• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

body or neck?

Status
Not open for further replies.
7-The-human-auditory-cortex-The-primary-auditory-cortex-is-shown-in-blue-and.jpg

Tone comes from your auditory cortex.

What affects tone on a solid bodied electric stringed instrument is generated in the imagination.
Some believe the imagination is generated in the Parietal lobe. But this is still being researched and debated.
 
...In short, I'm thinking of pulling off my neck from my '99 Fender PJ and putting on a custom MJT body...strictly for looks, nothing more. The '99 plays nice but I want a different color body today. The Fender plays very nice and has a wonderful tone...plus its 23+ years old now. I just want a different look....
Oh for crying out loud, you want to rip apart and part out a perfectly good 23 year-old Fender that "plays very nice and has a wonderful tone" just because you "want a different look" ?!?!?!?!? Sorry, but I think you're either crazy or you're trolling for a blazing hot thread. Just buy yourself a different guitar and spare the Fender this desecration.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sh0wpan and WRM
The body of a bass gives the biggest contribution to the tone of a bass - not by its vibration (that's in the mix, but it's not a huge effect) - the body contributes sonically by WHERE the pickup routes are made w.r.t. the bridge - pickup position determines the amount of low end and the character of the mids on a bass. The pickups (in combination with the cable and any capacitive loading you might add) affect the upper mids and treble parts of the sound.

Acoustically, the neck has more of an effect (it moves a lot more, so it affects the strings' vibrations by stealing some of their energy). The body does this too, but the body is big, thick, and heavy, so it doesn't steal much in the way of energy - the neck steals a lot more. One good example - a dead spot is where the neck steals a lot of energy from a particular note
 
Last edited:
Oh for crying out loud, you want to rip apart and part out a perfectly good 23 year-old Fender that "plays very nice and has a wonderful tone" just because you "want a different look" ?!?!?!?!? Sorry, but I think you're either crazy or you're trolling for a blazing hot thread. Just buy yourself a different guitar and spare the Fender this desecration.

A Fender bass is a mass produced consumer good, made in a factory. Swapping parts on it is a very common thing, which has been done by many thousands of people - it's not desecration, he's having some fun, and not even doing anything that's undoable. If he owned the first Fender bass ever made, a case could be made that it's a piece of history, but a Fender from 2000 is a run of the mill production bass (it's literally one of the most common basses in existence), not a singular religious artifact to be preserved.
 
Tone actually comes from space. It falls to Earth on meteorites or when the Earth passes through Sun Storm bursts. It falls through the atmosphere and latches onto the minerals in the soil and ocean. That's why great tone is so hard to find. And there's a finite supply of it. Only so much tone can be carried to earth on a meteor or in solar storms. And that's also why basses with great tone are so expensive. Finding the tone requires extracting it from the minerals in the soil and oceanic areas that have high concentrations of tone. :cigar:
 
Tone actually comes from space. It falls to Earth on meteorites or when the Earth passes through Sun Storm bursts. It falls through the atmosphere and latches onto the minerals in the soil and ocean. That's why great tone is so hard to find. And there's a finite supply of it. Only so much tone can be carried to earth on a meteor or in solar storms. And that's also why basses with great tone are so expensive. Finding the tone requires extracting it from the minerals in the soil and oceanic areas that have high concentrations of tone. :cigar:
I’m pleased with this answer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FullumMusic
Neck 80% body 20% of the tone.
I read that somewhere on Talkbass and it makes sense to me.
Warning: controversial rabbit hole.
Some people believe these elements have no impact on tone.
It's like religion, file under personal belief. Nobody is right or wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: txhawaii
Tone actually comes from space. It falls to Earth on meteorites or when the Earth passes through Sun Storm bursts. It falls through the atmosphere and latches onto the minerals in the soil and ocean. That's why great tone is so hard to find. And there's a finite supply of it. Only so much tone can be carried to earth on a meteor or in solar storms. And that's also why basses with great tone are so expensive. Finding the tone requires extracting it from the minerals in the soil and oceanic areas that have high concentrations of tone. :cigar:
WRONG! Tone comes from volcanoes
 
  • Like
Reactions: FullumMusic
Status
Not open for further replies.