Warwick Prototype Thumb Bass Autographed Jack Bruce Ginger Baker John Entwistle

Description

PRICE NOW INCLUDES INTERNATIONAL or DOMESTIC ROUNDTRIP AIRFARE HOTEL & DINER AT PICK-UP.
Donation in the loving memory of John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker.
This is the first known production Warwick Thumb bass I am aware of.  It may in fact be a prototype. It is in condition as new delivered to the Bass Player Hall of Fame via it's parent retail operation BASS MINT (r).
Signed by John Entwistle 2nd Week October 1986
Signed by Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker Dec. 1 1989
Provided to the Bass Players Hall of Fame by Hans Peter Wilfer Sept. 1986
Bass-Mint started in 1984 stemming from Hackensack Music Shop, as an answer to bass players complaining about the selection and quality of basses at music stores.  Bass Mint published a mailing catalogue buy & sell newsletter, called Bass Player starting 1985. By Summer of 1986 after becoming the preeminent store for electric bass guitars. and vintage basses, Bass Mint and was working on a magazine hoping to partner with GPI Publications.
During the 1986 Summer NAMM Show the owner of Bass-Mint hooked up with John Entwistle, bassist of The Who, at the Sennheiser microphone booth who was sharing space with Warwick Bass Guitars of Pretzfeld Germany. Pretzfeld, is a town famous for craftsmen carved orchestral string instruments.  After a meeting with Hans Peter Wilfer the owner, Bass Mint secured the first U.S. order and  made a proposal to be importer of Warwick, but due to import license requirements, and a possible conflict, that a retail operation would also be the wholesaler, the order was processed through Hi-Tech musical instrument of Las Vegas Nevada who became the distributor.
Of the two orders, this 1985 F bass was not included with the master order of 1986 instruments. The first order was 2 Fretted Thumb Basses;
one fretless with ebony board; one fretted;
two streamers, two Nobby Meidel basses (fretless and a fretted; and one Nobby Meidel guitar.
This 1985 was was included with the 1987 instruments (two Thumb Basses; one Streamer bass; and one Buzzard Bass in Wenge wood.
This Warwick fretless was by special request for an exhibit instrument for the Bass Players Hall of Fame Museum, member of the American Association of Museums and supported by a top shelf Board of Directors. All directors signed and returned a ballot to vote in a President and certify partial induction results for an upcoming 1991 Bass Players Hall of Fame Induction.
It was planned that the induction would have been carried by the trades, and MTV who failed to interview the directors, and only the secretary and organizer. The facts were botched and the editing made it look like it was something that was not yet organized but it was. Although sales of the magazine soared after a week of broadcasts during Grammy Week 1990, and bass guitars were flying off the shelf, the advent of a renegade and unconventional music publication that put environmental and social justice issues first, as a major player,  was typically unwelcome at the time.
1985 was the introduction year of the Warrick Thumb Bass. The first basses prototyped and in later production were fretted basses. As I understand bassist Jack Bruce by then had an interest in a fretless model. The Bubinga wood fingerboard was not suitable as confirmed was the case when it was taken to be autographed for the Bass Player's Hall of Fame Museum by Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. This bass was initially autographed by John Entwistle when I brought with me for an interview for an exclusive article about a possible WHO Reunion sometime during the second week in October 1986.
The original taped interview with John was copied and I mailed it, or the original to myself. It is postmarked Oct 24, 1986. It remains sealed and unopened and will be offered here at eBay. There is some material that was unpublished for one reason or another ;)
Before being granted the permission to publish, I had to contact John Entwistle's agent/manager at Left Field Productions. The name Left Field Productions, would later inspire me to change the name of the bass magazine from Bass Player, to First Bass.
Tony Bongiovani who the owner of power station, was kind in arranging me to get comps and a photo pass to the opening of the best possible Abbott and Costello impersonation duo at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City NJ.
I had gotten a tip from a bass customer with ties to Atlantic Records and the David Letterman Show, prior to me coming out with a newsstand edition (close to a year after that interview with John Entwistle) that GPI was not honest about my sharing ideas and publishing my Bass Player title with me as part of the deal. I wanted to time the interview closer to the impending announcement of a Who reunion tour, but I was forced to get it to the stands as I learned GPI had already published my title Bass Player. in Canada by Miller Freeman Inc. in Canada. I did not have first use rights of the name Bass Player in Canada, and it cost me my life savings in attorneys fees to learn that any case would not yield the results. So I conceded.  They did a good job on Bass Player.
During the period in 1989, at the 1989 Winter NAMM Show in January, there just after having spoken to Jack Bruce about the Bass Players Hall of Fame and an interview. I had brought up this Warwick and he had recalled trying one out that did not have an Ebony board before getting one. I had
This instrument pre-dates the Warwick serial number system.