Soundclips of a fender jazz - Rosewood v maple

[pattyløve]

I've always wondered how much influence the fingerboard wood has on tone. Some people say it makes a massive difference, some say its too minor to make note of. In some spare time, I thought I'd record some soundclips for my own pleasure. After listening back, I just thought I would post it up here for anyone interested.

Please excuse the playing - The audio tends to clip a few times and i'm not by any means a good bass player ahah (sub-par technique/timing) . I solely just did this as an aural experiment.

The two basses are a MIA standard (maple) and a MIM standard (rosewood). Both have fender CS60s pickups in them, both have all knobs turned to 10 and just restrung with new elixir strings. I understand the build quality and components (eg. different hi-mass bridges) aren't identical and could also have an effect of sound.

I play 2 riffs - One with fingers and one with a pick. The first of each set is the same bass as well as the second of each set. But for fun's sake, i won't say which one was which till later on! Hopefully you found this as fun/interesting as I did! Looking forward to hearing from you guys

https://soundcloud.com/pattynevereve...ewood-v-maples

[musicman666]

Hmmmm...I can't tell a damn difference.

[musicman666]

Ok gave it another listen...1st is maple.....aww hell I really can't tell!?!?

[Draculea]

Originally Posted by musicman666

Hmmmm...I can't tell a damn difference.

Me neither...

[willbassyeah]

First rosewood second maple... Btw the shocker to me is the fact that the mim and Mia sounds close with that pickup change

[vin*tone]

The second one sounded a bit darker to me.... but both v. similar.

I'll guess 2 = rw.

[qervo]

First one is the maple .

[Toptube]

The order is maple, rosewood, rosewood, maple.

[IronLung1986]

sweet tone regardless of what the wood is.

[bmc]

There is more to a bass than just the neck.

[nolezmaj]

A guess - first fingerstyle bass is rosewood, second one is maple. Why? Well, second one sounds like my custom jazz with maple fretboard, has a little "snap" in treble domain. Of course, I could be completely wrong.
Have no idea about picking part of track.

[KISSbestfan]

I always keep sayin, that the small wood differences really doesnt matter.

Why ?

The difference we can hear (well, some of us at least), will die during the mix with other instruments

[JimmyM]

I couldn't hear much of a difference at all. Sometimes I thought the first sample sounded brighter than the second, but then I re-listen and they sound the same to me.

[nolezmaj]

Originally Posted by KISSbestfan

The difference we can hear (well, some of us at least), will die during the mix with other instruments

I agree, I prefer maple only because it looks prettier to me ;-)

[WayneKerrins]

Maple Rosewood Maple Rosewood

[Duuuuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by WayneKerrins

Maple Rosewood Maple Rosewood

+1

[Fuzzbass]

Originally Posted by WayneKerrins

Maple Rosewood Maple Rosewood

I brought my good headphones here to work. The way I'd put it is "brighter, warmer, brighter, warmer". Okay, to place a vote I'll say maple rosewood maple rosewood. Not a big difference, though.

OBTW: nice playing, and great J-bass tones.

[Bassdirty]

I like the 2nd bass in each of the clips. I want to say that it doesnt sound as bright.
Either way, I prefer bass #2.

Now tell us the answer. ..

[Matthijs]

Well the first and third part and the second and fourth are the same bass. Hard to tell what is what. I'm guessing the 1st and 3d are rosewoood because there's a certain upper mid thing going on I like to think comes with the rosewood. Basicly it's that one I think would sound best as a fretless

[IAmACrocodile]

First of all, thankyou very much, Pattylove, for going to the trouble of putting this experiment together for us! These tests can never be perfect for so many reasons, but I think that by using basses with identical pickups, and which have just been restrung with the same type of strings, this test is about as good as they can be.

My ears detect a bit more prominence in the treble in the first bass, and a slightly warmer growl in the second, so I'll say maple first, then rosewood. Although they are so, so close that they could easily be the same bass in different rooms, or you could be standing in a different position relative to the amp, etc, etc...

Fantastic test, and I look forward to seeing the result!