Hey lads. I'm about go and buy a G&L Tribute L-2500, and the only choice left to make is whether or not I want the body to be made out of basswood or swamp ash.

Honestly, I'm not sure what the difference is. All I really want to know is how both of them affect the tone (generally speaking), and which one is lighter? I've been dragging a pretty heavy Spector around for years now and, not being a particularly massive guy, I'd like something a little more forgiving in the weight stakes.

Thanks for your impending wisdom.

IIRC, basswood will be slightly lighter in weight and mellower in tone. Swamp ash is heavy, but it punches through nicely. A Spector will be similar in weight to a Swamp Ash.

this is information about the varieties of woods and their relation to tone written by Warmoth.

there's a lot of usefull tidbits in here and is a good resource for making decisions on wood options.

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm

I have a G and L L2500 Fretless with an Ash body and it sounds amazing. My Fretted bass is a sadowsky M5-24 fret with an Ash body and it rocks. IMHO, ash is the way to go. I am suspicious of basswood basses as I have never played a basswood bass I liked , ie Ibanez, Jackson, Charvel, et al.

Basswood to me sounds similar to alder and resonates very deeply- I can feel the vibrations of my basswood L2500 more than with any other bass I've ever owned!

Karl

I have owned two ash G&Ls and one basswood. The basswood had the ugliest soloed sound, but sounded the best in the mix to my ears. My experience with three ash basses is that they sounded great by themselves, but I cannot always get the deep body I crave in a mix.

Dave