Yep, I just about set fire to my place drilling pilot holes. Got smoke...
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Change in tone with ageing?
- Thread starter blr2
- Start date
Yep, I just about set fire to my place drilling pilot holes. Got smoke...
I have one and it’s mostly snake oil. But I do find it useful to help break in new strings.
Either your memory is flawed or your ears have changed, and I don’t mean that as a snarky comment.
yeh its called "grumpy old man tone"
...less tolerant as i get older....ha....I think like anything your nerve endings have dulled over the years, like brain cells when consuming drugs or booze, they just die-out after a while. Like mentioned things sound warmer, not so crisp and clean.
...less tolerant as i get older....ha....I think like anything your nerve endings have dulled over the years, like brain cells when consuming drugs or booze, they just die-out after a while. Like mentioned things sound warmer, not so crisp and clean.
nah.
memory is well documented to be surprisingly close to completely unreliable.
it's a solid body bass.
if perhaps the setup changed, that is very likely. if someone moved the pickups closer you may perceive that as a better sound.
but no.
your bass is the same.
memory is well documented to be surprisingly close to completely unreliable.
it's a solid body bass.
if perhaps the setup changed, that is very likely. if someone moved the pickups closer you may perceive that as a better sound.
but no.
your bass is the same.
The reality is, there's no way for you tell, even if it changed. Humans can barely remember what something actually sounded like 5 seconds ago. You can easily do that test with a friend, a snippet of a recorded signal, and a simple EQ. Play something through the EQ and have your friend change the settings. Then have it played through it again, and say if there was a change, and what kind of change, and how drastic the change is. Unless you're super human, you won't be able to tell with any reliability at all. Now do that while increasing the time between tests. Wait a day, a week, a month, 7 years, and look if you can with any reliability tell the difference. I'm gonna spoil it for you and just say, you can't.
If you want a scientific explanation, look up Manfred Zollner. All his work is in german, but it doesn't get more scientifically accurate and reliable as this. Your browser and Youtube can translate most of it. But you can also take my word, as I have looked through the stuff regarding this topic: There should be no difference in sound, unless potentially your electronics are failing in an incredibly abnormal and weird way. But that should be fairly obvious.
This could be an explanation though, since an increase in resistance with the electronics, could remove some top end, which to you might sound like it has more low end, while in actuality the signal just lost some meat. Though I find that unlikely.
Edit:
And as others have mentioned, you lose your hearing with age. The very sizzly top end goes down (20k for some young children with very good hearing, I have 17k at 23, many people with 60 have less than 15k). But most people also lose around 4k (which is a lot of the range in human speech, hence why people have trouble understanding others at high age). Those can both contribute to everything sounding warmer and deeper. It's not actually an increase in low end, just a loss of top end.
If you want a scientific explanation, look up Manfred Zollner. All his work is in german, but it doesn't get more scientifically accurate and reliable as this. Your browser and Youtube can translate most of it. But you can also take my word, as I have looked through the stuff regarding this topic: There should be no difference in sound, unless potentially your electronics are failing in an incredibly abnormal and weird way. But that should be fairly obvious.
This could be an explanation though, since an increase in resistance with the electronics, could remove some top end, which to you might sound like it has more low end, while in actuality the signal just lost some meat. Though I find that unlikely.
Edit:
And as others have mentioned, you lose your hearing with age. The very sizzly top end goes down (20k for some young children with very good hearing, I have 17k at 23, many people with 60 have less than 15k). But most people also lose around 4k (which is a lot of the range in human speech, hence why people have trouble understanding others at high age). Those can both contribute to everything sounding warmer and deeper. It's not actually an increase in low end, just a loss of top end.
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I know an old man that owns a banjo shop where they make brand new ones and refurbish old ones.
Last time I was there, he briefly played two almost identical banjos. One had a bridge made of standard maple and the other one had a bridge made of maple that’s been soaked in a river for 400 years and, of course, slowly dried in small slabs.
The difference was not subtle. The banjo with standard maple sounded smooth and velvet with some kind of rounded edges on treble.
The banjo with the "400 year river soaked" maple sounded definitely louder, punchier and more lively. Longer sustain as well.
Of course, this is an acoustic instrument so it’s probably more obvious than on an electric instrument but it showed to me material and wood definitely influences the sound.
Last time I was there, he briefly played two almost identical banjos. One had a bridge made of standard maple and the other one had a bridge made of maple that’s been soaked in a river for 400 years and, of course, slowly dried in small slabs.
The difference was not subtle. The banjo with standard maple sounded smooth and velvet with some kind of rounded edges on treble.
The banjo with the "400 year river soaked" maple sounded definitely louder, punchier and more lively. Longer sustain as well.
Of course, this is an acoustic instrument so it’s probably more obvious than on an electric instrument but it showed to me material and wood definitely influences the sound.
Sounds like a nightmarish hellscape. Glad you made it out of there without committing crimes.
Getting this 400 year old wood out of that river wasn’t an easy task according to him………
He had to ask for a special permit from the government that took more than a year to get because it was in a "historical area" !
The amount of variables with just hearing something is non-negligible.
We're talking humidity, room acoustics, and even earwax can affect our perception of sound. I don't question the mojo, I'm just grateful when I stumble upon it
We're talking humidity, room acoustics, and even earwax can affect our perception of sound. I don't question the mojo, I'm just grateful when I stumble upon it
I have a long time acoustic guitar player who is really old school. He will get a new martin acoustic and plug the guitar into a amp, pointed at the guitar a few inches away. Play on it for days like this. He says it conditions the guitar and changes the sound. He has been playing longer than I am old
When I read the thread title "Change in tone with ageing?" I thought it was a question about how our tonal preferences change (or don't) with time.
To the OP's question: I think the basses might mellow and deepen with time as the wood ages and dries - but that effect would probably be pretty minor.
More likely, your amplification has gotten better and your hearing has gotten worse in the intervening years.
To our preferences:
A few years ago I bought the clone of what had been my #1 bass for a decade; the bass was SO similar to my old bass that I had to double-check the serial number to confirm that it wasn't, in fact, my old bass.
But the tone that I'd loved so much for over 25% of the time that I've been a bassist?
It wasn't my "thing" any more.
To the OP's question: I think the basses might mellow and deepen with time as the wood ages and dries - but that effect would probably be pretty minor.
More likely, your amplification has gotten better and your hearing has gotten worse in the intervening years.
To our preferences:
A few years ago I bought the clone of what had been my #1 bass for a decade; the bass was SO similar to my old bass that I had to double-check the serial number to confirm that it wasn't, in fact, my old bass.
But the tone that I'd loved so much for over 25% of the time that I've been a bassist?
It wasn't my "thing" any more.
I suspect that most of what you’re hearing different is more due to changes in your ears (hearing) due to aging (and not the bass).
20 years ago I use to dime treble controls on active basses and loved the sound. Now days running them flat sounds so much better. It’s got to be due to changes (degradation) in my hearing.
20 years ago I use to dime treble controls on active basses and loved the sound. Now days running them flat sounds so much better. It’s got to be due to changes (degradation) in my hearing.
I also feel my basses changing as the years progress. Especially the more they're played. My Stingray, which I purchased new in '20 and has been my main axe since, has gotten lots of use. And sometime last year it changed subtly. It's a little warmer, softer, certainly easier to play. After changing strings and whatnot, I can say with confidence it's the instrument.
But, I'm in the minority here on TalkBass. I think wood matters. I think instruments break in and change with time. That's been my experience at least. It sounds like it's been yours too. That's okay.
Don't mind the naysayers. They spend more time on the forum than in the practice room anyway.
I think a 7 years span is not enough to get a noticiable change in tone by wood aging.
Probably you'll spect that in a bass made in the 80/90s and older...
Probably you'll spect that in a bass made in the 80/90s and older...
