Mineral stained poplar anyone?

Beautiful. I think it's going to turn out well.

 

This may sound odd, but can we see your bandsaw? Oh, & what's the back (of the pictured bass) going to be, & how does poplar, as a top, affect tone?

 

Thanks, mon. The body looks good. I, for one, will want to see the neck too. What made you consider Walnut as a fretboard? Not being critical- I'm a wannabe builder, myself- hence the tool question.

 

Don't believe all of that "tone in the neck" stuff. It's true to some extent but lets face it - every component works and works on the other parts of the instrument. There aren't any isolated components other than the player.

The poplar bass I built is an exceptional tone monster. Ask Superbassman2000 about it. I used the wood for it's ease of work but was totally blown away with what it sounded like. I WILL be building with poplar again.

 

Hambone;

So what did sound like?

 

Setup on the instrument - Passive Volume/Tone/Pan, Gibson small EB humbucker at the neck, MM humbucker at the bridge, TI Jazz Flats.

Deep, round, but very articulate bass, smooth, buttery high end, anything you want for midrange.

 

Very nice - I like the racing stripes effect on it

 

So would poplar make a good neck wood? I ask because I know it's light, fluffy, and reasonably easy to work with (and I need the ease for me first bass).

Wait, did I just say "fluffy?" What is this, a meringue?

 

No experience here (poplar neck), but I gotta imagine it would not make good neck material- too soft(weak). Think of the softest 'hard' wood commonly found in necks: mahogany, which is still pretty dense, compared to poplar. Just me thinking out loud, though.

 

Regarding stiffness, poplar is 10-15% less stiff than the maple that is nornally used for necks. So unless you use some form of reinforcement, you would be taking some chance on having a too-flexible neck.

Regarding hardness, it is softer than maple, and so would be more easily dented.

 

Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for. That means my neck is going to be constructed of either maple or cherry.

 

I've never seen cherry used for a neck either, which may mean nothing, but probably does. I've built kitchen cabinets out of cherry, & it was similiar to alder (read- soft). Someone with stability/stiffness info (pilotjones?) can surely tell you more specifically why cherry's wrong (or right) for your neck. Again, I think out loud a lot.

 

I use a lot of cherry in necks. This one is 3 pieces of it laminated.

http://www.s98473082.onlinehome.us/tb/images/200/200.htm

See the other basses on my site I have had no problems with it. I know the experts will disagree but it has worked for me............t

 

Well, there you go. tjclem, I'm no expert, neither am I disagreeing (although I can be disagreeable), but how thick front-to-back are your necks? I mean, do they have to be meatier than a typical maple job for strength, or am I thinking out my a*s? It's happened before...

 

Sorry to hear that, man. I hope your next body turns out a lot better than this one, and I really liked this one.