hi 202dy,
let your ears judge! murph.vienna is 100% right it makes a huge difference! And I really mean huge! Like two different basses we are not talking nuances here! If you haven´t heared it or never experinced it then I guess you haven´t even started to familiarize yourself with you instrument. I experince the same on my Fender 5 string Deluxe Jazz.
Again, since English is your second language, it is to be assumed that sarcastic attack is unintended. As such, it will be ignored.
The scientific approach you have presented so far is just an ignorant oversimplification! Let me tell you that I am a materials engineer and hold a Ph.D. in physics, so I am not exactly an layman in terms of materials and physics. But I will happily admit that i don´t understand jack **** about the engineering and physics of a well sounding bass.
This argument is a logical fallacy known as an appeal to authority. Therefore it does not support any of the arguments presented. However, you are to be commended on your ability to achieve in an academic atmosphere.
The effect however is more pronounced with basses wich have an intrinsiclly very rigid construction (e.g. 3 pcs. maple, carbon enforcment rods...). In that case you can go from a very stiff to a normal stiffnes neck by loosing the trussrod.
So the direction you should think in, is tension, stiffnes, rigidity... of the neck which you alter.
For example have you ever played a carbon fiber necked bass ? I had one for approx. 7 years and let me tell you they sound very even but at the same time also like ****! Your strings will die within a few playing hours, you will hear differences in sets of strings you have never heard before....because they sound like your strings and not like a bass!
Why is a Fender Jazz Bass with a very slim 3 bolt neck such a beautifull sounding instrument? Because all the flaws in construction make it a very nice breathing, soulfull instrument.
Why haven´t I ever heard a good sounding 5 string Jazz Bass. Because this swirling loose neck just sounds excellent contray to what an engineer would believe or what have constructed. Just be open minded and let your ears and your own personal taste be the judge!
have a nice day guys
cheers
zeb
These comments are subjective. They offer nothing but assertion and emotion. While it is true that tightening the truss rod may offer a certain amount (how much?) of stiffness to the neck what kind of metering is needed to measure the difference? The human ear is notoriously inaccurate.
I believe Fender did a study in the sixties on psychoacoustics. A subject was placed in a room and listened to various guitars blindfolded. When told that a different guitar was going to be played the subject could hear the difference. However, sometimes it was the guitar that was just played. The gist of the experiment is that we hear what we are expecting to hear.
Leo Fender started designing guitar pickups in the 1940's. He considered the Telecaster bridge pickup his breakthrough. (The neck pickup on the Tele was there so that a guitar player could double on bass without a URB. That part didn't work out so well.) He continued to experiment for the rest of his life. Before his death he declared that he had reached his crowning achievement with the development of the ASAT bridge pickup. Interestingly, the ASAT pickup utilizes the same wire gauge as the original Telecaster pickup. Not only that, but the D.C. resistance was identical to the original. After some fifty years Leo came full circle to his original design. This is psychoacoustics at work.
Different guitars sound different. Pickups and electronics play a huge role in the mix as do neck stiffness and density. Body composition also plays a role. However, the change in stiffness that is caused by tightening a truss rod will, for most of us, provide the effect that we want to hear.
When you can measure it, let us know.
