Do you have any idea on this? My luthiere suggested to install two graphite bars when building the neck of my future 5 string. The neck is not gonna be a quartersawn piece so i thought that it would help but now i heard about such a negative effect on the acoustic sound of the bass.

are you going to play this bass without amplification?

Myth: "a bass must sound good unplugged for it to sound good amplified"
Fact: NOT TRUE!


bring on the flame ...I'm feeling feisty today.

sure not
but i would also like it to ring well on my stomach ; )

I really don't think so. But with almost any subject you could possibly think of, there are the extremely anal people that make everything so complicated.
Sure, some people will tell you that. Just like my bike mechanic thinks that wrapping my handlebar tape too thickly affects my speed.

sure not
but i would also like it to ring well on my stomach ; )

Would not holding a bass against the stomach (or leg) tend to dampen anticipated "acoustic" abilities that otherwise might be present when the instrument is strummed un-dampend and un-plugged?

In an electric instrument, any resonances are at the expense of stealing inertia from string vibrations. Thus, these resonances ALL affect the sound...but think of it as a an analog to "subtractive synthesis".

What the resonances "steal" results in "what's left"...and thus the tonal signature of the instrument. Lower resonances steal more inertia, since it takes more "HP" to make a low note. This is what causes dead spots. Keep the resonances high in frequency, and while you won't eliminate dead spots, you'll minimize how severe they appear to be, since the total energy "stolen" to make a high note is less.

Use concrete and re-bar instead of graphite :D

all I know is that my wishbass has no graphite and no trussrod and sounds great! But I think that this has much more to do with the fact that the bass weighs about 75% more than any other bass I've ever played than the fact that the neck is solid...but maybe not...

I utilize dual graphite rods in all of my necks - be it 4, 5, 6, or x-string, they all get the shaft(s)

All of my basses sound incredibly woody - you would never confuse them with a Modulus or Steinberger XL-2 in a blind taste test. In fact, I bet you might tell me that there is no graphite in my necks based on how the overall bass sounds and resonates.

You can always say that you're not sure about adding the bars, and if your luthier insists then make a deal that if you don't like the sound (and purely sound ... the feel/craftsmanship is a totally different subject) you'd like to swap the neck out for one sans graphite ... and offer to cover 50% of the materials cost if you choose a new neck. If your luthier makes a good neck, I bet you'll be pleased with the graphite stiffened neck and never take him/her up on the replacement neck.

all the best,

R

Thank you guys for all these replies. I can say that i'm convinced by Rodent's words. I guess i was being anal too thinking this way, i must let this dude do his job in his way.

Thank you all.

Regards,
Emre.

I like ebony lams better than graphite, just because its wood, and the weight doesn't bother me. But there's nothing at all wrong with graphite rods, your neck will be fine.

Although I usually hate the "argument from authority," nearly every high-end luthier uses graphite reinforcements, not to mention that they're in all current MIA Fenders (vintage spec Custom Shop excepted). So they probably don't sound too bad!

I've tried them and I prefer not to use them. I'll put them in if requested and therefore keep them in stock.

My reason for not using them is simply that I don't like the idea of removing good wood that is part of the neck and replacing it with something else that has to be glued in, thereby creating another (actually, 4 sided...) glue joint in the neck.

Myth: "a bass must sound good unplugged for it to sound good amplified"
Fact: NOT TRUE!

Sorry Wilser, but I beg to differ.
If an instrument sounds bad unplugged, it is an indication that something is wrong. You'll need very expensive p-ups and amps to compansate for the weaker tone.

Emy, you can also try steel rods. Warmoth and Warwick use them - they resonate a bit differently, and some say that they hear more of a high-mid/low-treeble pitched clang when slapping. However, steel is heavier.

As far as unplugged sound: It makes sense I think that if the acoustically-heard vibration is what you like to hear, then you're likely to like what gets amplified by the pups. On the other hand, some basses may not release much of their sound energy to the air, and yet may have a good-sounding vibration amplified. These are both issues that involve both fact and opinion.

One thing that is pure science though: if it sounds loud acoustically, then it is losing energy to the air, and will have a shorter decay time (less sustain) than if this weren't happening. From the tone-opinion standpoint though, this could be a positive, or a negative. For example, what most people may describe as a "punchy" sound is characterized by a quick initial decay of at least some of the frequency spectrum. (This initial energy loss could be enabled by loss to the air, or by mechanical loss, such as might be encouraged by a bolt-on neck connection.) Another example: an acoustic guitar is designed to fairly quickly give up its string energy to the body and then the air, in order to produce its sound acoustically. Hence its short decay time. A violin is designed to give up nearly all of its energy to the air immediately, since it has a constantly-supplied energy source from bowing.

Very enlightening, Peter! Thanks.

My take on the original question:
do graphite bars impact the acoustic sound? YES
do they harm the acoustic sound? NO
do I use stiffeners? NO
why not? MY NECKS DO THE JOB WITHOUT THEM!

Construction and materials cooperate to make the final solution. If one luthier is confident in a non-reinforced construction, his necks may do the trick. If another is not confident, he may be wrong, but his reinforced necks will be good.
The bottom line is to make a neck with the intended stiffness to weight ratio, with the intended distribution of that ratio. That is what makes the resonance, which impacts the tone.