body wood does matter

[GMC]

The fretboard on the first bass is very dirty, maybe the strings were dead too? Just asking.

Exactly what I was thinking. New strings > New zing....old strings.....no zing.

 

[Turxile]

Is there any experiment or other scientific proof that wood doesn't effect tone?
I'd love to see it if there is.

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Yes body wood makes a difference, and the neck wood makes a lot of difference as well.

So many claims, so little evidence.

 

[Stevorebob]

The OP said nothing about "proof."

Well, he did offer a two-bass, in-store comparison as the basis for his conclusion. That’s called... well, call it what you like. But, in the narrow sense of the term “proof,” I’ll give it to you — yes, he did not use that word.

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Is there any experiment or other scientific proof that wood doesn't effect tone?
I'd love to see it if there is.

You can't prove a negative. You can prove that it makes a (real life) difference. People have claimed this is easy to prove thousands of times, but still noone actually proves it.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

Anything that affects how the strings vibrate will affect the sound of a stringed instrument, or perhaps more accurately, anything that affects how the string vibrates will affect how long it vibrates before its energy dissipates.

"Sound" and "how long the string vibrates before its energy dissipates" may not be equal things to the human ear.

Mass and stiffness have a huge effect on the vibration of strings on any stringed instrument, especially mass. That's why a few ounces of weight added to the headstock of a bass will affect resonant notes (dead spots).
Body wood of different density will also affect how the strings vibrate, although it will take a more drastic change in body weight to make a noticeable difference as compared to changes in weight and stiffness of the neck. Different pieces of the very same kind of wood can have different density and therefore affect string vibration. Those differences are for sure minor to the point of being negligible / unnoticeable, but they exist. All physics, which has been mentioned.

 

[GMC]

I blame it on Hysteresis.

I blame it on cosmic cussedness

 

[40Hz]

Everything makes a difference, the argument is really over relative percentage of effect.

Bingo!

Does the particular pieces of wood a bass is made out of have an effect on the tone? Possibly bordering on probably. But that’s a far cry from categorically stating that it does.

Is the effect audibly significant relative to things like strings, pickups, electronics, the amp and the individual player’s technique?

I’d think it would be impossible to form a general conclusion that would be true for every combination of instrument, amp, and player. Because there’s too many variables - with too much variance within each variable - to control things well enough to construct a real experiment.

And once again you can’t prove a negative. There’s no way to establish something categorically does not do something or have an effect. So the scientific approach is to not accept as true anything which cannot be demonstrated and reliably predicted. The burden of proof falls on the party asserting something is so. Because we can construct experiments that show something is true - by which we mean it’s predictable and repeatable. Otherwise it’s just an unproven hypothesis, or educated guess at best.

So does the body wood affect the tone of a solidbody bass?

Best we can say from a scientific perspective is: maybe.

Best we can say from personal observation is: it sometimes seems to - depending in the instrument.

But there’s no way we can categorically state it does. Or if it does, as @Gilmourisgod brings up, that the effect is significant enough to even be worth considering in the larger scheme of things.

 

[greenduke]

Take two blanks of the exact same species of wood and build a bass. Same exact specifications.
Wood is Organic material. What effects each selection are the conditions under which the wood was grown, the location from where it was harvested, not only environmentally/climate wise but even if from the same tree but different location from that tree.
Then, how long was the blank aged and under what controlled environmental conditions, humidity, temperature.
Will the two basses possess the same tonal qualities and weight, probably not!
So, if we can agree on that then, imagine adding the factor of a different species of wood blank just to start off with.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

It's not so much about the species of the wood; it's the net stiffness of the body that affects the sound. In this case, the swamp ash body is probably softer and structurally weaker than the okoume body. When you pluck the strings, the swamp ash body microscopically flexes more than the okoume body, which changes the sound ringing on the strings. Which changes what the pickup "sees" on the string. In particular, it softens the high end tone on the string. The deeper tones come through better. That's why, in this case, the bass with the swamp ash body sounds different from the one with the okoume body.

However, this does not mean that swamp ash bodies always sound better than okoume bodies, or even that they will always sound different from each other. The difference in stiffness between them is not that much. Another swamp ash body might be made from a heavier, stiffer piece of wood. A different piece of okoume could be lighter and softer. There's a lot of variance and overlap between individual boards. So, another pair of swamp ash and okoume G & L's may sound exactly the same as each other.

Also, you could take that first okoume body and modify it to make its stiffness about the same as the swamp ash body. Take a 1/16" off the thickness of the body, or cut a couple of small chambers in it. Simple dimensional changes will weaken it, reducing its stiffness. Making changes like that would bring the sound of that first okoume bass much closer to the sound of the swamp ash one.

Again, it's the net stiffness of the body that determines how and how much it affects the sound. The choice of wood species is part of the final stiffness, but it's not all of it. The design and dimensions of the body can be used to adjust the stiffness of the body into the desired range, using almost any wood. You can't just say that swamp ash sounds like this and okoume sounds like that. Because someone will have examples that will sound the opposite, or exactly the same. And that's why we have all these arguments about Tonewood. It's not just the wood species.

Yep. This.
And STILL, there's those that actually think the pickups "make" all the sound. LOL.

 

[xnewyorka]

So many claims, so little evidence.

Three highly identical bases, same pickups, same brand new strings, same exact electronics and hardware, same type of swamp ash body wood, three different neck wood configurations. Three distinctly different tonalities. If you are in the NYC area come over and hear the difference for yourself.

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Three highly identical bases, same pickups, same brand new strings, same exact electronics and hardware, same type of swamp ash body wood, three different neck wood configurations. Three distinctly different tonalities. If you are in the NYC area come over and hear the difference for yourself.[/ATTACH]

Anecdotes are still not evidence.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

It's not so much about the species of the wood; it's the net stiffness of the body that affects the sound.

Or in other words structure density. Easily verified with vibration analysis.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

So many claims, so little evidence.

Actually there is ample evidence to prove that density affects vibration and resonance and thereby sustain and tone. The simple proof - for which there are a couple of papers online - is the existence of dead spots. If the composition of the structure supporting the strings didn’t have any effect, there wouldn’t be dead spots.

 

[Afc70]

Three highly identical bases, same pickups, same brand new strings, same exact electronics and hardware, same type of swamp ash body wood, three different neck wood configurations. Three distinctly different tonalities. If you are in the NYC area come over and hear the difference for yourself.
View attachment 3136905 View attachment 3136906

Im in the “woods make a tonal difference” camp.. We are in good company! (with expert builders & master luthiers with decades of experience, like Mike Tobias, Sadowsky, Ken Smith, Fodera & many more )Even with examples like you provide, the people that deny wood makes a difference, will never be convinced, no matter what evidence is shown.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

not the battery, I rarely use the active position on a bass that has the option
The L-2000 has a passive/active/ active + treble boost switch.

The first bass was working fine, it just wasn't sounding great.
It sounded "normal", not fantastic.

Same strings the same of the same age?

 

[xnewyorka]

Anecdotes are still not evidence.

I did see a post somewhere recently that included oscilloscope tracings showing the differences. If I can find that I will post a link. Maybe somebody else saw it and has it handy.
More in the vein of the original post, here are three more swamp ash bodies, one with a different fingerboard material, which also makes a noticeable difference in the sound all by itself. Subtle but noticeable. The other two sound virtually identical, despite being 21 years apart in age, and despite the fact that one is 1.5 pounds heavier than the other. The heavier one has a slight bit more sustain, but very slight.

 

[xnewyorka]

Im in the “woods make a tonal difference” camp.. We are in good company! (with expert builders & master luthiers with decades of experience, like Mike Tobias, Sadowsky, Ken Smith, & practically any seasoned instrument builder will attest to)Even with examples like you provide, the people that deny wood makes a difference, will never be convinced, no matter what evidence is shown.

Yeah, it is important to acknowledge that not everyone has the same level of hearing acuity. They literally might not be able to hear the difference.

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

I did see a post somewhere recently that included oscilloscope tracings showing the differences. If I can find that I will post a link. Maybe somebody else saw it and has it handy.
More in the vein of the original post, here are three more swamp ash bodies, one with a different fingerboard material, which also makes a noticeable difference in the sound all by itself. Subtle but noticeable. The other two sound virtually identical, despite being 21 years apart in age, and despite the fact that one is 1.5 pounds heavier than the other. The heavier one has a slight bit more sustain, but very slight.

Again: anecdotes are not evidence that it makes a (real life) difference. It might as well be difference in the pieces of wood, not the type of wood. Or something completely different.

 

[SirMjac28]

I wonder if basses sound different in various parts of the country?