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basswood vs. poplar

Best tone wood for budget basses

  • Basswood

  • Poplar

  • Plywood

  • Particle board

  • Carrots

  • Broccoli

Results are only viewable after voting.
#121
58kites said:
I knew Poplar/Alder were pretty close plus or minus depending on the piece.
I have worked with some Poplar from Home Depot and it was way different from Oak and Maple for sure.
I know that the grain in Swamp Ash can be knarly but to me that is why it looks so great, so cool with a plain clear coat, so cool with a tobacco sunburst.
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I generally prefer alder, but last time I was at my hardwood supplier I was a bit sticker shocked by it. It went up about a dollar a board foot since the last time I purchased it. I generally buy a board big enough to do 3-5 bodies. So since it was double the price of poplar, I went ahead and bought poplar this time.

Yes, ash is beautiful, but my most of my builds have a solid color or heavy flake finish, so grain isn't important to me, but I will use it if a customer requests it.
 
#122
Hopkins said:
I generally prefer alder, but last time I was at my hardwood supplier I was a bit sticker shocked by it. It went up about a dollar a board foot since the last time I purchased it. I generally buy a board big enough to do 3-5 bodies. So since it was double the price of poplar, I went ahead and bought poplar this time.

Yes, ash is beautiful, but my most of my builds have a solid color or heavy flake finish, so grain isn't important to me, but I will use it if a customer requests it.
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I don't know if I can hear the difference between Poplar and Alder.
I tell myself I can hear Ash but it would probably have to be two passive P basses side by side with the same pickups, and then I'm not sure I could really pass a blind test...but it sure is pretty.
My Basswood Peavey G Bass is such a different animal from anything else, the only things even sort of like it are maybe a Cirrus or Millenium.
I don't really know if the Basswood is sounding different than if they had used Poplar like on so many of their basses.
I think they picked Basswood to try to warm up the Graphite neck and 35" scale and modern active sounding Cirrus preamp circuit.
They sold it at a high MSRP for a Peavey, so I would guess they were not trying to cheap out on the wood after the expense of graphite neck and a pau ferro fretboard and that fancy halo sparkle paint job.
 
#123
58kites said:
I don't know if I can hear the difference between Poplar and Alder.
I tell myself I can hear Ash but it would probably have to be two passive P basses side by side with the same pickups, and then I'm not sure I could really pass a blind test...but it sure is pretty.
My Basswood Peavey G Bass is such a different animal from anything else, the only things even sort of like it are maybe a Cirrus or Millenium.
I don't really know if the Basswood is sounding different than if they had used Poplar like on so many of their basses.
I think they picked Basswood to try to warm up the Graphite neck and 35" scale and modern active sounding Cirrus preamp circuit.
They sold it at a high MSRP for a Peavey, so I would guess they were not trying to cheap out on the wood after the expense of graphite neck and a pau ferro fretboard and that fancy halo sparkle paint job.
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I doubt they were trying to cheap out, or had any tonal goals in mind with the selection of basswood for that bass. They probably chose basswood because they were all solid color basses and they were trying to keep them as light as possible. Basswood excels in the weight category
 
#125
mojomike001 said:
These are all Tele-style basses built from pin bodies. The first two are finished in thin nitro. There third is still a work-in-progress waiting for Ultralite tuners to arrive. It's sugar pine capped with walnut. All are well under 8 lbs with the second two being in the low 7lb range.

View attachment 913611 View attachment 913613 View attachment 913614
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Beautiful basses @mojomike001 ! How did you buy the wood-- did you have to glue two pieces together for the thickness? Even here in little Sitka we have pine wood!
Thanks!
 
#126
The Aerodyne basses are among my favorites, love the look and the light weight, but they “Relic” if you breathe on them hard. Basswood is nice to work with, it carves well and takes a finish, but you can dent it with your fingernail. I’d still take take an Aerodyne over any other Fender!:D
 
#127
Well, kind of an apples vs. oranges like question.

Non of them is objectively better than the other.

Both of them are relatively soft woods compared to other typically used woods for instrument building, with poplar being slightly harder than basswood.

But that doesn't really tell anything about their qualities as tonewoods.

As tonewood basswood is known to be mid heavy, mainly emphasizing the mid frequency spectrum, whereas poplar is more similar to alder responding pretty evenly over the entire frequency spectrum, and as such known as properly the most balanced tonewood.

Some descriptions add that while poplar is quite similar to alder regarding tonal qualities it does seem to emphasis the high frequency spectrum slightly more.

I voted basswood, because I personally happen to prefer a mid heavy sound.

My guess is that both broccoli and carrots would make for poor candidates as body material for basses.

Also I know for a fact that the Jackson Minion bass and the newest build of the Ibanez Mikro basses use poplar as body wood, so don't believe it is correct that poplar is not used anymore and has been replaced by basswood.

Further more it's a fact that not only budget basses but also some higher end bass models utilize either basswood or poplar as body wood.

 
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#129
alaskaleftybass said:
Beautiful basses @mojomike001 ! How did you buy the wood-- did you have to glue two pieces together for the thickness? Even here in little Sitka we have pine wood!
Thanks!
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Those pine bodies came ready to build upon already finished in nitro. The walnut-capped one just needed some final sanding and a finish. I used a wipe on Danish Oil for that one. All three of the bodies were well under 4 lbs each.
 
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#134
TuneSalad666 said:
Both of them are relatively soft woods compared to other typically used woods for instrument building, with poplar being slightly harder than basswood.

As tonewood basswood is known to be mid heavy, mainly emphasizing the mid frequency spectrum, whereas poplar is more similar to alder responding pretty evenly over the entire frequency spectrum, and as such known as properly the most balanced tonewood.

Some descriptions add that while poplar is quite similar to alder regarding tonal qualities it does seem to emphasis the high frequency spectrum slightly more.

I voted basswood, because I personally happen to prefer a mid heavy sound.
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Janka Hardness Scale:
Basswood 410
Poplar 540
Alder 590
Mahogany 800
Swamp Ash 1320
Hard Maple 1450

Basswood, Alder and Poplar are all pretty soft.
Alder and Poplar are 50 points from each other on the Janka Hardness Scale and are relatively easy to dent but not quite like Basswood which is 130-180 points softer.
Basswood does not hold screws very well and Poplar and Alder do, they seem to be over the minimum hardness to not strip out every screw that goes into them, where Basswood basses seem to have stripped holes on pickguards and strap buttons all the time.
Basswood is lighter than Alder...Poplar is a bit heavier than Alder..for body balance I prefer Poplar and Alder over Basswood, my Basswood bass is a bit neck dive-y while sitting.
Alder is the most abundant hardwood in the pacific northwest and one reason why it was chosen by Leo Fender over other choices.
Cheap, available, easy to cut and shape, and easy to finish.
I have basses that are Alder, Mahogany, Poplar and Basswood and they all sound good ...I'm not sure body wood is really that important overall to sound.
I like Swamp Ash for a number of reasons, 1320 Janka Hardness, heavier but not crazy heavy, great grain patterns with natural/translucent finishes ,and sounds good.
 
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#135
alaskaleftybass said:
If you don't mind me asking -- who sells them? I'm mildly interested. Thanks!
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The painted ones used to be sold on eBay by Rosser Guitars about three years ago, but they don’t seem to be available any more. They were great because they were lightweight, finished in thin nitro, and not very expensive. The walnut capped bodies show up on eBay every so often from some custom body maker.
 
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#137
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I have two basses in poplar and one in basswood -

Poplar - 94 Stingray in blueburst (pic above) and 03 US Sub 5 in textured white.
Basswood - 08 Bongo 5HHp (pic above)

I can confirm all sound excellent and none have dings or ding any worse than an ash or alder bodied bass (I have Stingrays in both).

Also the screws in the Bongo are not loose or stripped despite having a choice of three pickguards which have been swapped from time to time. That is probably because the screw holes are sleeved.

Nb also 80s/90s era solid colour Musicman basses often have poplar bodies.

Are you sure you guys complaining of stripped threads and dings on basswood bodied basses aren't mixing up the fact that these may be cheaply made low end basses and not necessarily just because of the wood choice. So the MM Bongo is built to a high standard to avoid the undesirable characteristics, say of basswood (softness) - so the shape works well with it, sound is neutral and the finish protects it - and the holes are engineered not to strip.

As has been stated in this thread there are lots of higher end basses in basswood. Comparison with issues with cheap ones is probably not valid and it wouldn't be problematic to resolve the problems even in a cheap bass.

In fact on MM Bongos the area most likely to ding is the end of the headstock and that is painted maple.....but even that isn't for certain - mine has no body and no headstock dings!
 
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#138
Basswood is very soft wood, softer than Poplar and Alder.
I like my basswood bodied bass (it has a graphite neck) it has no pickguard and the strap buttons are fine, but I've seen basswood basses that have stripped out screws.
Would prefer that my basswood bass was poplar, a bit heavier and harder would not be a bad thing.
 
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