So, like the title says... which part of the bass anatomy has the greatest affect on tone? the least affect?
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fingerboard, neck, body... rank importance
- Thread starter MikeyB
- Start date
- Dec 20, 2004
- 4,267
- 2,481
- Disclosures
- Player-Builder-Founder: Honey Badger Pickups & Regenerate Guitar Works
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
please NOT another of these tone war provoking threads. OP - please do a search in this very forum and you'll quickly find ENDLESS examples of this topic going ballistic within two pages. there simply is no need for yet another one of these threads
STOP THIS THREAD NOW! AT BEST ALL ANYONE CAN HOPE TO OFFER IS THEIR UNSUBSTANTIATED OPINION ACCOMPANIED BY A (USUALLY NON-)COMPELLING ARGUMENT PONTIFICATING HOW THEY ARE A TONE QUANTIFYING EXPERT. THERE'S A REASON ALL OF THESE THREADS GET LOCKED BY THE MODS
for the record, the most significant tone imparting element on an electric bass is the cable running from the bass to the amp ... without it you have NO tone whatsoever
all the best,
R
please NOT another of these tone war provoking threads. OP - please do a search in this very forum and you'll quickly find ENDLESS examples of this topic going ballistic within two pages. there simply is no need for yet another one of these threads
STOP THIS THREAD NOW! AT BEST ALL ANYONE CAN HOPE TO OFFER IS THEIR UNSUBSTANTIATED OPINION ACCOMPANIED BY A (USUALLY NON-)COMPELLING ARGUMENT PONTIFICATING HOW THEY ARE A TONE QUANTIFYING EXPERT. THERE'S A REASON ALL OF THESE THREADS GET LOCKED BY THE MODS
for the record, the most significant tone imparting element on an electric bass is the cable running from the bass to the amp ... without it you have NO tone whatsoever
all the best,
R
Rickett Customs
Commercial User
Rod is right.....
Singling out individual attributes, negates an instrument as a whole. Everything affects an instrument, but to what degree, is no question subjective....
Singling out individual attributes, negates an instrument as a whole. Everything affects an instrument, but to what degree, is no question subjective....
The closest I've seen to an objective answer to this question is in a thread I read earlier today, in Luthiers corner I believe. I think it was a discussion on the science of dead spots, and some dude had done some sort of velocity imaging (I could be mixing topics here, short term memory not so good at times!). There was an interesting color plot which COULD be interpreted as indicating the neck is the largest contributor to vibration in a solid body bass.
That said, the other guys are right - tone is inherently subjective, and a good musician can pick up any old bass and make it sing. Time spent arguing tone would be better spent improving yours.
That said, the other guys are right - tone is inherently subjective, and a good musician can pick up any old bass and make it sing. Time spent arguing tone would be better spent improving yours.
Agreed, but then I think that even those results would have been affected by something like a poorly clamped glue joint......
By answering the OP I think at best you can nail down about 60-70% of the planned result, the rest is variable. And then, if you play like me you can make a $15000,00 bass sound like a $60,00 First Act bass.
True. Just because an experiment is high-tech doesn't mean it's scientific. You would need to do the same experiment on a statistically significant number of instruments, in contolled conditons, in order to be able to draw any firm conclusions. Even then, the subjective aspect of tone would remain.
...or take that same $15000,00 bass, and plug in into a POS amp with bad/blown/$htty speakers...still crap.
.
Well, thanks for the useful input. 
In this thread I've posted about doing a Warmoth build that gets me close to a Warwick Streamer Jazzman tone. That's the context for this thread.
Didn't mean to stir the TB pot. If you're a luthier and have an opinion on the topic, I'd like to hear it.
Haters - keep quiet.
In this thread I've posted about doing a Warmoth build that gets me close to a Warwick Streamer Jazzman tone. That's the context for this thread.
Didn't mean to stir the TB pot. If you're a luthier and have an opinion on the topic, I'd like to hear it.
Haters - keep quiet.
Well, thanks for the useful input.
In this thread I've posted about doing a Warmoth build that gets me close to a Warwick Streamer Jazzman tone. That's the context for this thread.
Didn't mean to stir the TB pot. If you're a luthier and have an opinion on the topic, I'd like to hear it.
Haters - keep quiet.
Well dude, you've had input from two luthiers and at least one engineer. My advice, FWIW - focus on the pups, electronics, neck, body, in that order.
- Dec 20, 2004
- 4,267
- 2,481
- Disclosures
- Player-Builder-Founder: Honey Badger Pickups & Regenerate Guitar Works
I am and I did. wisdom from years of actually building basses, not hate, is the foundation of my earlier post.
there's a difference between having your ears tickled with what you want to hear, and having your misconceptions challenged by truth. I was lead astry with internet myths in my earlier years of building ... personal hands-on experience has made me wiser on this topic, giving me a near 180 degree change in opinion from what I thought I knew to be right to what I now know to be right
all the best,
R
mikeyswood
Inactive
SDB Guitars
Commercial User
Amen. Too often the voice of experience is too quickly dismissed as "hate" or "bias" simply because it strongly disagrees with someone else's opinion.
I, too, used to have this big belief in "tone woods"... but my opinion now leans toward some combination of pickups/electronics and the players touch/technique.
Musiclogic
Commercial User
- Aug 6, 2005
- 6,505
- 75
- 60
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder: HJC Customs USA, The Cool Lute, C G O
I can see this got off on the wrong foot, so let me see if I can get this back on track.
I'm looking forward to a winter project - putting together a Warmoth build where the goal is to get as close as possible to a Warwick Streamer Jazzman tone, yet packaged in a '75 jazz bass aesthetic.
To my ears the Warwick basses have a certain semi-dark, dry, compressed, lo-mid, growly thing going on. Personally, I think the woods are a significant contribution to the tone, but I truly don't know. My plan is to get MEC pickups and preamp, install them in the proper locations, use Wenge for the neck and Ash for the body. As far as that goes, that's as much as I can possible do anyway to get to that tone.
Now, here's the kicker - I would sort of prefer the maple neck with black block inlays just from a visual standpoint. So, I'm left wondering how important the Wenge fingerboard is to my project and hence my post to the luthiers corner. I am a player of 30 years, an engineer and craftsman, but make no claims to be a luthier.
So let me apologize for stirring up what i see now is a contentious subject, but hopefully you see where I'm coming from. Me, I'm just wondering how much I'll "lose" by going with a maple fingerboard vs a wenge fingerboard for this particular project. If the answer is "black magic", "you'll never hear the difference", or "you'll completely miss the mark without the wenge fb", I'm curious to know.
I respect TB and the luthiers here, so thanks sincerely for the information. I was just kinda bummed to get that big mile-high "BOOO" when I checked back on my thread. I'm looking forward to a nice winter project and it would be nice to get close to the bullseye tone-wise. Hopefully we can get this thread back on track.
Thanks...
-Mike
I'm looking forward to a winter project - putting together a Warmoth build where the goal is to get as close as possible to a Warwick Streamer Jazzman tone, yet packaged in a '75 jazz bass aesthetic.
To my ears the Warwick basses have a certain semi-dark, dry, compressed, lo-mid, growly thing going on. Personally, I think the woods are a significant contribution to the tone, but I truly don't know. My plan is to get MEC pickups and preamp, install them in the proper locations, use Wenge for the neck and Ash for the body. As far as that goes, that's as much as I can possible do anyway to get to that tone.
Now, here's the kicker - I would sort of prefer the maple neck with black block inlays just from a visual standpoint. So, I'm left wondering how important the Wenge fingerboard is to my project and hence my post to the luthiers corner. I am a player of 30 years, an engineer and craftsman, but make no claims to be a luthier.
So let me apologize for stirring up what i see now is a contentious subject, but hopefully you see where I'm coming from. Me, I'm just wondering how much I'll "lose" by going with a maple fingerboard vs a wenge fingerboard for this particular project. If the answer is "black magic", "you'll never hear the difference", or "you'll completely miss the mark without the wenge fb", I'm curious to know.
I respect TB and the luthiers here, so thanks sincerely for the information. I was just kinda bummed to get that big mile-high "BOOO" when I checked back on my thread. I'm looking forward to a nice winter project and it would be nice to get close to the bullseye tone-wise. Hopefully we can get this thread back on track.
Thanks...
-Mike
Give Mikey some slack..hes a good guy here and just trying to increase his practical knowledge... we should be able to ask questions that have stirred the pot in the past with a bit a forewarned knowledge to get to the helpful part of the discussion.
In the interest of full disclosure I still believe the world became round when rosewood fretboards were discovered.
btw.. Myself, NOT BEING A LUTHIER, would by means of an educated guess say that the combined feel of the rest of the bass's material would be the dominant undertone/characteristic of the bass (electronics aside) and that the fretboard would be a minor overtone in difference.. I do think those brass frets are the bees knees though.
In the interest of full disclosure I still believe the world became round when rosewood fretboards were discovered.
btw.. Myself, NOT BEING A LUTHIER, would by means of an educated guess say that the combined feel of the rest of the bass's material would be the dominant undertone/characteristic of the bass (electronics aside) and that the fretboard would be a minor overtone in difference.. I do think those brass frets are the bees knees though.
???
This poor guy has a pretty specific tone target. He asks a vaguely-worded question, and gets barked at.
He apologizes, and clarifies that he's trying to cop the vibe of a specific instrument while changing the shape and layout, but hopes that he can still get close if he uses the same pickups, electronics and types of lumber. Furthermore, he's thinking about changing one specific element, and wonders how much difference that will make.
So what does he get after 16 responses? Summing up the previous posts:
- People shouldn't ask stupid questions.
- Tone is subjective, and science is pretty much useless.
- The dominant factor in tone production might be a.) the cable, b.) the neck, c.) the tone control, d.) various combinations of various elements.
- Nobody knows for sure, and anyone who says they do, doesn't. Except maybe Rod, who is wise, but wasn't always.
- No matter what, if the player or the amp aren't good enough, the results will still be crap.
- The OP probably isn't good enough, and should spend more time in the woodshed, instead of wasting people's time by asking questions.
Nice job, guys. real generous...
This poor guy has a pretty specific tone target. He asks a vaguely-worded question, and gets barked at.
He apologizes, and clarifies that he's trying to cop the vibe of a specific instrument while changing the shape and layout, but hopes that he can still get close if he uses the same pickups, electronics and types of lumber. Furthermore, he's thinking about changing one specific element, and wonders how much difference that will make.
So what does he get after 16 responses? Summing up the previous posts:
- People shouldn't ask stupid questions.
- Tone is subjective, and science is pretty much useless.
- The dominant factor in tone production might be a.) the cable, b.) the neck, c.) the tone control, d.) various combinations of various elements.
- Nobody knows for sure, and anyone who says they do, doesn't. Except maybe Rod, who is wise, but wasn't always.
- No matter what, if the player or the amp aren't good enough, the results will still be crap.
- The OP probably isn't good enough, and should spend more time in the woodshed, instead of wasting people's time by asking questions.
Nice job, guys. real generous...
