Blindfold Test: Maple vs Rosewood

[T-MOST]

So now we never have to see another thread asking if the woods used effect the tone... right?

 

[FaithNoMan]

I originally thought clip 2 was maple, due to the huge "CLACK" the string made against the frets, early in the clip, but my friend assured me that clip 1 was maple.

"you can hear more of a high-mid in the tone"

"Oh yeah, you are right"

I should have gone with my gut.

I'm going to build a Precision made completely out of hard maple, and might do a blind test with it against my Squier P bass - same electronics, but diff fretboards AND neck/fretboard wood(plywood, rosewood).

 

[Rano Bass]

Whoa... 2 out uf 2

I'm on a roll!

 

[The BurgerMeister]

i got it wrong....

but it goes to show that i should continue on my path of choosing basses that feel good to me. the difference in the clips was minute to me.

sound is very important, to be sure... but i've always bought basses that have a certain good feel to them.

 

[Niff]

i added a bit of reverb and stuff and the difference was a bit more pronounced, the maple was a bit "middier", if that's even a word.

i'd like to see an ebony vs anything test. and different neck woods. body woods make the most pronounced difference i think, but, i've yet to really see any evidence why anybody should pick necks and fingerboards for tonal purposes unless they like to define every little part of their sound.

 

[GerManson]

i got it!! !

 

[DyerWolf]

What's really wild is before reading the answer, I could hear no discernible difference in the two clips. But once I read the answer, and imagined the clips being played on the appropriate fingerboard wood, they couldn't sound more distinct, and I couldn't imagine not being able to tell number 2 was maple! A great look into human psychology, as well as a great sound test. This really felt like a case of "This Is Your Brain on Music" (which is a very interesting book) in realworld application.

 

[Fuzzbass]

So now we never have to see another thread asking if the woods used effect the tone... right?

Yeah, this is all the scientific proof anyone needs.

 

[Fuzzbass]

And as noted many times, "identical" basses can sound even more different than these two J-basses. So, nobody knows whether the difference between these two was due to fingerboards, bodies, necks, strings, technique, or a combination of factors.

 

[vinxbass]

I say #1 is rosewood, #2 is maple. Not much difference, kind of hard to tell.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

I went for 1 rosewood, 2 maple, as that first G note on the E string is harder-sounding in clip 2, but other than that I couldn't really hear a difference.

 

[BOOCAKE4U]

bump​

 

[nrssab]

Thanks for this thread!
One can clearly hear that maple has a brighter sound as everyone discribes.
By the way, nice bassline your playing there.

And yes this should be a sticky!

 

[OtterOnBass]

If you didn't hear a difference, then by all means, use whatever.

It seemed very much the way it's usually described - warm v. bright.

 

[RD]

You can make more difference with how you play than the maple/rosewood thing.
RD

 

[RLK]

I'm curious about all these comments about the "feel" of maple vs. rosewood. If you're playing a fretted instrument, how are you "feeling" the fretboard? I mean there's a little thin slice of it above the G which your hand might run along, but are you "feeling" that edge? And if you were comparing a rock-hard piece of wood against a relatively soft piece of wood I could imagine an attentive player feeling more or less "give" in the frets when playing aggressively, but even that's a bit of a stretch. So with a fretted board, what is this "feel" y'all are actually referring to?

Big +1 on this.
If my fingers ever touch the board, it's such a slight graze, that I would surely fail a blindfold "feel" test.

I got the hearing test correct.
However, while the difference seemed clear to me, IMHO, any number of factors could have made it sound the other way around.

 

[T'CharleS]

The tone difference would be much clearer with slap imho. But anyway it's true that though there is a difference it's much more subtle than, say, a difference of pickups or location of them.

 

[Margus Alviste]

Maple makes the sound more compressed. I was right about my choice.

 

[Ten Four One]

And as noted many times, "identical" basses can sound even more different than these two J-basses. So, nobody knows whether the difference between these two was due to fingerboards, bodies, necks, strings, technique, or a combination of factors.

You do know that this is the same bass with two different necks right?

Big +1 on this.
If my fingers ever touch the board, it's such a slight graze, that I would surely fail a blindfold "feel" test.

I got the hearing test correct.
However, while the difference seemed clear to me, IMHO, any number of factors could have made it sound the other way around.

It's not the literal feel of the neck, it's the feel of the vibration of the strings when you pluck them. I played an outdoor gig where I had to go through the PA and heard ZERO of my bass on stage. But since I knew what every note I played would sound like & could feel the notes through the string, I was able to improvise my way through some stuff that I have no set basslines for.

Rosewood transmits more of a darker low-mid tone, and maple transmits more of a bright/deep tone - into the strings & therefore into your fingers. Maple has a "stiffer" feel to me, more piano like, and rosewood has more of a soft, organic feel.

At least for me that's the way it is.

BTW, I got the correct answer and have proof that I could tell the difference here.

 

[Eminor3rd]

1 is R, 2 is M