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Do solid body basses break in over time?

#22
The idea that a refin or aging significantly changes the tone of a solid body instrument first makes me giggle, and then makes me cry:rollno:

Most of those that feel these trivial issues have an impact are either in the business of selling refins, or are in the camp of 'hearing what they want to hear'.

A change of strings will have massively more impact on tone than a refin.

Not IMO:hiding:
 
#23
There are those who feel that the wood in 30+ year old instruments has aged and is more resonant. Some even sit their instruments in front of stereo speakers and leave them for days, thinking that will help condition the wood with sound waves.

I personally feel that most of the sound is in the pickups, hardware and strings, and changes you make in those items will be more audible than any aging or change in the wood. I can't say that my '63 Precision sounds any better than my 2000 MIM Jazz....just different.
 
#24
I agree with this guy, the physical properties of the neck have a much larger influence on tone than is generally believed. Try changing the neck, to one made of a different type of maple or different dimensions. I have heard some great poly and nitro guitars. I have heard some very bad basses, where the paint was too thick, or had multiple paint attempts done at the factory. Lifeless, dead. Had half a dozen bodies sitting at one point and even drummers could tell what was wrong with the paint lathered body when they rapped a knuckle on it and listened. Sounding like a piece of 2 inch thick tupperware. I have also heard a few necks that made all basses sound less good. Pickups amplify what there is but can't create what does not exist. If you are missing something in the sonic spectrum pickups cant just 'create' it. Good luck... honestly the best thing to do is sell that one and find another that has the sound you want. There's probably someone else with the same complaint who has one just like yours out there but it sounds the way YOU want yours to sound and vice versa. :)


dezspet said:
My opinion is a bit different. I truly believe, that the majority of the sound is coming from the neck in solid body instruments. In other words the neck and the fretboard have a larger effect on your sound than the bodywood. It's not only the quality of the wood used in the neck, but also the shape, the amount of wood (think about Stingray necks or Precision necks), etc.
Normally, necks have a finish which let the wood dry out.
So I believe, that your instrument's sound will change if you play a lot on it, and especially because your neck and fretboard will resonate on a different way. It's not only moisture, but also, the microstructure of the wood will change slightly thanks to the billions of gentle motions the resonancy causes.
This is the same for violins, double basses, hollowbody instruments, but in their case the body has a bigger factor in the overall sound, and time and practise will change their sound on a much more audible way than solid body instruments.
Click to expand...
 
#26
If you do decide to do a little refinishing work on your bass you may want to try the Hendrix method.
You start by spraying lighter fluid all over it then lighting the bass on fire. This reduces the offending finish to a warm glowing tone. Do not put the fire out untill it is blackened. This is the color you want to achive to bring out the darker tones in the instrument, best for a bass. For brighter tones just scrape lightly to a golden brown color. then just plug in and adjust as necessary. OK !?!? :cool:

you may contact me for more specifics.

peace Capt Kirk
 
#27
Ric5 said:
Wood does harden with age ... If you ever lived in a house over 50 years old with some exposed studs or joists then try to drive a nail in the old wood as compaired to a new piece of wood.
Click to expand...

Yes, but studs then were made from older trees which generally had grown in more crowded conditions resulting in denser wood.

Most of those trees are gone and today's studs are far inferior. (This refers to softwoods (conifers) which aren't usually used for solid body guitars)
 
#28
Interesting comment by Roger Sadowsky on this subject in the July 2009 Bass Guitar Magazine:

"I can't prove this scientifically, but I think everyone I know who builds is in agreement that the more an instrument is played and the more the wood vibrates and resonates, the more it opens up and the better it sounds. I've heard acoustic guitars that hadn't been played in 30 years that sounded like crap, but after being played for a month just opened up incredibly. So I think it's more a matter of being played than just aging by time."

This was a response to a question about whether wood dries out over time and if that was the reason that older basses sound "better" -- and that he didn't think that the wood drying out was the reason for this.

I'd also think he'd say that with a solid body bass, that the effect (playing it improving the tone) would be relatively quite small in comparison to other factors (pickups, strings, wood choice, etc.).

It's a great article, BTW.

To the OP: I'd guess playing it or aging it won't affect the tone much. You're better off changing strings or electronics if you want the tone to change to any significant degree. I don't know what all you've tried, but playing it a lot probably won't affect the tone much. Since you say you've tried different strings and pickups, my guess is you just don't like the tone of the bass -- how does it sound acoustically?
 
#31
dezspet said:
My opinion is a bit different. I truly believe, that the majority of the sound is coming from the neck in solid body instruments. In other words the neck and the fretboard have a larger effect on your sound than the bodywood.
Click to expand...

What?!? May I point out that the pickup is in the body?

If you're right, then you should invent the neck pickup (a pickup actually in the neck).
 
#32
I would have to agree with the neck theory. I am always switching up necks on basses to see what works best, and I find that the overwhelming character of sound always follows the neck.

I took a 76 maple precision neck off of a Warmoth Jazz body with active Bartolini's and put it on a stock 73 Jazz Bass. The 73 Jazz then took on the same quality of sound as the Warmoth. The different pickups didn't have nearly as much effect on the overall tone as the neck did.

The "sound" always seems to follow the neck.

Maybe changing the neck up might give you what you want. Talk to Mike.
 
#33
rageatmachine14 said:
My Traben Array playes much different now than it did when i bought it a year ago. The sound is still about the same(maybe a touch bassier) I think they can be broke in.
Click to expand...

That's not your bass "breaking in"- that's the setup changing over the course of the year and you having a year more practice under your belt.
 
#34
My point of view would be that when you play the same bass for a good amount of time, it will sound better. why? Because you found the setup you like on it, you found the right pickup height, the right eqing, the right technique (I mean, I got a jazz and a thumb and man I don't attack the strings the same way in both of them), etc... to make the bass sound great. Practicing on a bass will break you in with the bass, aka you learn how to make it sound good. First time I played my jazz, it sounded like crap. FF 2 years later, it sounds AMAZING and with the fret being adjusted by MF luthery, it feels even better.

Anyone that never played a jazz bass and go and play on a 1964 jazz that has been played to death will still make it sound mediocre. IMO.
 
#35
Bassflute said:
Wood changes structurally with resonances applied over many years - end of story.
Click to expand...

I mean this in the most polite way possible...
Prove it.

Wood changes structurally without resonances applied over many years. Why are the resonances special? What observable characteristic of the wood structure physically changes because of the "applied resonances" and to what degree?
 
#37
dezspet said:
My opinion is a bit different. I truly believe, that the majority of the sound is coming from the neck in solid body instruments. In other words the neck and the fretboard have a larger effect on your sound than the bodywood. It's not only the quality of the wood used in the neck, but also the shape, the amount of wood (think about Stingray necks or Precision necks), etc.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Carey Nordstrand has told me he feels that as far as construction, the neck has the most effect on the sound, followed by the fingerboard and body (don't remember which one was more important).

Carey has lately been making instruments with one-piece maple necks and no fingerboard, and he said they sound woodier and more resonant than his other instruments.
 
#38
Maybe the sound of a solid body bass changes over time…maybe it doesn’t. I am not able give a definitive answer from my own experience. I can tell you this. If I leave my bass rig set up for a week with the same amp, cabinet, cables, instrument, volume/EQ settings, and room location it will sound different every day. It will sound different at different times on the same day. This would explain why I am not the least bit concerned about the wood in my bass bodies changing tonal characteristics over time. This might also explain why I am able to stay off of the G.A.S. merry-go-round. :)

M. M.
 
#40
This has been a most informative thread.I have always thought that the neck and fretboard had more to do with the sound than the body.I learned that when I traded my rosewood fretboard Stingray for one with a bird's eye maple fretboard.Loved the maple one.Wasn't overly impressed by the rosewood one.
It is interesting that NOrstrand uses one piece necks.This use to mean really cheap but it makes perfect sense.No decoupling of the string vibrations with the fretboard ''cap" transition.
I wonder what a multiple laminated neck,say 5 laminations(like the Dolphin) would sound like without any kind of fretboard cap.No wenge,maple,etc.,etc,just a laminate of say maple and wenge.The fretboard would look like a butcher block(or les Claypool's "rainbow bass") and be confusing as hell fretwise to be sure but I bet it would sound superb.Really woody with alot of sustain,clarity and snap.
 

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