Shielding = more sterile?

[paradigm_shift]

I wasn't sure how to word it, Its more a question than a statement. But will shielding change the tone of a bass? Im thinking about shilding my pickups to reduce hum , but doesnt that defeat the point of having tone woods? Your wanting resonance from the woods. If your using shielding does it not minimize this so you hear the pickup more and the resonance less? Someone put me straight please and explain why. Iv'e been thinking about it and I cant see why I would be wrong (but have this nagging suspicion I am.Cheers

 

[62bass]

I wasn't sure how to word it, Its more a question than a statement. But will shielding change the tone of a bass? Im thinking about shilding my pickups to reduce hum , but doesnt that defeat the point of having tone woods? Your wanting resonance from the woods. If your using shielding does it not minimize this so you hear the pickup more and the resonance less? Someone put me straight please and explain why. Iv'e been thinking about it and I cant see why I would be wrong (but have this nagging suspicion I am.Cheers

For an experiment, stick big gobs of duct tape all over your bass. Then plug it in and play. See if the sound changes.

I think referring to solid body instruments being made out of "tone woods" was a good marketing ploy to sell a lot of basses. Bass Player magazine really helped disseminate that nonsense.

 

[22pauld22]

if you strapped a few big metal beams to it that might stop some of the resonance .. but a bit of copper sheilding ? the best bit about sheilding is that if you can get rid of hum you hear more of your bass less his and hum to deal with .. so therefore you should hear more of the TONE WOOD .. there is alot to look into in all that stuff .. star grounding is a big one as well as some basses still have ground loops .. I'd say sheild the cavity not the pickup though .. ask a guitarist the good old humbuckers with the metal casing have a different tone to the ones without the metal casing .. so you don't want to wrap your bass pickup in metal unless thats the tone you are looking for .. maybe someone has a better understanding of this than me but thats my exp ... hope that helps Paul

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

The wood choice helps keep the strings resonating, putting copper foil in the cavities isnt going to have any effect on that.

All the copper foil will do is remove most background hum

 

[MikeBass]

I wasn't sure how to word it, Its more a question than a statement. But will shielding change the tone of a bass? Im thinking about shilding my pickups to reduce hum , but doesnt that defeat the point of having tone woods? Your wanting resonance from the woods. If your using shielding does it not minimize this so you hear the pickup more and the resonance less? Someone put me straight please and explain why. Iv'e been thinking about it and I cant see why I would be wrong (but have this nagging suspicion I am.Cheers

No.