The Warwick Thumb is an electric bass used by Prince from the Act II tour onward. It was Prince’s preferred live and studio bass in the mid 1990s.
Prince had three Thumb basses:
A white four string with a custom “eye” graphic.
A black five string with the lyrics to Gold printed in gold lettering.
A natural fretless four string.
The eye graphic was designed by Jeff Munson, Paisley Park’s creative director and airbrushed onto the body by Steve Parke who added several similar murals to Paisley Park at the same time. Prince could frequently be seen playing this live during the Gold Experience and Emancipation eras.
Sonny T played a black/gold five-string Thumb live with the NPG, and it can be seen in the “Gold” and “Endorphinmachine” music videos. It is not known to what extent Prince played this bass – in a 1999 interview he calls a five string bass a “mutant animal”, and its possibly in reference to this Thumb.
The fretless Thumb was rarely used by Prince given its near-mint condition. At this time, Prince often had Rhonda Smith play fretless on his albums and she plays this bass in “The Holy River” video.
All three Thumb basses are currently in the collection at Paisley Park and appear in the Prince - Guitar & Bass book.
Sonny T also played another left-handed Thumb on the Act II tour.
