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Poplar as a tone wood

#81
Luis Fabara said:
Well, I never said that it was a cheap wood, and hence it has a bad tone.

What I said is that most if not all cheap instruments are made of poplar.
Also, Poplar to me doesnt have a good tone because it is a very soft wood that lacks definition in the low end. It does have midrange and a little highs, but it really lacks the punch and definition of other hardwoods.


On the Stingray Comment: That´s shy I only like ASH Stingrays. And I dont think many of them are made of poplar.
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In the mid 80s about 86-91 a large share of music mans are made of poplar or alder, and only a few select colours are ash. For the Sabre during this period, only “honey sunburst” sabres are done in ash
 
#82
Wood tone is subjective to each bass players ear. I have never owned a poplar bass, but have owned just about everything else from ash to maple,walnut, agathis,basswood,cedar,mahogany,alder,spruce,etc! I think everyone has this tone they are seeking in their head, thus is the journey of the bass player, a joy for us! Finding the bass or basses that fit the bill in tone, ergonomics & style tends to be a long journey for most, never ending for some! For myself it took 40 years, i love mahogany! 3 0f my 4 basses are mahogany and my birdsong is spanish cedar. The woodgrain of spanish cedar is almost identical to mahogany! I also love the bright tone of maple, the birdsong bass gives me both, the deep thunderous, tone of a cedar body and the articulate ring of a maple neck and fretboard!
 
#83
Before around 2000, Mexican Fenders were made of poplar, and I held off on buying one because I thought that only alder and ash bodies could sound "good." In 2003, I bought a 2002 MIM alder Jazz Bass, which I still have. It's an excellent bass.
A couple of years ago, I wandered into a music store and saw a 1995 MIM Jazz Bass which I immediately bought because of its neck and its unplugged tone. I soon learned that it was poplar. It is loud when played unplugged, and it has a really nice middy growl.

This is only to avow that poplar bodied basses can sound good. Of course, all of the other components are factors.
 
#84
The unplugged tone just doesn’t matter in almost all situations. Plug it in and then everything else that affects the sound becomes apparent. Strings, pickups, amp. I have a sterling Ray4 that is wearing Ken Smith slickwound strings and it sounds absolutely amazing unplugged. Thumpy and very natural… plugged in it sounds dead and lifeless with no sustain and just flat. I changed those strings to some new Roto 66 and it sounds quiet and thin unplugged but when plugged up it is now a killer sounding monster.
Not sure what I started off trying to say, but unplugged tone isn’t an indication of how a bass will sound when amplified.
 
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#85
Gustopher said:
The unplugged tone just doesn’t matter in almost all situations. Plug it in and then everything else that affects the sound becomes apparent. Strings, pickups, amp. I have a sterling Ray4 that is wearing Ken Smith slickwound strings and it sounds absolutely amazing unplugged. Thumpy and very natural… plugged in it sounds dead and lifeless with no sustain and just flat. I changed those strings to some new Roto 66 and it sounds quiet and thin unplugged but when plugged up it is now a killer sounding monster.
Not sure what I started off trying to say, but unplugged tone isn’t an indication of how a bass will sound when amplified.
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I have to disagree. I've had experience with basses that sounded dead no matter what I changed-- pickups, strings, neck, bridge...
 
#87
I don’t find woods to have a consistent and reliable effect on the overall tone of a bass. Like… I’m sure the ash used in a particular bass body has an effect, but a different piece of ash could change the tone as much as switching to alder (or poplar, or basswood, etc etc). Wood is just like that.

I prefer traditional formulas like ash/maple or alder/rosewood just based on my personal experiences, but I doubt I could reliably discern which is which based on sound alone in a mix.
 
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#88
I bought an American standard series bass from musicians friend (many years ago ) . They were renaming the series , so those were on sale. The bass was advertised as Poplar body (which I thought was weird , since American fenders used ash or alder, 2 or 3 piece bodies) . Anyway, I received a bass with a 5 piece body ( you can always see the joints) .The bass felt and sounded like any other fender, but I’ve often wondered if they used a MIM body (very likely) , and then of course , how many of these MIA basses with a poplar body are out there.

Anyway , yeah , anything is a tonewood. Even pine !
 
#89
Gustopher said:
The unplugged tone just doesn’t matter in almost all situations. Plug it in and then everything else that affects the sound becomes apparent. Strings, pickups, amp. I have a sterling Ray4 that is wearing Ken Smith slickwound strings and it sounds absolutely amazing unplugged. Thumpy and very natural… plugged in it sounds dead and lifeless with no sustain and just flat. I changed those strings to some new Roto 66 and it sounds quiet and thin unplugged but when plugged up it is now a killer sounding monster.
Not sure what I started off trying to say, but unplugged tone isn’t an indication of how a bass will sound when amplified.
Click to expand...

Best sounding bass I have hardly makes any noise unplugged, completely silent till you hit a d string
 
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