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Basswood?

It could’ve just been a bad piece of wood, but again: EBMM did a study that proved basswood would have more resonance & sustain than maple of any kind. I’m not saying you’re placebo’d or illegitimizing your claim. I’m just saying that it could have been a bad cut of wood or something, because it doesn’t all add up.

The Aerodyne Jazz has a thinner, sleeker body than most basses...I wonder if that was the cause. I'll have to pay attention to that the next time I'm checking something out in a music store.
 
Alder and Swamp ash were chosen because they’re plentiful and cheap - not unlike basswood.

If you’re worried about screws stripping, use longer ones, and reinforce the holes with glue. I’ve had basswood bodies, and they stayed in fine.

Yeah, I put in longer bridge screws on my import Sterling (SB-14). The stock ones were fairly short (and the body is basswood, but I made the swap because they just seemed rather short to hold well enough for a bridge.) Carefully tightened and no issues at all.

Otto
 
Any experiences with screws not holding in basswood? Or is this a myth?
Basswood will strip easier than other woods but it's a degree of difference not polar opposites as musicians like to make things. If an idiot tries to crank down his bridge screws as hard as he can in basswood he will strip the hole and blame the cheap crappy basswood, in hard maple he'll break the screw and blame the Chinese potmetal screws. It will never be the fault of the idiot.
 
My new p bass has a basswood body and looks and sounds great. One of the best playing basses I own.
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Basswood I think gets a bad rap-maybe in part because it sounds like "balsawood" which isn't exactly sturdy. I have had and own a few basses made of basswood, some with a thin layer of finish are prone to dings, Fender JP-90 for example, but the lighter weight makes up for it imo.
 
... if you really want to blame somebody, it’s Hendrix and Towshend who started the guitar bashing fad. ...
Guitar smashing really took off when Jeff Beck did it in the 1966 movie Blowup. ...
The thing is, Jeff Beck didn't do it first.
As far as I can tell, the first documented guitar smash was on the Lawrence Welk show in 1956.

I am also 100% certain some other musician has done so, prior to recorded music being a thing. I have no sources, or documentation for that, but I am still 100% certain it happened. Probably a cellist.
 
As far as I can tell, the first documented guitar smash was on the Lawrence Welk show in 1956.

I am also 100% certain some other musician has done so, prior to recorded music being a thing. I have no sources, or documentation for that, but I am still 100% certain it happened. Probably a cellist.
I'm not sure if Townshend was aware of Rockin' Rocky Rockwell, but I have to imagint he'd heard about Jerry Lee Lewis destroying his piano.
Other than that...
During the Festival of Misfits in 1962, Fluxus-artist Robin Page performed his event named "Guitar Piece". Page threw his guitar off stage and kicked it out of the ICA’s front door and down Dover Street until it broke totally apart.
This piece of performance art inspired guitarist Pete Townshend of the Who, who was the first guitar-smashing rock artist.
Rolling Stone Magazine included his smashing of a Rickenbacker guitar at the Railway Tavern in Harrow and Wealdstone in September 1964 in
their list of "50 Moments That Changed Rock & Roll".
A student of Gustav Metzger, Townshend saw his guitar smashing as a kind of auto-destructive art.

As for Jeff Beck...
Jeff Beck, then a member of the Yardbirds, reluctantly destroyed a guitar in the 1966 film Blowup after being told to emulate the Who by director Michelangelo Antonioni.
 
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Basswood is the American variety of the Lime/Linden tree family.

It's quite soft when compared to other varieties, European Linden is harder and heavier.

When you see "basswood" listed in East Asian builds that's to give a point of reference. East Asia has plenty of their own lime/linden trees,they don't import the soft American variety.
 

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