body or neck?

[Wesley R]

Lol, this thread will explode soon, soooo i'll jump in first. I vote pickup

Bingo!

 

[6-3-2]

As far as wood goes, Marcus Spangler (Head of R&D Sadowsky Germany) says the neck provides 80% of the tone. The embedded clip is set to when he says that. I haven't heard that before, but Marcus knows infinitely more than me and it makes sense. I'd agree strings and pickups come first tho.

EDIT: the joke answers are far better, but the nerd in me got ahead of myself and decided to be serious. i think marcus' eyebrow ring probably adds 12% of high-end sparkle

 

[RichterScale]

That was very convincing.

 

[mikewalker]

Where does the tone come from?

...does tone come from my a. body or b. neck?

Fingers and technique are already known factors...so keep it to

I usually buy a bass based on the neck (feel).
But to answer the specific question (imo): a. body.

Really nothing to do with wood (etc), but if you swap the same neck from a solidbody with three Delano humbuckers to a hollowbody with just a mudbucker in the neck position... yer going to notice a lot more of a tonality difference than just swapping neck Y with neck Z on any given instrument.

 

[6Bass101]

Lol, this thread will explode soon, soooo i'll jump in first. I vote pickup

Strings.

Same. I say pickups and strings.
BUT if I had to pick between body and neck, I’d probably lean towards neck. No real reason since I have several Ibanez SR basses with same body different neck, and some with same neck different body. They all sound the same.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Where does the tone come from?

**I searched TB for this answer and while I didn't dig too deep, I didn't find a good answer.

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.

So for those who believe in mojo...does tone come from my a. body or b. neck?

Fingers and technique are already known factors...so keep it to

 

[Tim Skaggs]

Where does the tone come from?

**I searched TB for this answer and while I didn't dig too deep, I didn't find a good answer.

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.

So for those who believe in mojo...does tone come from my a. body or b. neck?

Fingers and technique are already known factors...so keep it to

c. Pickups, along with d. strings

 

[Fender_Bender]

Box of chocolates. You don’t know how the neck and body are going to coexist until you do it.

 

[shodan]

Every time one of these threads comes up, I have to post this link:
Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar? - YouTube

 

[M.R. Ogle]

If the original question was: More tonal consideration from the body or the neck, I'd say the neck. It's the critical area of the structure of the instrument, it probably "damps" out more frequencies from the strings than the neck.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Where does the tone come from?

**I searched TB for this answer and while I didn't dig too deep, I didn't find a good answer.

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.

So for those who believe in mojo...does tone come from my a. body or b. neck?

Fingers and technique are already known factors...so keep it to

It will either have subtle differences, or drastic differences. Everything plays a part.

I notice the changes when swapping necks. But, I've never had spare bodies, routed the same, to compare differences in bodies.

 

[Freekmagnet]

Thulsa Doom has the answer.

 

[BuddhaFingas]

The cable.

 

[Kendescending]

Every time one of these threads comes up, I have to post this link:
Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar? - YouTube

Having a few different aluminum neck basses (past and present), this is my reply. Feel free to jump to 3:00 in the video:

 

[Grinderman]

The secret tone sauce is the ear wax.

 

[txhawaii]

When's the last time someone needed to know what the heck they were talking about before blabbing their poorly thought out opinion on the internet?
Certainly never stopped me.

And BTW,.... fretboard color is the biggest factor in tone.

I was told to eat greasy tacos before playing as that would give me a massive tone.

@Grinderman suggested ear wax but that's not as tasty.

Having a few different aluminum neck basses (past and present), this is my reply. Feel free to jump to 3:00 in the video:

Sounds like wood dampens the frequencies while aluminum causes more vibrations.

 

[txhawaii]

The secret tone sauce is the ear wax.

on the fingers or neck?

 

[Bodeeni]

not sure were tone comes from but I enjoy mixing and matching bodies and necks. My 3 main gigging basses have all been something else at least once if not more.

 

[Marc DLarosa]

not sure were tone comes from but I enjoy mixing and matching bodies and necks. My 3 main gigging basses have all been something else at least once if not more.

FINALLY!!! A reliable/honest/true answer...

 

[GrooveTheory]

The most efficient, and accurate answer.

agree… but with a few
modifiers…. Playing style>finger position>mind/perception> stings> pickup>neck/body>body/neck.

someone mentioned switching to hollow body… yes apples to oranges would make a big difference… in this case body would take precedence over most other factors. Apples to apples though, maybe not.It’s all a melting pot.

the perceptual and relative nature of sound/tone can’t be understated.

Then if you include preamps, effects, cabinets, mix down and post production etc … well… then there are too many other factors in play.

quality of overall instrument materials is one thing and something to seriously consider …. but “tone” can come or go from anywhere. … and mostly from the person playing the instrument!