used for the position markings on the ebony knobs while gold is used on the electronics cover, the truss rod cover, and the diamond-studded headstock logo.

The bass was built as a complete surprise for Wilfer, who founded Warwick in 1982. It was kept a secret from him until his birthday on July 20th. The one-of-a-kind bass used all of the company’s resources and is estimated to be valued over $170,000.

Check out this “making of” video:

Warwick Anniversary Thumb Bass Specs: