The King is in his altogether and altogether it's altogether the......
"Even if these subtleties could battle their way through an entire signal chain, I can tell you now that there is not one person on this forum who would be able to tell the difference in a gig situation competing with a loud drummer and a couple of Marshall half stacks."
I just love the "absolutes" you guys toss around, and we don't all play with loud drummers and Marshall Stacks.
We're talking about the "acoustic characteristics" of different fretboard woods. What gets amplified is what your instrument produces acoustically. Sure, electronics alter that but cannot CHANGE the sonic acoustic "footprint" of your bass.
An example I gave taken as the only absolute? Yes, I play with a loud rock covers band now. No, it's not the only band I've played in. I've played a huge variety of stuff, over the years from prog rock to country, pop to dinner jazz. Before I joined the current band with a loud drummer and two half stack equipped guitarists, I was playing fretless on a little project with a guy and his wife playing introspective folky stuff with an unamplified acoustic guitar and violin - so plenty of room for any subtleties in tone to breathe.
I'm not arguing that there is no difference at all in the sound of rosewood vs maple fingerboards. What I am arguing is that there are so many variables that have far more effect on your tone, that the very subtle difference of fingerboard material is largely irrelevant - simply being in a room with a different acoustic has a far more marked effect. Whether you are on a resonant stage, whether you have your cab close to a wall, or a corner. Whether the room is bright or dead sounding, how many people are in the audience with their very presence soaking up higher order harmonics, the effect that the room has on other instruments and how those effect the mix....and so on.
I stand by the fact that a tiny nudge of eq will have far more effect than the choice of fingerboard.
Oh, and I also disagree that what gets amplified is what your bass produces acoustically. I would be very disappointed if all that got amplified was the thin clacky tone of the solid body acoustic sound of my bass. What is amplified in most conventional basses is the signal produced by the vibration of a metal string that is modulating the magnetic flux flowing through the windings in the pickup coils. The only 'acoustic' influence on this (supposing that you don't have microphonic pickups) is that the materials the bass is made out of, the method of construction and components such as the bridge will have a complex interaction of resonant frequencies that will soak up energy at those frequencies from the vibrating string.
So yes, a complex interaction of every component in the entire signal chain from string to speaker (and cab) will contribute to tone and in this respect the fingerboard will play a part, but unless you're playing in a totally controlled environment with absolutely every other parameter as a constant it's effect is marginal to say the least. I say again, I have never wished for a bass with a different fingerboard to make a tonal difference on a gig that couldn't be better served by a tweak of tone knob or eq on the amp.
Johnk 10 said:
if that were the case, then why even bother having a bass that inherently has the tone that you want in the first place?
Yes, it's sad isn't it. We obsess over minute details that allow us to express our deepest tonal desires, and spend fortunes on a never ending search for the tonal holy grail. In the real world, the only person that really cares about the finer points of my tone is me (and maybe a few other bass players that would pick holes in my choice of tone anyway). For me, hearing a satisfying bass tone is inspiring and helps me play to my best ability, but I am under no illusions, once those notes have left my fingers and found their way into the audience, all that 99% of the audience will give a flying fart about is that there is some sort of low frequency action going on. They may subliminaly appreciate that the tone is helping me keep it groovin but beyond that....meh.
