Newbie questions

[Hopkins]

In a solid body bass, the body wood's primary responsibility is to be rigid. Secondly, it needs to look good. Beyond that is conjecture and, in my opinion, should be taken with a few truckloads of salt.

The grain orientation on the body....honestly, i don't think it matters one drop. As long as the wood is strong, stiff, and hard enough (giggity) to keep the attached screws (bridge, strap pins, pickups, etc) from ripping out, I don't think you have much to worry about.

Mahogany works fine as a bass neck. Laminating the neck will add strength, as long as the glue joint is tight and the laminate wood is string...which is a good thing. Maple is very popular because it is hard, stiff, abundantly available, and cheap. Mahogany is not as popular because it is slightly less stiff, and a lot more expensive. It is still a fine neck wood.

As fretboards go....ebony is always nice.

This

 

[MattZilla]

...somewhere around the 12th fret to help with balance, but it depends on weight and where on the horn you put the strap button.

If I were concerned with perfect balance while having a big chunky headstock and a fat neck I'd plan on the top horn ending at the 11th, small head and thin neck I'd end it at the 13th. IME, laminated necks are heavier and don't impart a distinctive enough tonal flavor to warrant my effort or time (but they sure do look cool when done well), that weight may have the balance pushed off some. Were I wanting to do some funky Carl Thompson or Mosrite body style and/or if I were just to get myself paranoid about possibly having too light of a body and too heavy a neck I'd leave the body silhouette rough with the top horn long and do up everything else (neck, head, stringpath, elec. cav., belly & arm contours), install the bottom button, serrate the neck-side of the top horn and throw a shoelace or whatever through a strap and find the best/good-enough-est spot to cut off at (depending on how what fits aesthetically and how much I really care about aesthetics on that day), Then close-cut the silhouette and wrap it up.

My normal response to the hardware question is "either a badass or a hipshot for the bridge and either nordstrand J's or a basslines MM" and I also usually preach passive controls (I'm lucky enough to have a couple of truly killer amps and have yet to be really impressed so much by any sadowsky's or alembic's), but today one of my co-workers brought in his Alleva-Coppolo Jazz- holy crap. Never has a fender rumble 75 ever sounded so good ever in the history of the universe, nor will one ever. Perfection. If you have the dough for the A-C pups and system, go for it. If you've already got a great amp- I still say that a couple of nords are it.