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Can You Tell The Difference??? ASH vs. ALDER

WHICH IS ALDER? WHICH IS ASH?

  • 1-A and 2-A are Alder, 1-B and 2-B are Ash.

    Votes: 17 15.7%

  • 1-A and 2-A are Ash, 1-B and 2-B are Alder.

    Votes: 48 44.4%

  • I can hear a difference between the "1" recordings, but not the "2" recordings

    Votes: 16 14.8%

  • I can hear a difference between the "2" recordings, but not the "1" recordings

    Votes: 3 2.8%

  • I can't hear a difference between any of them!

    Votes: 24 22.2%
  • Total voters
    108
#283
JimiLL said:
If the poll was set up fairly and he would have played two basses on the second set of clips LIKE HE SAID HE DID, this would not have gone 14 pages.
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Since the test was about how people's expectations affect their perceptions the test was more than fair. It's a common enough pratice in these kind of tests to prevaricate about certain elements of the experiment in order to show how people will react to how those elements are perceived by the participants. You don't think it's fair because you don't like the results.
 
#284
C.Linton said:
Since the test was about how people's expectations affect their perceptions the test was more than fair. It's a common enough pratice in these kind of tests to prevaricate about certain elements of the experiment in order to show how people will react to how those elements are perceived by the participants. You don't think it's fair because you don't like the results.
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If tricking someone into answering a question the way you want them to in order to discredit them is your idea of a fair test, then you are a sociopath
 
#287
Actually I always choose swamp ash bodied basses for the weight, I love wenge or ovangkol for necks though. But please , alder and ash have a lot of similarities , even when you look at them . And as I'm a firm believer in neck woods , as long as the neck is the same , it's not very surprising that many guys out there were confused. Ever wonder why the warwicks sound like warwicks and not like fender (even after replacing the MEC pickups for nordy's or delano's ) ?? Because of the neck woods , even my swamp ash bodied warwick is still sounding like a warwick , with some real bottom end , but the "growl" is still there.
I've tried the bubinga model , and the midrange WAS more defined and the lows were tighter(but they were still there , trust me)..and you know what was the common point ? The growl . You know what ? The alder fender reminded me of a maple bodied Godin I tried once , and it had humbuckers ! But still this Godin bass had a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard also (oops)..so..find a neck made of other woods and let us make the test again ;) .
 
#288
im more impressed that nearly half of the people correctly identified ash from alder after listening to the first clip posted. its not that unreasonable that people would have voted for what they voted for considering they already had an experience of hearing the difference between the two basses and they were told that there were two tracks recorded with two different basses.

it would have been a much bigger revelation half the voters had said A was alder and B was ash.
 
#291
pasco jacorius said:
Mhm , I don't agree with name calling. Though , when you make a A/B kind of test it's a bit "childish" to play the so called B bass in the A part , no ?
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If you were using the colours red and blue instead of bass woods alder and ash, people would spot the trick in a second, no? The point is alder/ash makes little difference, if it did people would have noticed the deception.
 
#292
I believe people tend to seek out information that reinforces their existing beliefs rather than information that challenges them. When confronted with something that doesn't resonate with ones world view the results are often unpleasant. Defense mechanism are activated and responses tend to be overly emotional and irrational.
 
#294
Well on WW forum a guy compared an ash corvette vs a bubinga corvette , and we could notice the difference , it was clear. Of course they had a lot of similarities because of the neck woods , but the bodies would add some color to the sound that would make them different.
As I said , change the neck woods and we will see if wood doesn't matter. I know it matters , just as pickups type and place on the body matters , just like nickel strings or steel strings matters , just like amp matters , just like the player matter . But as long as your don't compare rosewood on maple vs wenge on ovangkol(or wenge neck) and bubinga body vs alder(all the rest being the same , pu's strings etc) , I don't think you've proven anything. :) Just ask the fender addicts why they don't play warwicks, it's not a pickup problem , it's all in the wood.
 
#295
It's funny. The people who show up pay and clap don't care about this stuff. There is a whole universe that the greatest of our scientists know they may understand one day but it won't matter.

We who play and aren't hobbyists pick up a bass in a shop and it speaks to us or doesn't. If it does and we have the money nothing can stop the joining.

Some folks have to quantify stuff. That's their thing. Some of us use this metal and bone and plastic and wood and electonics to bring an immeasurable delight to millions. That's our thing.

I say here if it is really about the swamp of the ash etc. then measure why if you buy a Strat and Marshall you don't sound like Jimi. Get a Jazz and an Acoustic 360 and tell me why you don't
sound like Jaco.
 
#296
leegreenman said:
I believe people tend to seek out information that reinforces their existing beliefs rather than information that challenges them. When confronted with something that doesn't resonate with ones world view the results are often unpleasant. Defense mechanism are activated and responses tend to be overly emotional and irrational.
Click to expand...

So let's do the same test by changing the neck/fingerboard woods on one of the basses , or even on the same bass ;) . And please not rosewood/maple vs maple/maple. A real deal would be wenge/ovangkol vs rosewood/maple.
 
#297
chadds said:
It's funny. The people who show up pay and clap don't care about this stuff. There is a whole universe that the greatest of our scientists know they may understand one day but it won't matter.

We who play and aren't hobbyists pick up a bass in a shop and it speaks to us or doesn't. If it does and we have the money nothing can stop the joining.

Some folks have to quantify stuff. That's their thing. Some of us use this metal and bone and plastic and wood and electonics to bring an immeasurable delight to millions. That's our thing.

I say here if it is really about the swamp of the ash etc. then measure why if you buy a Strat and Marshall you don't sound like Jimi. Get a Jazz and an Acoustic 360 and tell me why you don't
sound like Jaco.
Click to expand...

Trust me , if you don't have a strat you'll never sound like jimmy , even if you have his fingers. Same with Jaco. I don't believe in a conspiracy from the Luthiers like Mike Tobias , whose customers are always satisfied , because they get the tone and the feel they asked for, from woods , pickups , electronic , and art. Of course if you don't have my fingers you won't sound like me , we are different. :) , skin density , nails , etc.. is (yeah) also part of the tone. Though tommorow I'm playing at church , so I'll go to bed , and I'll play my other swamp ash bass , but with rosewood finger board (the other is wenge) , the sound guy will not notice the change (exept when he'll look at me) , but I'll notice the change , 'cause the eq setting on the amp will surely change, these are two different basses .
 
#298
leegreenman said:
I believe people tend to seek out information that reinforces their existing beliefs rather than information that challenges them. When confronted with something that doesn't resonate with ones world view the results are often unpleasant. Defense mechanism are activated and responses tend to be overly emotional and irrational.
Click to expand...

Amen to that.

But for me personally, if the majority of folks had picked the right answer, I wouldn't have cared. I would have said "I stand corrected" and smiled about it.

I think most of us are like that. But many are not.
 
#299
DylanB said:
If you were using the colours red and blue instead of bass woods alder and ash, people would spot the trick in a second, no? The point is alder/ash makes little difference, if it did people would have noticed the deception.
Click to expand...

Very good analogy
I wonder how this would have gone had the the 2nd clips been played on different basses yet the basic results were the same (more incorrect answers)?

Seems like it's more about people's feeling being hurt rather than making an actual audio observation or learning more about ones' own tonal perception.

If you think back early on, I was:
* Surprised there wasn't more differences between the 2 bodies in the first clip
* Surprised that the power of suggestion allowed my brain to interpret the tonal differences of the 2nd clip as body wood instead of normal player nuances from one take to the next
 

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