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Do basses get better sounding as they get older?

pringlw

pringlw

Guest
Nov 22, 2008
1,708
32
Seattle Area
#1
Honest question.

I have a 30 year Ric and I swear that it never sounded better than it does now. I wonder if the aging of the wood has something to do with it.

I know everyone loves old guitars & basses - but I wonder if its not just the old models, but just the fact that older wood sounds richer & better.
 
#2
IMO and IME, unless you start out with really green wood, or wood that has not been dried to the right moisture level, age shouldn't really impact the tone of the instrument. Yes, there might be some changes, but those changes would be distributed evenly between 'getting better and getting worse'.

What you are probably hearing is changes in your ears and most probably MUCH better amplification than 'back in the day':)
 
#3
It is less Scientific that one would (or Wood) think.

It is the 30 years of Love you have given the RIC and the associated spiritual ripeness of an instrument that has produced a fantastic amount of music. :D

Naturally the above is Tongue in Cheek to some degree.

But I can tell you I have played old basses that sounded amazing and old Basses that sound not as amazing. In fact I own a 65 Jazz that is as they say one of the good ones. My friend loaned me his 64 that he got off a guy that had it under his bed since High School and it was nice - but not as nice as my 65.

Can't explain it - I know it has been discussed to death here. So there I just stirred the pot again :p

Most important is that it is sounding great and working for you!!
 
#5
How about the effect of playing the bass over the years. If a bass has been played 20,000 hours vs one that sat under a bed for 40 years (lets say 65 j bass) would one improve over the other (or atleast more?)

I'm not saying that I agree, but this COULD explain your situation.

When you pluck a string you vibrate the wood... One would think after 20,0000 hours of this hat it would have SOME effect.
 
#6
I wonder how much our hearing has changed over the years? :hmm:

Seriously, it's a crapshoot. A good sounding bass is just that and a bad sounding bass is just that. Most are average sounding hence the term average. :D
 
#8
WarriorJoe7 said:
How about the effect of playing the bass over the years. If a bass has been played 20,000 hours vs one that sat under a bed for 40 years (lets say 65 j bass) would one improve over the other (or atleast more?)

I'm not saying that I agree, but this COULD explain your situation.

When you pluck a string you vibrate the wood... One would think after 20,0000 hours of this hat it would have SOME effect.
Click to expand...

That's a little bit of what I was wondering. I mean, who the heck knows but it does seem to make sense that as you say; after 20k hours of resonate vibrations - some change would take place in the wood. Perhaps some of those vibrations become comfortable patterns in the wood thus increasing the resonance. Who knows, but I wonder.
 
#9
KJung said:
IMO and IME, unless you start out with really green wood, or wood that has not been dried to the right moisture level, age shouldn't really impact the tone of the instrument. Yes, there might be some changes, but those changes would be distributed evenly between 'getting better and getting worse'.

What you are probably hearing is changes in your ears and most probably MUCH better amplification than 'back in the day':)
Click to expand...

+1 aged wood sounding better is one of the great myths of music.
 
#11
Short answer? IME/O: YES. (Usually...)

Rick Turner wrote an article in BP way back when, examining how the wood resonates differently, the more the axe gets played out. IIRC it was all about the acoustic vibratins settling the grain or something. Someone even built a giant rig to try and simulate the process. (Strap it down & jiggle it ultrasonically for a while = 20 years of bar gigs? :p)
 
#12
It's a proven fact that when you vibrate wood, the molecules settle. I don't know anything about how the settling would align the wood, but if you don't vibrate it, the wood will decompose after a while. The flip side is, there are wooden musical instruments that are over 300 years old.
[edit] --- personal opinion? I think they do sound better.
 
#13
topcat2069 said:
Basses do not sound better with age, Bass players do.
Click to expand...

+1

Actually pickups get weaker as they age so unless you think a weaker sound is better they do not get better sounding as they get older. I sold off my old 60s and 70s Rics because they didn't sound as good as the newer ones. But my old 68 4001 really came to life when I put in modern 4003 pickups. It sounded much better than it ever did with the old weak pickups.
 
#14
I would say that age/time changes things (boy does it!). Things may get better,worse, or not change at all due to many things with an instrument. Good to hear the Ric is aging nicely. I've definitely played some "classic" Fender basses that weren't worth picking up. Not every bass improves with age, that's for sure.
 
#15
All species of wood have, if you were to examine them under a microscope (actually, it would be called a macroscopic crossection that you'd be studying) resin/sap ducts. When wood is alive, as in still in a living tree, these ducts carry nutrients through the tree, much like blood vessels.

After wood gets cut and aged, these ducts remain, and the resin in them stays as well... however, over time, the resin ages and shrinks, leaving macroscopic chambers throughout the wood. So, yes, there is a scientific explanation as to why older instruments have a different resonance.

The longer you wait, the more resonant the wood becomes... the ultimate example being a Stradivarius violin. Of course the wood they used was special too, because it was extra resonant due to the Little Ice Age occurring at the time... but maybe I'll save that for another day.

Class Dismissed! :bassist:
 
#16
WRXbase said:
It's a proven fact that when you vibrate wood, the molecules settle. I don't know anything about how the settling would align the wood, but if you don't vibrate it, the wood will decompose after a while. The flip side is, there are wooden musical instruments that are over 300 years old.
[edit] --- personal opinion? I think they do sound better.
Click to expand...

Have you got any reference for that "proven fact?"

If this were true, wood used in old buildings and other uses should have decomposed by now. Moisture, fungus, and bacteria decompose wood, not vibrating air.

After wood is dried for a musical instrument the molecules don't go anywhere. The air spaces between the molecules will absorb and release moisture depending on the humidity of the environment. And, that's only if the wood has not been sealed, which it has been on most solid body basses.

edit: there is no resin in deciduous trees (like basswood)
 
#18
dvh said:
Have you got any reference for that "proven fact?"

If this were true, wood used in old buildings and other uses should have decomposed by now. Moisture, fungus, and bacteria decompose wood, not vibrating air.
Click to expand...


A woods resistance to moisture, fungus, and bacteria is directly related to the wood's natural level of phenolic acid... woods like Japanese Oak, wenge, greenwood are all good examples of this, of course these are the same woods that make people itchy (for the same reason)

I have to disagree with you... Basswood is a hardwood, which does have pores.. Its pores are diffused throughout the entire cross-section as opposed to other hardwoods that have them bunched around the annual growth-rings. Compare basswood to, say, Ash. The pores are much smaller than other woods, which is why it has such a smooth appearance. (if you need citations, my journals are in storage, but you can check out this page for confirmation... just look for "diffuse-porous" here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood)

The reason basswood is so consistent in tone, and therefore so popular among builders, it because you know what you're getting from it.

Also, the internal aging of a sealed wood still occurs... albeit at a slower rate. Purpleheart is a good example of a wood that does this (purpleheart over the years actually changes color: when first cut it's bright green, then quickly changes to a vibrant purple and slowly fades to a muted brown. Basses with a sealed finish still experience this, but it retards the transformation)

:bassist:
 
#19
Gawd I’m in such such a wise a*s mood…

Could it have something to do with “String Theory”??

:smug:


I just built a new Warmoth Bass that sounds just like I wanted it to.. and that was all about the body wood and the neck wood and the pickups and strings, ... It's not even a week old... I'll get back to ya in a decade or so....



(just kidding)
 
#20
Better is a subjective term. The tone does in fact change, the magnets in the PUPs degrade a little bit over time, the wood may or may or may not "dry out" but there sure seems to be something that goes on.
 

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