The second set of clips sounded a bit warmer to me, so I'm going to guess that those are the rosewood ones.
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MAPLE vs. ROSEWOOD NECK - Can You Tell The Difference?
- Thread starter -=DanAtkinson=-
- Start date
AndyMan
Commercial User
Eric Johnson claims that he can hear a difference in the type of battery he uses in his effects. 
I have a love/hate feeling towards these threads. I love the idea and greatly appreciate the effort but my crappy PC speakers and cheap headphones never give me a true indication of the subtle differences. I know on my personal jazz basses I can hear a difference in maple vs. rosewood when playing solo.
AndyMan
Commercial User
- Dec 12, 2007
- 2,268
- 43
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Zon Guitars, Tsunami Cables, DR Strings, GK
I care about my tone whether I'm playing for myself in a small room or for thousands out doors. I'm also inspired by my different basses. So I'm very pleased that Dan is doing this testing even if it causes a heated debate.
I'm always open to learn new ideas. The allure of music is it's seemingly endless creativity. Knowledge lends itself to new creativity. Even if that knowledge is a small, nearly insignificant and deemed trivial by some, I would like to know the answer.
So Dan, let us in on the answer, and thanks again for sharing your time and talents with the TalkBass community.
I'm always open to learn new ideas. The allure of music is it's seemingly endless creativity. Knowledge lends itself to new creativity. Even if that knowledge is a small, nearly insignificant and deemed trivial by some, I would like to know the answer.
So Dan, let us in on the answer, and thanks again for sharing your time and talents with the TalkBass community.
Drumroll please....
NECK 1 is Rosewood/Rosewood, NECK 2 is Maple/Rosewood.
The votes were close. 43% got it right, 57% got it wrong. It's funny that many people identified the rosewood neck as snappier and brighter. Just goes to show that wood can vary in tone, but doesn't necessarily behave as you would expect it to. If you want a brighter tone, you might have better luck with rosewood than maple!
In hindsight I should probably have included "I can't hear a difference" as an option. I'm sure many folks would have chose that. I'll be sure to include that in the test I'll be posting tomorrow night. It should be fun. I'll be testing 2 Jazz basses: one with an Alder body + Rosewood/Rosewood neck, and the other with a Maple body + maple/maple neck.
NECK 1 is Rosewood/Rosewood, NECK 2 is Maple/Rosewood.
The votes were close. 43% got it right, 57% got it wrong. It's funny that many people identified the rosewood neck as snappier and brighter. Just goes to show that wood can vary in tone, but doesn't necessarily behave as you would expect it to. If you want a brighter tone, you might have better luck with rosewood than maple!
In hindsight I should probably have included "I can't hear a difference" as an option. I'm sure many folks would have chose that. I'll be sure to include that in the test I'll be posting tomorrow night. It should be fun. I'll be testing 2 Jazz basses: one with an Alder body + Rosewood/Rosewood neck, and the other with a Maple body + maple/maple neck.
+1
These A/B sound threads underscore one and one point only for me - it's a waste of time to try and distinguish A from B using a pair of $30 computer speakers or cheap headphones from Radio Shack unless the tonal difference is extreme. It would be much more useful but much less practical to play the source thru your bass rig or some hifi system and even more useful and even more impractical to be in the room with Dan when he does these tests.
Dan does a good job of putting this stuff together (a lot of time and effort on his part) and also does a fair job of telling people up front that he could hear a slight difference when doing the tests. What I've never heard him say (he may have and I might have missed it) is - DOES HE HEAR THE SAME LEVEL OF DIFFERENCE thru this thread link and his computer speakers as he did when actually performing the tests on actual bass rigs.
Since I've never really ever planned on gigging with my computer speakers I'd find it much more informative to know what his live vs TB thread observations are. Then we could at least use that as a multiplier. If Dan said the difference was easily twice as noticible in person vs his computer speakers then that would give us something to go buy if we thought we could kinda hear a subtile difference we would know it would be more pronounced if we performed it live ourselves. If he said, nope no real difference in live vs link then that would be useful as well.
- Jun 24, 2006
- 2,560
- 90
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: MTD basses and strings; Bergantino Amps & Cabs
I agree with you, here, you can definitely hear the influence of the woods with the neck pickup better. Live, with a good bass rig, I find the opposite is true.
Now perhaps more people will start to hear the finer points of wood choice, and just HOW MUCH it influences sound. This is a wood choice test with passive pickups; with an active system, with a much wider frequency response, perhaps it's more so/less so, depending on the 'flatness' of the pickups and preamps in question.
In MTD's, Michael Tobias has gone with a very neutral sounding pickup/preamp config to, in his words, 'let the woods speak for themselves'. His system also extends the range of the bass way up past 12K, so you can REALLY hear the finer points in wood selection.
Good work, Dan, thanks.
Cheers,
Cameron
Yeah, that rosewood/rosewood neck sounds very nice Dan and that sunburst body looks beautiful. By the way, what do you think about Invalid Link Removed (rosewood/ebony fb GAS
)?
RaginRog
Last guy you want to see is Employee Relations guy
WooHoo I was right!!
I think it's because I have 3 Jazz basses...play them all the time...AND a good set of headphones for the laptop help pick up the nuances.
RaginRog
Last guy you want to see is Employee Relations guy
Dan, how about having the second bass be an ash Body and Maple/Maple neck. I've never seen a Maple body Jazz bass, so I don't think it's an option many would have/choose.
Since I'm stranded in Houston and without my good headphones (my laptop speakers have virtually no bass or low mid response) I didn't do this one, but the "rosewood is snappier and brighter" comments certainly are a step away from conventional wisdom.
Also, as with your other polls, I still think you should just include a "I can hear the difference but don't know which is which" option.
As an aside, how do rosewood necks play?
Also, as with your other polls, I still think you should just include a "I can hear the difference but don't know which is which" option.
As an aside, how do rosewood necks play?
Well, I've already tested Alder vs. Ash, so I'm looking to do something different. And tonally, Alder and Ash are very similar (according to conventional wisdom). But Maple is said to be far brighter than both. I'm trying to use woods that should sound very different from each other.
I've stated that I've found this to be true in more than a few cases on a couple of boards only to be castigated by those who chose to follow "conventional wisdom".
Ha! I got it right only because I've done a listening test on neck wood before and maple always sounds softer to my ear. I think the idea that twang comes from maple is due to all those telecasters I've heard over the years.
