Different tone from different wood, really?

[wmhill]

 

[mjmeche]

The hardness of the wood translates into how the strings vibrate.
Imagine if you put the strings on a body of Styrofoam. The vibrations would be muted due to the softness of the supporting material.

Now imagine if you mounted the strings to a Titanium one-piece body, surely they would resonate brightly.
The woods are just every variation in between.

and just to add fuel to the fire lol . Wood grain pattern, tightness of rings. knots even from same species of wood will sound a little different. Same goes for necks I prefer rosewood cause I don't like the brightness of maple! never ending story

 

[klejst]

Probably too late to start popping my popcorn for this one so I'll just answer.

Personally I have never been able to hear a difference between say a rosewood neck and a maple neck. To me the difference comes in the electronics used on said bass, strings and your gear setup. But that's me.

 

[mexicanyella]

Without reading the whole thread, I decided my opinion was too valuable not to contribute!

My everyday bass is a Squier Affinity P, which was crafted in China. When I go to music stores I usually pick up P-type basses because I can relate to the sound and simplicity, and while I've detected differences in feel due to quality of finish and fretwork, I've found that pretty much every bass I've picked up with a P-type split pickup, located in the standard P-bass distance from the bridge, sounds like a P-bass to me. Even the P-pickup-equipped screaming neon green Dean bass I tried not too long ago. It had a pointy headstock and a green fretboard and was visually offensive, but it sounded reassuringly familiar.

I think P-basses are elegantly simple tools by design and if the dimensions are there and they're set up right, they are going to do the job regardless of what it says on the headstock.

 

[Dean N]

I wonder how much the quality of the bolt-on (or, technically, screw-on) joint affects the coupling of string to pickup. Little crappy screws v. bigger ones with aggressive threads? How many screws? Are the pilot holes too small or big? Are they aligned so, upon tightening, there isn't any new tension introduced into the neck heel? Heel plate or individual ferrules? How much torque to tighten? How about threaded inserts with big stainess machine bolts (to actually have a bolt-on neck)?

If you're going to stick to your guns and insist on wood stiffness and density affecting string vibration and thus tone, wouldn't the quality of the joint be a critical (or more critical) factor? Wood species are, overall, relatively close in characteristics. We're not comparing cement with packing peanuts, or balsa wood with stainless steel.

I'd love to see more discussion and info (research?) on the neck joint.

 

[eddododo]

Cheers,
Rob

I’m always willing to weigh in on this. Basically all it can do is be harder or softer, or rather stiffer or more plyable.

Mainly, if and when it has a noticeable effect, it will effect the envelope of the note- the shape of the attack and the sustain. One could argue that a harder bass will tend to accent certain parts of the mids (or whatever) because these parts of the tone will last longer before the note decays into the less meaty part of the envelope where the harmonics creep in.

I’ve never once noticed what I would call a TONE associated with any woods... maybe there is one but I’ve never once had a bass body cloned for weight with 2 species of wood, and tried out in a vacuum with the same neck, strings, player, bridge, humidity, mercury in retrograde, the players calluses 3D printed to precision spec, etc. hopefully that last part illustrated what I think the point is

 

[mexicanyella]

I wonder how much the quality of the bolt-on (or, technically, screw-on) joint affects the coupling of string to pickup. Little crappy screws v. bigger ones with aggressive threads? How many screws? Are the pilot holes too small or big? Are they aligned so, upon tightening, there isn't any new tension introduced into the neck heel? Heel plate or individual ferrules? How much torque to tighten? How about threaded inserts with big stainess machine bolts (to actually have a bolt-on neck)?

If you're going to stick to your guns and insist on wood stiffness and density affecting string vibration and thus tone, wouldn't the quality of the joint be a critical (or more critical) factor? Wood species are, overall, relatively close in characteristics. We're not comparing cement, steel, packing peanuts, and say, balsa wood.

I'd love to see more discussion and info (research?) on the neck joint.

I would be interested to see that too. My favorite guitar right now has a plywood body, and sounds great to me. When I received it, I thought it sounded great right away, but noticed that it had a fairly flexible neck (great for faux-tremolo neck bends; not so great for tuning stability...or so I thought).

It occurred to me to check the neck screws and I found them to be kind of loose. I tightened them up and the tone stayed the same, but the tuning stability improved. It still has a flexier neck than my other guitar, but it always comes right back in tune if I flex it and release it now.

 

[squeakyd]

Wood and the construction at the contact points (bridge, nut, neck pocket) are all factors.
A lot of folks overlook the impact the nut has on tone I think.
I have a Peavey T40 and an electric acoustic, but barely consider them to be the same kind of instrument.

 

[rashrader]

Here we go.... Again.

 

[Malafaia]

This is a highly polemic subject, so...

I am curious about tonal quality and age of the wood. MAYBE a centenary basswood can do better than a 20 years alder (I said MAYBE, pls). The density of a juvenile wood is lower than of a mature one. At the time Leo Fender bought wood to develop his (and now ours too) business, I think it was easier for him to find better wood.

If someone is after a good tonal wood, MAYBE an old instrument, or a new one made with old wood, can bring this difference, otherwise, I'd just grab one that a luthier can set. But in the end, better woods MAYBE are more about easy maintenance and reliability to carry it everywhere than just tonal quality.

 

[squeakyd]

Here is a question that has kept me awake some nights.
As has been mentioned, I get that in theory the pickup may only "see" the string, and I understand induction.
What tweaks my melon, is why with a passive bass, unstrung, if I scratch the pole of the pickup with my fingernail I can hear it through the amp?

A pickup is no different from a microphone in principle. By scratching or tapping it, you're creating a vibration and thus an induced current. Most decent pickups are potted with paraffin or adhesive to prevent this vibration. My apologies if you already knew all this and I misunderstood.

 

[Hounddog409]

I have a theory.
There are many theories.
All these theories have been debated to reasonable uncertainty here.

My belief is that neck stiffness/rigidity has a big effect on attack and tone. Particularly with bolt-on basses the mass/density of body in relationship to the neck and vise versa is also important. In short, you can make a bass guitar out of many different materials but these are two parts of the equation that matter....again just my belief.

......unless its neck through.

 

[Hounddog409]

In order, the factors that affect the tone of the bass (excluding amp and mixing):
1) player technique and ability
2) pickups
3) playing environment
4) quality of construction the bass, e.g. bolt on vs neck through vs hollow vs semi hollow
5) neck wood and fretboard
6) body wood
7) connections to amp/sound board
8) audience

Do not agree with this order at all.

The same player playing a hollow body and solid body will sound different. No way this should be #4.

 

[4sight]

At the end of the day, in a band mix with all your fancy pedals and EQ settings, you won't notice if it's soft maple, poplar, wenge, alder, ash or any other "tone" wood you care to mention.

My best sounding P bass is plywood

 

[Nev375]

Flamed maple sounds bright yet warm. Ebony sounds really dark. Purpleheart sounds like an old bass that was beat up on its last tour.

 

[Wissen]

This thread is why I love TB. Every last one of ya.

I have nothing to add to the discussion at hand. The answer has been provided a long time ago. I'm just here for the show.

 

[micguy]

Here is a question that has kept me awake some nights.
As has been mentioned, I get that in theory the pickup may only "see" the string, and I understand induction.
What tweaks my melon, is why with a passive bass, unstrung, if I scratch the pole of the pickup with my fingernail I can hear it through the amp?

The windings and magnets are moving with respect to one another when you do that, which...produces a signal. Depending on how the windings are held in place (or not), you'll find varying degrees of that issue - typically called microphonics.

By the way, the theory (if you study it - I did) does not say that the pickup only sees the string. It says that the pickup sees the relative motion of the string with respect to the pickup. As the pickup is mounted to the body, if the body vibrates (which it does) the string sees that motion as well - it's the relative motion between the mounting point (body) and strings that we care about.

 

[Scottgun]

 

[Killed_by_Death]

You are so false

I try to be as real as possible, but I assume you mean my explanation is incorrect.
Maybe you can explain to us how a Titanium body will sound just like a Styrofoam body.

 

[crguti]

I have 2 basses which in ‘theory’ are practically the same (I bought the 2nd bass as a backup). Same pickups, same preamp, same strings, same tuning, same maple neck, same hardware, same setup. The difference is what the body is made of. One is Alder, the other is Poplar.
Both basses sound different.