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bass woods

What woods does everybody like for bass bodies?

  • Alder

    Votes: 88 20.8%

  • Ash (Swamp or Northern Hard)

    Votes: 140 33.0%

  • Basswood

    Votes: 11 2.6%

  • Koa

    Votes: 10 2.4%

  • Korina (Black or White)

    Votes: 12 2.8%

  • Lacewood

    Votes: 2 0.5%

  • Mahogany

    Votes: 45 10.6%

  • Maple

    Votes: 40 9.4%

  • Poplar

    Votes: 13 3.1%

  • Redwood

    Votes: 8 1.9%

  • Walnut

    Votes: 38 9.0%

  • Wenge

    Votes: 17 4.0%
  • Total voters
    424
#42
Originally posted by Brad Johnson
Well at least we know who the two people are, Geoff;)
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Who? I'm also one of those two!;)

I'm a firm believer, that beyond all other factors, each wood (or non-wood) component has its own unique sonic characteristic that the pickup transmits to the amp. Call me crazy...:rolleyes:

In fact, if you want some good reading, check out this page on Mike Tobias' current webpage:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#45
Originally posted by RAM
For what part of the bass? What are its tonal characteristics?
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just about any part...very versatile..
hard enough for a fretboard for fretted instruments..
stiff enough for a neck..
resonant and clear across the tonal range for the body...in fact it's aften been used to construct acoustic guitars..

plus I think it looks great:D

DAve P.
 
#47
Originally posted by RAM
Who? I'm also one of those two!;)

I'm a firm believer, that beyond all other factors, each wood (or non-wood) component has its own unique sonic characteristic that the pickup transmits to the amp. Call me crazy...:rolleyes:

In fact, if you want some good reading, check out this page on Mike Tobias' current webpage:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...

Count me as #4 of those 'two'.
 
#49
Oh shoot, almost missed the debate!

1) I have no doubt that body wood makes a significant contribution to tone.

2) OTOH I do not believe that fingerboard wood makes a significant contribution on a fretted bass: it's just a thin veneer. By that same token, a thin veneer of figured wood on top of a body made from a different wood is not going to alter tone significantly.

3) Bass construction (bolt-on, neck-thru, multilaminates, etc) makes at least as big a difference in tone as woods used.

4) Pickups can dramatically affect the way a bass sounds. Install a set of J-bass pickups in a Precision and see what happens. :) The fundamental character of the bass (materials and construction) will always be a factor of course (very difficult to make a bolt-on P-bass sound like a neck-thru Rickenbacker even if you use Rick electronics). However pups are critical because they're the first step in the tone chain: if the pups have, say, a dip in the upper midrange, it's unlikely you can fully restore those frequencies with EQ without also introducing noise.
 
#50
Originally posted by Fuzzbass
Oh shoot, almost missed the debate!

2) OTOH I do not believe that fingerboard wood makes a significant contribution on a fretted bass: it's just a thin veneer. By that same token, a thin veneer of figured wood on top of a body made from a different wood is not going to alter tone significantly.

I've noticed a distinct difference between Maple and Rosewood fretboards on some basses, all other things being equal. Much less of a difference between Maple and Ebony.

4) Pickups can dramatically affect the way a bass sounds. Install a set of J-bass pickups in a Precision and see what happens. :) The fundamental character of the bass (materials and construction) will always be a factor of course (very difficult to make a bolt-on P-bass sound like a neck-thru Rickenbacker even if you use Rick electronics). However pups are critical because they're the first step in the tone chain: if the pups have, say, a dip in the upper midrange, it's unlikely you can fully restore those frequencies with EQ without also introducing noise.

Some (a small few) basses seem to be built more (sonically) around electronics than woods. Alembics, Smiths and Peavey Cirruses come to mind. Change the electronics and they no longer sound like their namesakes.
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#52
Originally posted by Brad Johnson
I've noticed a distinct difference between Maple and Rosewood fretboards on some basses, all other things being equal. Much less of a difference between Maple and Ebony.
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I opened this topic for discussion on another forum, asking whether any do-it-yourselfers have run any all-else-being-equal experiments. Interestingly, the #1 DIY guy there said the following:

It's not possible to do an "all else being equal" test for fingerboard since the fingerboard a part of the neck and you'd have to change the neck. A neck change will introduce more tonal variance than the fingerboard.

Though it can be hard to learn to do, try to listen with your ears not your pre-conceptions.

Each instrument is different and that's the way it is.

I recently had cause to change the neck on my "Balsa Bass" SCJB (swamp ash body) from one Mighty Mite with rosewood to another Mighty Mite with rosewood. The brand doesn't matter rather that they are of the same quality and components.

I found the difference in tone to be astounding. While the first one was dark with a very discernable deadspot when combined with this body, the second was much more full toned and more vibrant and alive with a more even reponse. Guess which one I kept on there.
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I do NOT want to imply that you, Brad, or anyone else are only hearing what you expect to hear, but I believe that for many years *I* was! Eventually I was challenged by a bass builder, so I reexamined evidence and history (the many times I've thought, say, "this bass sounds bright for having a rosewood neck") and came to my current conclusion.
 
#53
Who knows;)

I've wondered about this myself and really the only way to really tell would be in a blind test. Given that, I guess one way to have an all things being would be by using a Cort Curbow.

In the past almost all of my basses have not had Maple necks. The only Ebony neck I had was on a fretless. Then I got a G&L L2000E and later an Ash Jazz and 55-94 with Maple and started to look hard at that type of board.

What I think I'm hearing with Maple is a tighter, less round sound, similar to Ebony or Wenge vs. Rosewood or Pau Ferro which seem to have a softer attack. While I can manually soften the sound of Maple/etc. with my hands, I can't brighten the Rosewood-boarded basses. Proabaly why my main basses now all have Maple, Wenge or on the fretlesses Ebony and phenolic.

There's always a catch... there are some basses that IMO are more defined tonally by their electronics than construction, Peavey Cirrus and Ken Smith come to mind (swap out the electronics and see). It would be interesting to hear either with a Maple board vs. a Pau Ferro or Rosewood.



Hey, I could be wrong;)
 
#54
Originally posted by Brad Johnson
There's always a catch... there are some basses that IMO are more defined tonally by their electronics than construction, Peavey Cirrus and Ken Smith come to mind (swap out the electronics and see). It would be interesting to hear either with a Maple board vs. a Pau Ferro or Rosewood.



Hey, I could be wrong;)
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My Cirrus 6 quilt top has an ebony fingerboard. When I bought it, I A/B'd it with a flame redwood 6 with the pau ferro board, and mine had more snap and definition than the pau ferro. They both had brand new strings which the store installed at my request. FWIW, the Cirrus is available with a maple board too, but I have never seen one in person, only on the Peavey website, back before they screwed their website up.
 
#55
Originally posted by embellisher


My Cirrus 6 quilt top has an ebony fingerboard. When I bought it, I A/B'd it with a flame redwood 6 with the pau ferro board, and mine had more snap and definition than the pau ferro. They both had brand new strings which the store installed at my request.
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But why do you attribute this difference to the fretboard? IMO, the tonal difference between these two Cirrusses is most likely due to variations in the body and/or neck woods. I would say the same even if I knew that both basses were made of exactly the same materials except for the fretboard: there can be tremendous variations in tone between different planks of wood of the same species.

The fretboard is just a thin veneer. The neck itself contains far more wood than the fretboard, and of course so does the body. If someone could please explain why the fretboard makes a greater contribution to tone (on a fretted instrument) than the neck and/or body, I'd be very interested. And I'm not trying to be rhetorical, either... the request is sincere. Edjumacate me!
 
#57
Originally posted by Fuzzbass


But why do you attribute this difference to the fretboard? IMO, the tonal difference between these two Cirrusses is most likely due to variations in the body and/or neck woods. I would say the same even if I knew that both basses were made of exactly the same materials except for the fretboard: there can be tremendous variations in tone between different planks of wood of the same species.

The fretboard is just a thin veneer. The neck itself contains far more wood than the fretboard, and of course so does the body. If someone could please explain why the fretboard makes a greater contribution to tone (on a fretted instrument) than the neck and/or body, I'd be very interested. And I'm not trying to be rhetorical, either... the request is sincere. Edjumacate me!
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1. the fretboard isn't necessarily so thin - the ebony boards on Carvins are pretty darn thick. Especially with some of the super-thin necks out there these days (Jerzy Drozd anyone?)

2. it's located in an important spot a) the neck, b) only on one side c) on the axis effected most by string tension

As the strings vibrate, the tension on the neck changes dynamically. The fingerboard, being a flat slab on one side of the vibrating neck, will have a (to me it seems) substantial effect on the resulting neck vibrations. Of course steel/graphite bars, which woods are used, fingerboard thickness, frets or not, etc will have a large role in all this too.

But I certainly wouldn't write off the fb (I'm with you on laminated tops, at least for neck-through instruments - I'd bet the fingerboard has a much larger effect than they do :) ).
 
#58
I've noticed that companies tend to put specific combinations of neck and fingerboards with body woods. Example: body woods like alder and ash are commonly teamed up with maple boards and necks or rosewood, but it's not so common for a non-custon alder body to have a wenge board. And Warwick tends to keep it's bubinga bodies with ovigonkal (sp?) and wenge, but not with maple boards. So I figure there must be some relation to sound qualities in fingerboards. Then again, maybe they just match certain woods up because they look pretty together :)

BTW, my faves are alder (with a nice top on it) and bubinga.
 
#59
Originally posted by geshel
2. it's located in an important spot a) the neck, b) only on one side c) on the axis effected most by string tension

As the strings vibrate, the tension on the neck changes dynamically. The fingerboard, being a flat slab on one side of the vibrating neck, will have a (to me it seems) substantial effect on the resulting neck vibrations. Of course steel/graphite bars, which woods are used, fingerboard thickness, frets or not, etc will have a large role in all this too.
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Thanks, geshel, this makes sense. I would nitpick on one thing: seems to me that the convex side of the neck (almost always the side away from the fretboard) undergoes more stress: bend a loaf of bread, and it will break on the convex side, not the concave. I suppose one could argue that the loaf might collapse on the convex side, but I've never known a bass neck to collapse (have I gotten too silly yet? :))
 

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