hey guys! of course i know that most of the tone comes from the fingers of the player, but i just was interested what you think what parts of a bass guitar affect the tone really obviously (u can also write down the less obvious parts like bridges and such)

in my opinion:
wood body, wood neck, wood fretboard, pickups, preamp, top, strings.


lets hear your opinion!

btw.. do you think the scale of the bass affects the overall-tone?

thx, hve a nice day!

ide probably have to say pickguard screws.

Probably easier to say that the instrument affects the tone most, then that encompasses the materials, the construction, the scale, the strings, the lot. Then of course there's the amp. And the player.

btw.. do you think the scale of the bass affects the overall-tone?

Hugely!

Alex

ide probably have to say pickguard screws.

;) dont think that im a guy that think fret-dots affect the tone or such! but i need that info for a university project.. so please, serious answers here :)

the kind of soap you wash your hands with

:rollno::rolleyes:

Some say that finish affects the tone quite a bit.

thank you very much jordan! great input

This is just what I think but...

After stating the electronic parts, (pickups, preamp, amplifier, etc...) and the player's style, the initial thing I hear is the fingerboard wood. To me, that is where the tone comes from on the initial attack. After that, I would say that the body and neck woods create the resonating tone.

I think hardware can make a some difference in resonation to a point too.

I don't think tops make much of a difference unless they are pretty thick.

definitely the strings. you can hear the difference a ton, even with the same bass. so i would say those, and the electronics mostly.

one of the guys at Nordstrand told me a basses is affected tonewise in this order.

Woods
Pickups
Preamp

I personally think when it comes to the build of an instrument, and we're omitting electronics and metal, it all comes down to density.

I agree with CapnSev in regards to the fingerboard, and that comes from A/B'ing Fenders with a maple and rosewood board. I really haven't had the opportunity to really look and work with different body woods, but I do believe they make a difference, just not sure how much.

What you eat for lunch that day and what color the ball end of the strings are ;)

what would you say about body-shape?

Come on jack, knowing that different factors affect tone is pretty lame in itself. Shouldn't you be asking in what way changing certain things affect tone, such as Jordan's comment about Finish? If this is a university project, I think you're going to need a little more in-depth research than a list of objects off a forum.

IME, removing the player / amp from the equation

PU location, Strings, PUs / electronics, body wood/ density, fingerboard material (not terribly convinced of this for fretted instruments. Fretless, though, it's huge), somewhat in that order.

Think about the difference between rounds and flats, or new and old for strings, the difference between the bridge and neck PU on just about any bass.

To fully cop-out, it all plays a role.

Scale has an enormous role in tone.

I think a lot of people overlook strings. I mean they know they're important, but maybe not just how important. I mean they're like the tires on your car, without 'em you're not going anywhere. Then pickups. Then where the pickups are located.

But don't mind me, I'm a pretty simple guy when it comes to all that. I don't like people trying to make it all mystical and crap.

And maybe this is just me... but I have NEVER "heard the fingerboard" wood... ever. Maybe I just don't care enough.

I think a lot of people overlook strings. I mean they know they're important, but maybe not just how important. I mean they're like the tires on your car, without 'em you're not going anywhere. Then pickups. Then where the pickups are located.

But don't mind me, I'm a pretty simple guy when it comes to all that. I don't like people trying to make it all mystical and crap.

And maybe this is just me... but I have NEVER "heard the fingerboard" wood... ever. Maybe I just don't care enough.

Ray Holt is what most affects the tone of your bass.

i know that most of the tone comes from the fingers of the player

Most of it, what percentage would you say? How do you know this?

but i need that info for a university project.. so please, serious answers here :)

Jack,

Similar questions have been overdone on this forum, which means there is a wealth of information available here. Read the stickies, apply some research skills and you'll find many answers related to your question.

But this forum is only one source. If you're writing a paper then credibility will be in question depending on who you're sourcing or referencing. There are credible sources available on the inernet and in books also, but the stickies have pointers to many of these.

I think your expectation of what you are going to hear based on what you've read on forums has a huge impact on the tone you hear.

I used to believe a lot of the common wisdom about "tone", but when I started seeing people who believe they hear a difference between power cables, I began to look at the whole thing with a huge amount of skepticism. Since I know now how colored people's experiences are based on what they expect to experience, I believe everyone far less.

As far as I know, no one has done any real scientific research on this subject, and until I see some sort of measurable data, I don't give people's opinions on the subject much weight. That's not to slight anyone here or this forum, because I think discussing gear is fun, but I realize now that the way I perceive nebulous concepts like "punchy" or "bright" is very different from that of other people, so I can't really trust that something that sounds "punchy" to someone else will sound punchy to me (or whatever).

Maybe this seems snarky, but people often discount the impact EQ has on your sound. A lot of people are into keeping the EQ flat, and I think this is part of why people stress so much about minute differences that some part on the bass might impart. If you know how to work an EQ, however, I think this obsession becomes moot. Want more high end? Don't worry about your fingerboard. Use your EQ!

OK I'll chime in...

First off, your fingers, technique, and placement (near or far from bridge) BY FAR the most, but you said parts so here goes. Also the amp is pretty damn significant but not nearly as much as the player. I would bet that you could still tell 2 familiar bassists apart even if they just played some scales, and they switched amps on you, or basses... or both.

It has been argued by an employee of a fairly well known parts manufacturer that even the smallest changes affect your tone, such as if your headstock was 1mm thicker or your nut was 1mm thicker even, but I think that you might as well not even cover that because to most people it wouldn't be discernible. And discernable is what you are looking for.

So here in a rough order (roughly from most difference to least, some are arguable)

whether it has frets or not
STRINGS!!!
pickup type and construction (p bass, j bass, mm, individual pole pieces, bar)
pickup brand ( heavily related to construction but includes materials too - barts, fender, nords)
electronics or lack of (active, passive, bands, filters)
pickup placement (more than you realize)
hollowbody or solidbody
stiffness of neck/body combination (this takes into account both the stiffness of the wood/other material and the connection... bolt on, neckthrough, set neck etc)
body wood type
fingerboard wood type
overall mass, density, and openness of the woods
scale length (but you can temporarily convert a 34 inch scale bass to 32 or 30 inch scale... http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=262618)
bridge mass (more significant with a bridge the whole way through - 2tek or with a bridge block underneath - warwick and alembic)
mass of headstock (I have heard it, then saw the waveform with my own eyes... add a fatfinger to your headstock and you get more sustain and a more even decay of the notes)
type of finish (very arguable but it's here)
cut and thickness of wood (particularly cut of neck wood - flatsawn, quartersawm... and thickness of fingerboard wood.) cut has to do with stiffness.
addition of stiffening materials - again stiffness of instrument

These are questionable:
top wood unless it's thick (but I have never changed tops on an instrument so this is a guess)
any other hardware other than the tuners and the bridge (mass related)
nut (affects open strings but that's it)
fret material (this may affect it more than I realize... this needs a thread)
shape (actually I wonder how this affects tone... if it did I have no idea whether it would be significant enough to mention. I agree that mass plays a part but if you had 2 really different shapes of the same wood with the same mass how much would it be different.)
age of wood.

Now you can really break down some of these further like the pickup construction, strings, and the electronics... heck bridge construction, type of woods... all of it can be broken down.

This is a fairly comprehensive list without going into details. I'd be hard pressed to think of anything else that doesn't fall under one of these atleast partially.

The construction of the output jack has enormous impact on one's tone. I prefer the clean, bright snap of Switchcraft jacks.

I think your expectation of what you are going to hear based on what you've read on forums has a huge impact on the tone you hear.

I used to believe a lot of the common wisdom about "tone", but when I started seeing people who believe they hear a difference between power cables, I began to look at the whole thing with a huge amount of skepticism. Since I know now how colored people's experiences are based on what they expect to experience, I believe everyone far less.

As far as I know, no one has done any real scientific research on this subject, and until I see some sort of measurable data, I don't give people's opinions on the subject much weight. That's not to slight anyone here or this forum, because I think discussing gear is fun, but I realize now that the way I perceive nebulous concepts like "punchy" or "bright" is very different from that of other people, so I can't really trust that something that sounds "punchy" to someone else will sound punchy to me (or whatever).

Maybe this seems snarky, but people often discount the impact EQ has on your sound. A lot of people are into keeping the EQ flat, and I think this is part of why people stress so much about minute differences that some part on the bass might impart. If you know how to work an EQ, however, I think this obsession becomes moot. Want more high end? Don't worry about your fingerboard. Use your EQ!

I think it s obvious that if you change parts it will change your tone... want proof? change your strings.

But I agree that we will disagree on how much it changes your tone. That's just the nature of it. And forget about trying to describe tone with words. Unless it is a frequency, sustain, or volume it's hard to describe. I mean a note is much more than one frequency and the harmonics decay at different rates so it would be damn near inpossible to come up with words to describe it. A waveform on paper would probably be the best way to describe a sound other than the sound itself. Not really given to words since there are too many possibilites and semantics aren't exact enough.

I think it s obvious that if you change parts it will change your tone... want proof? change your strings.

But I agree that we will disagree on how much it changes your tone. That's just the nature of it. And forget about trying to describe tone with words. Unless it is a frequency, sustain, or volume it's hard to describe. I mean a note is much more than one frequency and the harmonics decay at different rates so it would be damn near inpossible to come up with words to describe it. A waveform on paper would probably be the best way to describe a sound other than the sound itself. Not really given to words since there are too many possibilites and semantics aren't exact enough.

I think you may be reading into my post something that isn't there. I agree with you. I don't think that the parts that make up your bass don't have an effect on the sound. What I think is that people think they have a better understanding than they really do. I agree with your list of things and the order they effect tone almost completely. I would add that any change in the instrument, by necessity of physics, will have an effect on the vibration of the instrument, and thus the sound. What I'm not convinced of is whether this difference is audible in all cases, and whether the effect is consistent enough to be as predictable as people generally believe. I definitely agree that changing strings makes a big difference.

To put it simply, I object to ideas like "rosewood is warm" and "maple is bright". These words are not empirically relevent, and I have never heard anyone say "wood from the bottom of the tree is bright" even though the part of the tree has an effect on the density and must therefore effect the sound.

No one has ever compared all of the possible variables in any kind of objective way. I have never heard of a test where someone made a bass with a rosewood FB and recorded it using a robotic plucking arm, then took off the FB and put on a maple one, and recorded that with the same equipment with the same robotic aparatus. This is what would be necessary to compare two different fretboards with everything else equal.

I think your expectation of what you are going to hear based on what you've read on forums has a huge impact on the tone you hear.

I used to believe a lot of the common wisdom about "tone", but when I started seeing people who believe they hear a difference between power cables, I began to look at the whole thing with a huge amount of skepticism. Since I know now how colored people's experiences are based on what they expect to experience, I believe everyone far less.

As far as I know, no one has done any real scientific research on this subject, and until I see some sort of measurable data, I don't give people's opinions on the subject much weight. That's not to slight anyone here or this forum, because I think discussing gear is fun, but I realize now that the way I perceive nebulous concepts like "punchy" or "bright" is very different from that of other people, so I can't really trust that something that sounds "punchy" to someone else will sound punchy to me (or whatever).

Maybe this seems snarky, but people often discount the impact EQ has on your sound. A lot of people are into keeping the EQ flat, and I think this is part of why people stress so much about minute differences that some part on the bass might impart. If you know how to work an EQ, however, I think this obsession becomes moot. Want more high end? Don't worry about your fingerboard. Use your EQ!

this expresses EXACTLY my opinion! im not very much in that high-end stuff, and "i need to change my power-cable and fret-dots" stuff.

of course i dont rely on tb as a scientific source. i just wanted some input from such a huge community.

im quite pissed at my professor right now because he changed my topic. i originally wanted to look at famous bass players and checking their gear and what tones they can produce out of it. now i have to compare parts of the bass-guitar and put them into a grafic that shows if that wood sounds bright and those pickups are dark and stuff like that...
this just isnt what i originally wanted to do :(

but thanks for your help anyway.

thanks for that great list warrior joe! checked it with my own list and could add some stuff!

I think the three things that affect your tone the most are:

Strings
Pickup position
Pickup type

hey tell me what you could add... I'd be interested to hear.

thanks for that great list warrior joe! checked it with my own list and could add some stuff!

I think you may be reading into my post something that isn't there. I agree with you. I don't think that the parts that make up your bass don't have an effect on the sound. What I think is that people think they have a better understanding than they really do. I agree with your list of things and the order they effect tone almost completely. I would add that any change in the instrument, by necessity of physics, will have an effect on the vibration of the instrument, and thus the sound. What I'm not convinced of is whether this difference is audible in all cases, and whether the effect is consistent enough to be as predictable as people generally believe. I definitely agree that changing strings makes a big difference.

To put it simply, I object to ideas like "rosewood is warm" and "maple is bright". These words are not empirically relevent, and I have never heard anyone say "wood from the bottom of the tree is bright" even though the part of the tree has an effect on the density and must therefore effect the sound.

No one has ever compared all of the possible variables in any kind of objective way. I have never heard of a test where someone made a bass with a rosewood FB and recorded it using a robotic plucking arm, then took off the FB and put on a maple one, and recorded that with the same equipment with the same robotic aparatus. This is what would be necessary to compare two different fretboards with everything else equal.

Actually I wanted to do this to test another thing other than fretboard wood. They have these robotic arms at The Experience Music Project. I forget the desiners name but there is this 40 foot tall structure made of guitars and basses (probably between 100 and 200) and some of them have a robotic plucking arm. Hit start and they play a tune for ya. I wanted one of those arms for testing strings (and other feaures.) Only downside was that that all used picks, nothing to simulate the fingers. Pehaps make a finger of that gel they use on TV to simulate bodies on mythbusters.