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AUDIO TEST: Maple+Maple vs. Alder+Rosewood!

CAST YOUR VOTE HERE!

  • BASS 1 is brighter than BASS 2. The MIX clip is BASS 1.

    Votes: 13 6.6%

  • BASS 1 is brighter than BASS 2. The MIX clip is BASS 2.

    Votes: 37 18.7%

  • BASS 2 is brighter than BASS 1. The MIX clip is BASS 1.

    Votes: 74 37.4%

  • BASS 2 is brighter than BASS 1. The MIX clip is BASS 2.

    Votes: 43 21.7%

  • I can't hear any difference whatsoever!

    Votes: 12 6.1%

  • I can hear a difference, but I have no clue which bass is being used in the mix.

    Votes: 19 9.6%
  • Total voters
    198
  • Poll closed .
#41
mongo2 said:
That wouldn't be the tone of the actual bass but the tone of the gear. Even pickups only act as transducers and filters and if the original waveform from the strings (which is effected by the hardware and wood) doesn't have the desired characteristics, the pickups can't add them. However the pickups can filter out characteristics.
Click to expand...

That's true, but we're not talking about an acoustic instrument. If it doesn't have pickups and an amp and the rest, nobody hears it. At least not very well. The only tone that really matters is the one that you hear, which is a combination of everything. IMO, the type of wood used in the neck and fingerboard is a miniscule influence on the overall tone.
 
#42
I skimmed the thread and didn't see what type of strings were used. They sound like flats to me on both basses. IMO, flats "mask" the sound of different woods and make it more difficult to tell the difference (again...IMO/to my ears).

So...were flats used?
 
#44
B4 I read thru this thread I am gonna vote

Clip #1: Alder RW
Clip #2: Ash/Maple
Clip #3: Ash Maple (due to the tightish low end I heard there)

But ... one of the flaws that I see in these kindof tests is potentially the strings used.
If they are the same for both basses one or both will not sound it's best (sort of like putting low test gas in a Ferrari and saying it's engine is no better than a BMW's ... but perhaps this was addressed within the thread and I have not read it yet. Just sayin...)
 
#46
I love these tests. Thanks for going through the trouble, Dan.

Wow. This has got to be the first time I've actually agreed with the majority. Bass 2 is easily brighter than bass 1..

..but as I've said before, bass tone goes out the window once it's buried in a mix as heavy as in the "mix" clip. Again, not everyone plays that style of music, so I'm going to have to say the "practicality" argument doesn't hold too much weight here.

That's my excuse, anyways. :D
I'm still going to take a wild guess on the mix clip, though, and say it's Bass #1 that's in there!
 
#48
I really wish they were round wounds. I've always held to the belief that most of the tone is in the neck. Now I'm partially convinced that while you can pick really bad wood that may make a difference, most quality wood will make little difference in tone. If the basses had round wounds, I'd be 100% convinced because I can't hear enough of a difference that it would matter.

(Not complaining, I really enjoy these threads.)
 
#49
Bobby B said:
That's true, but we're not talking about an acoustic instrument. If it doesn't have pickups and an amp and the rest, nobody hears it. At least not very well. The only tone that really matters is the one that you hear, which is a combination of everything. IMO, the type of wood used in the neck and fingerboard is a miniscule influence on the overall tone.
Click to expand...

Those same type of vibrating string characteristics still exist on a solidbody but the pickup has to have a very wide bandwidth and be very transparent to transduce them properly.

Then there's the fact that the position of the pickup limits what portion of the strings harmonics it transduces. That alone dooms a bass with only traditional electric pickups to having only a portion of it's available spectrum transduced which means a limited tonal pallete. That's not the fault of the wood. A body/neck/bridge mounted piezo pickup may work a bit better in that regard but they may have issues with artifacts of their own.
 
#50
cybersnyder said:
I really wish they were round wounds. I've always held to the belief that most of the tone is in the neck. Now I'm partially convinced that while you can pick really bad wood that may make a difference, most quality wood will make little difference in tone. If the basses had round wounds, I'd be 100% convinced because I can't hear enough of a difference that it would matter.

(Not complaining, I really enjoy these threads.)
Click to expand...

Roundwounds are not allowed within a 10 mile perimeter of my house. I have a restraining order. ;)

But seriously, flats are perfectly fine. Are they less bright? Yes. But so are 250K pots. Should I have installed 500K pots?

Rounds would simply have made each bass brighter by the same degree. We'd still be hearing the same amount of difference between the basses.

Besides, it certainly appears most people are having no problem hearing a difference in tone. I know I'm not. My ears can easily identify which is brighter. (Identifying which bass was used for the mix is another story...)
 
#56
-=DanAtkinson=- said:
:confused: :confused: :confused:

I was responding to his +1 reply to this statement: "Dan, you did leave off one pretty important selection: the voter can tell a difference in the individual bass tracks, but cannot tell which one is in the mix."

That option is indeed in the poll list.
Click to expand...

I thought it was his second +1 which referenced my saying that a previous poster's idea of swapping necks and doing it again was an excellent idea.

It is an excellent idea...how about it?
 
#57
After using some different headphones I can tell a slight difference, but not enough to worry with and I can't tell the difference in the mix at all. In the future I'll pick woods for the traditional tonal characteristics but if there is a tossup between two woods that I choosing between, I'll go with what looks better, feels better or is lighter.
 
#59
cybersnyder said:
After using some different headphones I can tell a slight difference, but not enough to worry with and I can't tell the difference in the mix at all. In the future I'll pick woods for the traditional tonal characteristics but if there is a tossup between two woods that I choosing between, I'll go with what looks better, feels better or is lighter.
Click to expand...

+1

Even though I know which bass was used in the mix, I can easily convince my ears they are hearing one or the other.
 
#60
-=DanAtkinson=- said:
As most of you know, I've been doing some audio tests of body and neck woods. This time, I decided to take things up a notch and test 2 basses made from entirely different woods.

For this experiment, I opted to test woods that are touted as being very different on the tone spectrum. I used one J bass with a Maple body and Maple/Maple neck, and another with an Alder body and Rosewood/Rosewood neck (yes, all rosewood).

001-3.jpg

002-5.gif



Let's take a look at the Warmoth "Tone-O-Meter" ratings for these woods:

WoodTone.jpg



Now, these are the questions I'm seeking insight on:


1. What percentage of us can hear a difference in tone between woods?
2. Do woods exhibit the expected tone "flavor" they are said to have? In other words, is wood tone predictable?
3. Can we identify wood tone characteristics in a mix or band setting?


This experiment can't answer those questions definitively, but it can provide some useful insight.

Now for this audio test, I'm doing things a bit differently, having learned a few things from my past threads. BASS 1 and BASS 2 are the two basses described and pictured above. I won't say which is which. On each bass, I recorded a clip with both pickups on full, a clip with the neck pickup only, and a clip with the bridge pickup only. I used the exact same strings, pickups, and control plate on each bass. And each bass was setup the same way.

(Also, you'll notice that the clips are raw WAV files, not compressed MP3 files.)

Listen closely to the clips of BASS 1 and BASS 2. Can you hear a difference? If so, decide which one sounds "brighter" to you.

Then listen to the MIX clip. This clip was recorded using one of the 2 test basses. It's the same bassline from before, but in a mix with other instruments. Your job is to figure out if this clip was recorded with BASS 1 or BASS 2.




Let the voting begin! :bassist: (I'll probably let this poll ride for at least 24 hours before revealing the answer.)

EDIT: Don't forget the last 2 options in the poll in case you're having a hard time deciding!
Click to expand...

we have NO IDEA of the influence of your particular pickups, etc., so it would be good to hear a clip of each and TELL US what bass it is, then a bunch of random clips from which we have to pick out the right one. Again, doing this over the net with a DI'd bass, through a computer preamp, web browser, and speakers with 5 watts of power and ???? frequency response is of very limited use - or even with GOOD headphones. Listening to the basses live through a good bass rig is a totally different experience. Does anybody really know what influence a web browser has on audio files?

Also, as for the mix thing, I wonder how well a bassist would perform in a live setting with a type of bass he hated, regardless of what it sounded like? Setup wrong, wrong strings, wrong bodywoods/neckwoods/fingerboard for him or her...badly, I'll bet. Most audience members can't tell if I've just put on new strings, got a new rig/bass/shoes, or just had my bass setup beautifully/badly, but, as an artist, I sure can, and even if this tonewoods stuff was all hogwash (which it's NOT), if it makes me feel better about myself and my instrument/music/art, and makes me perform better, who cares, I'm going to do it or buy it or WHATEVER, for the love of music...even if it's superstition.

In the studio, if I heard the mix through a good pair of Genelecs or something, with a good neutral board, and knew what the basses sounded like ahead of time, I'm confident I could pick it out. Through a web browser, with little plastic speakers, even if it IS a wave file... :rollno:

Nice basses, btw...you do some nice work. If you ever do a nice 6 string jazz with 24 frets, I might be interested.

MarcoJBass1.jpg


MarcoJBass4.jpg


MarcoJBass5.jpg


Cheers,
Cameron
 

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