Paulownia bass

[Deleted member 96522]

Hi Talkbass,

Just wanted to give everyone a followup assessment of the sound of my Paulownia J Bass clone. Played a wedding band gig last night in an old horse stable that was converted into a dance hall. Wooden floors, very live(and loud) sounding venue. I immediately noticed the bass guitar was lacking complexity in the midrange compared to my Alder-bodied ESP J Bass, particularily when I would Slap/Pop. When I played Rock or Reggae the Bass responded with plenty of fundamental Bass to fill the room. But it wouldn't tighten up like I wanted when playing Funk or Jaco/Rocco-flavored 16th notes. The mids tended to disappear the louder the band played. I could feel the thump of the Bass and the cut of the Treble but couldn't hear anything in the Middle. Tried to compensate with my amp, but it didn't really help much. I originally likened the tone to Swamp Ash but I have to rescind that assessment, as even Swamp Ash has a discernable midrange growl. I would liken the sound more to Poplar, another wood that doesn't offer much in middle IMO. This wood seems better suited for playing fingerstyle, with a pick, and with a thumb/palm mute style. You could use it for Slap/Thump/Tap too, if you're into that "smile curve" sort of tone. I'm certainly not saying that Paulownia isn't a good tonewood, it just doesn't give me all that I want to hear.

 

[Deleted member 96522]

Hi TB family,

Just recently had a J Bass assemblied from a hodgepodge of parts I've collected here and there(see my avatar pic). The body is made from Paulownia. I went with Paulownia on a whim and a good deal, hoping it would yield a lightweight, decent sounding, yet cost-effective custom instrument. Even though the body has the standard J Bass shape, the wood is very lightweight(less than 4 lbs). With the final assembly and setup of the Mpl/Mpl neck, EMG PUPs, and hardware the instrument still weighs less than 8lbs. Unbelievable, but true. The tech who assembled the bass said the wood was a little tricky to work with, it seemed brittle in some spots and hard to drill in others. Wink wink, I did say I got a good deal... PSA aside, this is by far the lightest bass guitar I've ever owned. One thing that surprised me was that the body balanced better than I expected with the neck and vintage-style tuning keys. Granted it does have a slight nosedive, but straplocks and a wide strap help offset that a bit. Tonewise I would agree with Snakeman1066 in that Paulownia is bright, punchy, with a fast attack similar to Swamp Ash. This particular instrument is very much a slap/tap/thump/pop-friendly axe in the mode of Marcus Miller, Louis Johnson, and Larry Graham. Doesn't seem to have as much bass as my Ash and Alder bodied basses but that's a minor gripe, and not really surprising given its weight. I'm sure my back, left shoulder, and left elbow won't mind me having to boost the bass on my amp for those really long sets.... So far I've only played it at home, haven't had a chance to play it in a live setting. Not sure about how durable the body will be over time either; I've heard that Paulownia isn't necessarily a glutton for getting banged around. But we shall see. So far I'm pretty happy with the sound and feel of this tonewood, and the finished instrument overall. I'll post an update as I get more playing reps on the instrument. Hope this helps, peace.

 

[Squanch72]

Here is my Paulownia Jazzguarbird partscaster build I just finished. Weighs just shy of 8 pounds with no neck dive, thankfully. Cheapo Guitarfetish body that TBer JMac(Whiskerface Designs) routed for the Gibson pickups for me. Lousy pic.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

Hi Talkbass,

Just wanted to give everyone a followup assessment of the sound of my Paulownia J Bass clone. Played a wedding band gig last night in an old horse stable that was converted into a dance hall. Wooden floors, very live(and loud) sounding venue. I immediately noticed the bass guitar was lacking complexity in the midrange compared to my Alder-bodied ESP J Bass, particularily when I would Slap/Pop. When I played Rock or Reggae the Bass responded with plenty of fundamental Bass to fill the room. But it wouldn't tighten up like I wanted when playing Funk or Jaco/Rocco-flavored 16th notes. The mids tended to disappear the louder the band played. I could feel the thump of the Bass and the cut of the Treble but couldn't hear anything in the Middle. Tried to compensate with my amp, but it didn't really help much. I originally likened the tone to Swamp Ash but I have to rescind that assessment, as even Swamp Ash has a discernable midrange growl. I would liken the sound more to Poplar, another wood that doesn't offer much in middle IMO. This wood seems better suited for playing fingerstyle, with a pick, and with a thumb/palm mute style. You could use it for Slap/Thump/Tap too, if you're into that "smile curve" sort of tone. I'm certainly not saying that Paulownia isn't a good tonewood, it just doesn't give me all that I want to hear.

Thanks for your assessment!

Curious what Poplar wood basses you have tried (as I know Peavey used Poplar)?

Personally, coming from the 6 string guitar world (where I have spent WAY too many hours swapping pickups & magnets), you might try another pickup set.

I don't know your amp setup but my Eden Metro 2nd channel has extensive mid adjustments (plus the enhance) compared to the tube channel which did wonders for dialing out TOO much lower mids in my Peavey Fury with the hot Duncan P pickup.....the tube channel was mud overall with this particular bass, especially the 'E' string.

Anyhow, I was considering a lightweight, cheaper body for one of my excellent 70's Japan P necks and obviously Paulownia being a contender.

However, I was seriously leaning towards a single P pickup for the very reason you have encountered, I may need to try several P pickups to get it more balanced tonewise.......I figured a single P pickup was way easier to deal with.

In the 6 string world, the softer sounding A2 magnets tend to have a bit more prominent mid range and less bass compared to full strength A5 which is often more bassy and a bit brighter.....don't know exactly how this applies to basses but I hear its similar but I am fairly certain A5 is bassier along with some ceramic magnet pickups in basses.

Bottom line is the pickup can be voiced to a certain extent

For sure I would prefer a longer top horn than a P bass to balance with a lighter body.

 

[Deleted member 96522]

Thanks for your assessment!

Curious what Poplar wood basses you have tried (as I know Peavey used Poplar)?

Personally, coming from the 6 string guitar world (where I have spent WAY too many hours swapping pickups & magnets), you might try another pickup set.

I don't know your amp setup but my Eden Metro 2nd channel has extensive mid adjustments (plus the enhance) compared to the tube channel which did wonders for dialing out TOO much lower mids in my Peavey Fury with the hot Duncan P pickup.....the tube channel was mud overall with this particular bass, especially the 'E' string.

Anyhow, I was considering a lightweight, cheaper body for one of my excellent 70's Japan P necks and obviously Paulownia being a contender.

However, I was seriously leaning towards a single P pickup for the very reason you have encountered, I may need to try several P pickups to get it more balanced tonewise.......I figured a single P pickup was way easier to deal with.

In the 6 string world, the softer sounding A2 magnets tend to have a bit more prominent mid range and less bass compared to full strength A5 which is often more bassy and a bit brighter.....don't know exactly how this applies to basses but I hear its similar but I am fairly certain A5 is bassier along with some ceramic magnet pickups in basses.

Bottom line is the pickup can be voiced to a certain extent

For sure I would prefer a longer top horn than a P bass to balance with a lighter body.

I've owned several basses that had Poplar bodies: 3 or 4 Peavey Foundations and a Fender JP 90. They were all fairly lightweight and had a decent(though not great) tone. All of them could have benefited from pickup upgrades, but at that time I wasn't as knowledgeable/skilled at swapping out electronics as I am now.

 

[Deleted member 96522]

Hi Talkbass,

Just wanted to give everyone a followup assessment of the sound of my Paulownia J Bass clone. Played a wedding band gig last night in an old horse stable that was converted into a dance hall. Wooden floors, very live(and loud) sounding venue. I immediately noticed the bass guitar was lacking complexity in the midrange compared to my Alder-bodied ESP J Bass, particularily when I would Slap/Pop. When I played Rock or Reggae the Bass responded with plenty of fundamental Bass to fill the room. But it wouldn't tighten up like I wanted when playing Funk or Jaco/Rocco-flavored 16th notes. The mids tended to disappear the louder the band played. I could feel the thump of the Bass and the cut of the Treble but couldn't hear anything in the Middle. Tried to compensate with my amp, but it didn't really help much. I originally likened the tone to Swamp Ash but I have to rescind that assessment, as even Swamp Ash has a discernable midrange growl. I would liken the sound more to Poplar, another wood that doesn't offer much in middle IMO. This wood seems better suited for playing fingerstyle, with a pick, and with a thumb/palm mute style. You could use it for Slap/Thump/Tap too, if you're into that "smile curve" sort of tone. I'm certainly not saying that Paulownia isn't a good tonewood, it just doesn't give me all that I want to hear.

Hello again TB family,

I have a follow-up to my follow-up. After my last review, I wasn't content with leaving my Paulownia bass sounding like it did. After all, I built it not only with the intention of making it a gigging workhorse, but also as a test bed for modifications and experimentations. After A/Bing the Paulownia bass against my other J basses and taking some measurements I discovered why I wasn't satisfied with the sound: the Paulownia bass had a 60s bridge pickup placement. I actually prefer the 70s placement because of its funkier, nasally, almost out-of-phase sound. So I took a risk and asked my luthier to re-rout and move the pickup to 70s specs(about a 1/4" inch closer to the bridge). Naturally he thought I was crazy to do it and felt it was a waste of time and money, but he did it anyway per my specifications. For sh!+s and giggles I also had him expand the electronics by adding an EMG EXB bass expander and passive tone to the control plate(V-V-EXB-T), and add a side mounted output jack.

Once I got it back I had my luthier do a few tweaks to the setup and pickup heights and voila! It was like playing totally different sounding instrument. It sounded exactly the way I'd hoped it would when I first got it. It sounds more like a 70s J Bass now when slapped/popped with both pickups full on, and the bridge pickup soloed sounds appropriately nasally and thin. I've used it on a few gigs and found that moving the bridge pickup sort of gave me some of that midrange cut and growl I was missing previously, the sound is a little less boomy also. Adding the Bass Expander gave me an easy access eq for slapping, and the passive tone allows me to roll off the highs whenever I want to get a Motown/Stax/Reggae tone. Its pretty much everything I want in a gig ready J-styled bass now; simple but powerful. I imagine most Jaco/Jeff Berlin bridge-pickup-players wouldn't dig the thinner sounding bridge pickup. But works for me, I'm a lot happier with the sound. And even my luthier was surprised at how moving the bridge pickup ever so slightly yielded such a dramatic change in the amplified sound of the instrument. But for me it reaffirmed my belief that pickup placement impacts the amplified sound of a bass guitar in a way that is largely undersold/ignored by most builders, manufacturers, and players. Crazy how this stuff works...

 

[alaskaleftybass]

If you have never heard of Royal Paulownia it is a fantastic wood choice...It is a extemely fine grained, very light, and warp resistant. Not to mention Paulownia is extremely fast growing; some species of plantation Paulownia can be harvested for saw timber in as little as five years. Once the trees are harvested, they regenerate from their existing root systems, earning them the name of the "Phoenix or Dragon tree." Paulownia has the ability to reclaim ecologically stressed and degenerate patches of land relatively quickly. Its root systems run deep and penetrate compacted and contaminated soils which have resulted from industrialized development. Paulownia is also a highly developed phyto-remediator, increasing the organic content of degraded soils, processing and filtering contaminants through the uptake of its vascular system, and emitting oxygen into the atmosphere. The bark is made into numerous types of dyes, and the leaves are used in vermicide preparations. Tone wise it is very similar to Ash! It is also rot resistant and a has a very high ignition point. So from an ecological (read green tree hugger) standpoint this wood can't be beat! plus it's quite attractive

I have two Trabens made from this wood and no not neck heavy at all, they balance quite well...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=535251&highlight=royal+paulownia

Meet my ladies:

Wow, those aare beautiful! I play left handed and the chances of coming across a couple of these for me is about as likely as Clint Eastwood buying me a cup of coffee!

I've always thought that Paulowina would make a beautiful bass body, but as I like fast narrow necks, what kind of neck wood would be sturdy enough, yet light enough not to cause neck dive?

I wonder if those huges metal bridges help to balance your bass... ?

Thank you for sharing the beautiful pics!