After all this talk about bodies and the woods that either look great or sound great - is there anything wrong with like using a good sounding wood for your bass and veneering the top with an exotic wood? When I say veneer I mean like 1/32 material. I would think you could then use some beautiful inlays and achieve the beauty we all want and not hurt the tone. Would that thin of a veneer hurt the quality of the sound? Glue also might enter into the equation also huh?

bcarll

Lakland is doing that with their imports- i would guess the effect on tone would be minimal-

Veneer is so thin that it's easy to sand through. Even a little dent or scratch could go through the veneer.

I think that few builders think twice about hurting tone with a 1/4" laminate of almost any wood.

I wouldn't worry too much about coloring the tone if you use a veneer in the 1/16"-1/8" range.