Does a top wood effect resonance?

[BigBoneRed]

Hey TB~. This has been bugging me lately..
Does a top wood, (regardless of the type), on an electric bass, change the resonance of the instrument, for better, or worse?
My suspicion is that it might if you're playing it unplugged, and it could be noticeable, but when playing through an amp,
probably not...IDK?
...and even that could vary depending on if it's a neck-through, or BO. Any thoughts?
Curiously~

 

[el murdoque]

Does it change the resonance? Absolutely!
Does it change the resonance enough for an audible difference? I don't think so.
Especially all those stabilized "Burl" woods that look so sexy - they are mostly epoxy anyway.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Hey TB~. This has been bugging me lately..
Does a top wood, (regardless of the type), on an electric bass, change the resonance of the instrument, for better, or worse?
My suspicion is that it might if you're playing it unplugged, and it could be noticeable, but when playing through an amp,
probably not...IDK?
...and even that could vary depending on if it's a neck-through, or BO. Any thoughts?
Curiously~

If you'd really like to get into the subject of how the frame of an electric bass affects the tone (out through the amp), here's a thread where I wrote a fairly concise summary:

Thread 'Construction Techniques for tone and feel'

Sep 5, 2024

I'm curious about high level differences in construction techniques that can be implemented to tailor a build towards a certain tonal goal. I'm not starting a tOnEwOoD debate. I'm talking about factors like neck construction (vis-a-vis neck stiffness), different types of neck/body joints or neck-through, headstock angle, bridge type/construction, and sure perhaps high-level wood specifications such as hard/soft, dense/light, etc.

Is it generally known how these factors can contribute to the overall tone and feel of a completed instrument?

For example... imagine a build order for two...

• NKBassman
• Replies: 15
• Forum: Luthier's Corner

• 

The quick answer is that a glued-on top may affect the sound of a bass if it significantly changes the overall stiffness of the body. A layer of hard, stiff wood glued on top of a soft, flexible body wood will usually stiffen it up. Which generally will reduce muddiness and increase the clarity of the mid-range frequencies.

 

[Hoochie Coochie Man]

I bet that a top lamination does affect resonance in a way in which I could measure in a laboratory setting, and in a way in which I would not be able to discern any difference with my own sense of hearing.

Considering the nature of wood, the variation between any otherwise identical instruments is likely to be measurable, (yet indiscernible by my hearing).

For this "limitation" of my own sense of hearing, I am grateful.

I suspect that variation of the auditory sensation among different individual humans is greater than that of a laminated vs non-laminated bass.

Psycho-Acoustics will be the name of the next all-acoustic heavy metal band.

Edited to add: I can hear the difference in the un-amplified resonance among my basses which are made out of a species of Ash compared to other wood species. I don't consider one to be "better" than another. Most players are far better at bass than I am, and I do hear a difference when a competent player plays any of my basses compared to the way I sound on the same instrument played unaccompanied. I benefit by playing along with other instruments that tend to drown out the sound my lack of talent and proper technique create.

 

[Slevage]

I’ve owned and currently own a bass with “fancy” woods. They sound better than my other basses because they are built with a higher level of craftsmanship. I don’t know how much the wood plays into the sound.

 

[Chris Chong]

I don’t care, I keep one exotic wood top bass bcz it looks amazing.
My other basses are Olympic white, black, purple shift.

 

[uOpt]

Everything changes everything.

 

[lomo]

It changes the overall resonance as significantly as the sideview mirror profile on a truck changes its acceleration & top speed.......in theory and in the minds of some, but not in any way that's perceptible or relevant in the tangible, audible world.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Good question. I often wondered the same thing about any multi-lam body construction. One of my cheaper imports is a veritable "hippie sandwich" hodge-podge: center block, sandwiched (front & back) body wings, etc. I went cross-eyed trying to trace all the seams. Trying to decide if there's any real engineering behind the construction or just trying to use-up the shop surplus.

Riis

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Yes as mentioned above, if it can vibrate it will make a difference, now how much is a whole different discussion.

Just like fingerboard woods do make a difference.

And yes Hippie sandwich designs most likely came from not having full thickness larger woods, so yeah scraps.
However I believe the multi-laminate design provides much stronger neck than solid wood.

 

[DrBnz]

I believe that anything that'll change the body (or necks) density / stiffness will affect the sound. So "yes"

 

[dbflats]

Electromagnets ( pickups ) respond to the vibration of strings. Any effect provided by any other aspect of if the instrument e.g. this or that wood is due to whatever effect this has or does not have on those strings and their vibration. Pickups don't "hear" the wood.

 

[JohnnyBottom]

It changes the overall resonance as significantly as the sideview mirror profile on a truck changes its acceleration & top speed.......in theory and in the minds of some, but not in any way that's perceptible or relevant in the tangible, audible world.

I thought pulling in the side views saves gas

 

[BassJuju]

Popcorn subject for sure, but I will add my 2 cents. It makes a big difference to me-- good and bad. Most will say you get some compression from a top-wood, but tone changes too. I can hear the difference. It is why I think Koa tops are beautiful to look at and horrible sounding for bass. It is why a gorgeous bass I owned for a while was sold, because I couldn't EQ, string change, or otherwise balance the mids. It is also why one of my go to basses is as plain as a door. Wood matters; even the layer on top.

 

[MCS4]

My personal opinion and experience is that having a top -- or at least having a maple top -- seems to produce a modest but noticeable *average* difference in tone, which is likely to be more apparent if the guitar or bass is very similar most other ways but is probably not particularly meaningful in comparing instruments that have other differences of any significance, particularly when it comes to things like pickup configuration and placement. My experience is mainly based upon owning or trying out a bunch of similar Carvin/Kiesel instruments with tops or not and comparing to conventional wisdom, so it certainly could be skewed. I can't say that I particularly noticed either way how much this tonal difference shows in terms of acoustic resonance when unplugged simply because that is not something I pay a lot of attention to as compared to amplified tone.

 

[SC Bassboy]

I dabble in guitar for recording purposes and I promise you that the maple top on a Les Paul makes an audible difference in the tone, but it's very hard to say how much that effects resonance. In theory it should. IME softer woods tend to dampen resonance, medium woods (alder) are very dynamic and lively, and really hard woods (bubinga) don't resonate as much but they offer natural compression and a mid bump. I believe that's part of the "growl" associated with Warwicks because of the hard, dense woods. My alder bodied Fender Precision is much more resonate than my bubinga bodied Warwick Corvette, but the Fender doesn't have that warm growl. I have to admit, after typing this paragraph, there's probably something to lighter wood and resonance, which points back to density.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Basically: Every choice in every part of the build changes the object resonance. Some to a greater extent, some to a lesser extent.

Whether it's "better" or "worse" is the great unknown, and difficult to predict.

Since it can only be judged as a final assembly, and wood is a variable material, it's very hard to make an accurate prediction of what "changing part X" will do, since it's not easy to compare two identical builds that only differ in "part X" when two apparently identical builds are usually not, in fact, identical. Some things (like heavy/light hardware) can be changed on the same instrument, but then you can't really compare the two versions at the same time; but you may find that one appears to work better for you without the side-by-side comparison. Sometimes that's confirmation bias, (I put this part on to make this change in the sound, which I hear because I expect to hear it...) sometimes it's real or measurable (a dead spot moves, indicating a change in resonance, because mass was changed.)

 

[KevInDaBassment]

It changes the overall resonance as significantly as the sideview mirror profile on a truck changes its acceleration & top speed.......in theory and in the minds of some, but not in any way that's perceptible or relevant in the tangible, audible world.

+1 ^

Funny enough, I was going to use the analogy of adding car seat covers and floor mats to the vehicle.


Does it technically change the overall weight of the vehicle? Yes it does! Will your car's performance suffer in a demonstrable way? Probably not...

 

[ole Jason]

No.

 

[micguy]

I have a degree in Acoustical Physics - studying the Physics of musical instruments.

There are two ends of each string - how the wood affects the vibration of the string does affect the sound of the instrument, and that fact that the wood is vibrating (the pickups sense the distance between the body and the strings), means.... if the body is vibrating (it is), it is contributing to the signal that goes out the output jack.

OK, so how much? Well..each string has two ends. One is anchored in a massive piece of metal, that is bolted, to a fairly massive piece of wood. The other end is held by your finger against a tiny strip of metal, that is anchored in a fairly thing strip of wood. A bit of hand waving there, but the point is that the neck is going to move more than the body - it's influence on the strings's vibration will be greater than what happens at the body end. If you way to spend money on fancy wood to make your bass SOUND better, do it on the neck (and the fretboard), not the body.

All that said, I have a body coming in a couple weeks from Warmoth. Basswood (I like light basses), chambered (I like light basses), and it has a Zebrawood top because....I like the LOOK of zebrawood.