Riiiight. Because I'm just a goldurn liar who can't be trusted to say what he actually heard when listening to the clip. Or a fool who doesn't know his own mind. Talk about being "pejorative".
Dude. 
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More Sheldon Dingwall and Tone Wood
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
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Riiiight. Because I'm just a goldurn liar who can't be trusted to say what he actually heard when listening to the clip. Or a fool who doesn't know his own mind. Talk about being "pejorative".
Dude. 
The saga (of tonewoods) continues. I can state one thing with certainty-
More time spent on fundamentals and dexterity, along with expanding creativity by playing (alone or w/others), and learning as much theory as possible will improve and define your tone and overall sound more than whatever woods are used to build the instrument you are playing-Or is that me over-simplifying things??
P.S. I would love a Dingwall Canadian-built 4-stringer, as well as many other basses.
More time spent on fundamentals and dexterity, along with expanding creativity by playing (alone or w/others), and learning as much theory as possible will improve and define your tone and overall sound more than whatever woods are used to build the instrument you are playing-Or is that me over-simplifying things??
P.S. I would love a Dingwall Canadian-built 4-stringer, as well as many other basses.
No, because you're a human and subject to a ton of biases, many of which are not conscious, which is the reason blind testing exists. You are simply expecting me to accept your assertion of what you heard as proof, and I'm not willing to do that. If you find that insulting, tough. You've stated you did something and offer nothing beyond 'TyBo says so'.
Keep following your argumentum ad verecundiam approach as I'm sure it will be a great advantage to you in life. I'll base my decisions on actual evidence.
No, I have the actual evidence of my own experience. I have no way of fully conveying that to you, and so be it, but I know my own mind in this area. In part because that "snap" GE talks about is something I look for and seek to achieve in a guitar, so when I hear it my ears perk up. My ears perked up the minute GE started playing. You dispute that I heard it in this way, having no real grounds to do so, other than "people have lots of biases so bias is happening here". Yeah, sure. "Go on baby, go on back to school!", as GE sings there.
Again, believe what you want. That's where these things always end, after all.
The inherent resonance of any guitar is substantially damped when worn against the body and gripped by the fretting hand. Given the assertion that the use of woods that possess the quality of superior resonance (i.e., produce a lively rather than dull sound upon being tapped) is essential in constructing the best-sounding instruments, it's puzzling that no custom builder has incorporated a rigid exoskeleton for such instruments to address that glaring problem.
Clearly, an exoskeleton-equipped instrument built with dull-sounding wood, of the sort that would presumably be rejected by the discerning custom instrument builder, would sound better than any instrument built with superior wood but without an exoskeleton.
On another subject entirely, catching myself worrying about the resonance of wood instruments (including, for God's sake, electric basses!) makes me feel like an idiot. I play various forms of rock music, despite the knowledge that that genre has long since plunged into the abyss of cultural irrelevance already occupied by jazz and classical music, but I do it while reminding myself from time to time that I might as well be a Civil War reenactor. At least those guys are out in the fresh air. Do people playing in 1920s-style mandolin orchestras debate tonewood issues as vehemently as we do?
Clearly, an exoskeleton-equipped instrument built with dull-sounding wood, of the sort that would presumably be rejected by the discerning custom instrument builder, would sound better than any instrument built with superior wood but without an exoskeleton.
On another subject entirely, catching myself worrying about the resonance of wood instruments (including, for God's sake, electric basses!) makes me feel like an idiot. I play various forms of rock music, despite the knowledge that that genre has long since plunged into the abyss of cultural irrelevance already occupied by jazz and classical music, but I do it while reminding myself from time to time that I might as well be a Civil War reenactor. At least those guys are out in the fresh air. Do people playing in 1920s-style mandolin orchestras debate tonewood issues as vehemently as we do?
1. It's a tough thing to copy.
2. When Mr Dingwall explains it, it sounds as if it makes sense
3. He's tapping the wood with his knuckle and the two pieces sound differently.
4. It adds another layer of complexity to a company that charges five figure sums for their flagship models.
5. Apart from trees, no one is harmed in the whole process.
6. Instead of a one piece body, they do two piece bodies (so they get away with smaller wood pieces), but actually sell it as an advantage.
I think it's genius.
2. When Mr Dingwall explains it, it sounds as if it makes sense
3. He's tapping the wood with his knuckle and the two pieces sound differently.
4. It adds another layer of complexity to a company that charges five figure sums for their flagship models.
5. Apart from trees, no one is harmed in the whole process.
6. Instead of a one piece body, they do two piece bodies (so they get away with smaller wood pieces), but actually sell it as an advantage.
I think it's genius.
When I've seen necks being built and asked questions, I got answers from experienced builders about material, design and construction choices. When I asked, specifically, why something was being done a certain way, I got definitive answers.
Same with pickups. There's no magic. There are specific answers and outcomes for every specific design choice. When you ask someone why they chose specific wire size and a specific wind count, there's a specific reason and desired outcome.
Just like when you ask a framing carpenter why something is framed a certain way, they have a specific answer. They do things intentionally, for specific reasons and outcomes. For every important part/element of building a bass, or anything for that matter, there's reasoning and intent.
Some people claim that knocking on a neck or body blank is part of their build process and it informs them of,....something(?)
I ask what that is and there's never an intelligible answer. It's a part of the build process that a lot of people don't bother with and they still produce top shelf instruments. It's also the only part of the build process that is this debated, subjective and open to interpretation of what it's value is.
Any other part of the build process, I can have conversations and ask questions without people getting emotional or defensive and get clear cut answers as to what, why and how. As soon as the conversion turns to people knocking on hunks of wood, throwing around words like "resonance" and people giving obscure, imagined definitions of how it all works,......it sounds a lot more like a conversation about politics or religion than it does a conversation about constructing an electric bass.
Same with pickups. There's no magic. There are specific answers and outcomes for every specific design choice. When you ask someone why they chose specific wire size and a specific wind count, there's a specific reason and desired outcome.
Just like when you ask a framing carpenter why something is framed a certain way, they have a specific answer. They do things intentionally, for specific reasons and outcomes. For every important part/element of building a bass, or anything for that matter, there's reasoning and intent.
Some people claim that knocking on a neck or body blank is part of their build process and it informs them of,....something(?)
I ask what that is and there's never an intelligible answer. It's a part of the build process that a lot of people don't bother with and they still produce top shelf instruments. It's also the only part of the build process that is this debated, subjective and open to interpretation of what it's value is.
Any other part of the build process, I can have conversations and ask questions without people getting emotional or defensive and get clear cut answers as to what, why and how. As soon as the conversion turns to people knocking on hunks of wood, throwing around words like "resonance" and people giving obscure, imagined definitions of how it all works,......it sounds a lot more like a conversation about politics or religion than it does a conversation about constructing an electric bass.
30 years ago seems like last week while last week seems like 30 years ago.As a human being, thirty years feels like a long time to me. Thirty ain’t sixty!
I feel we need a support group for those of us trying to quit.
This piece of cheap foam rubber has more impact on the sound of this bass than the species of wood used in the body.
Special ToneFoam mined by Dwarves in the Mines of Moria. You can hear, faintly, the voice of Robert Plant, when this foam is used.
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I recall Michael Tobias saying that solidbody instruments are acoustic instruments.
It sounded to me like a pretty direct answer was given - knocking on the wood gives an idea of its resonance, something which the builder has seen, over many years and many, many builds, to be a factor in how a build ultimately sounds. Not really being mysterious. Is resonance really a mysterious word?
More argument from authority.
As they don't behave at all like them, no. He could call them a bowl of goldfish, but it doesn't make it so.
Tobias, Sadowsky, Dingwall, etc. They’re all a bunch of liars. It’s a conspiracy I tell ya!
No, just marketing, although some might say there's not much difference. It's just another way of charging more for the same bit of wood.
